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Great Art History Apps and Websites
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Asian Art Museum
Inventive lessons and activities integrate Asian history, art, and more
Bottom line: It offers an in-depth look at Asia’s influence on art and history and provides lots of creative tools for educators.
ArtsEdge
Impressive cross-curricular resource helps put the A in STEAM
Bottom line: A useful and engaging resource for integrating the arts into a variety of other subject areas.
Khan Academy
Missions boost learning with balance of focus and freedom to explore
Bottom line: A solid resource for math and science instruction as well as foundational knowledge in a number of other high school subjects.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Powerful stories and media centralize African-American history
Bottom line: While there aren't ready-to-go curricular materials, this modern, well-curated, and well-contextualized digital collection is sure to inspire compelling lessons.
Smithsonian Folkways
Text-centric world music site could use more activities, music
Bottom line: Kids won't hear every tune in its entirety, but Smithsonian Folkways' resources can help them comprehend and appreciate cultural music.
Smithsonian's History Explorer
Lessons, activities, artifacts, artfully presented by the Smithsonian
Bottom line: A fantastic resource for kids and teachers alike, it has everything you need to fall in love with history.
MetKids
Whimsical, kid-friendly intro to the wide world of art
Bottom line: A wonderful, endlessly detailed way to get kids engaged in the world of art.
Civilisations AR
Nifty app gives students up-close access to historical treasures
Bottom line: This is an undeniably cool app that encourages connection and curiosity, but without teacher support, student learning will be superficial.
EDSITEment
Extensive humanities resource offers deep well of great content
Bottom line: The National Endowment for the Humanities has put together an outstanding place for art, history, language, and literature.
TED-Ed
Support kids' sense of wonder with outstanding short video lessons
Bottom line: TED-Ed includes excellent, engaging videos and support for flipped-class lessons with an incredible community of thinkers and doers.
Google Arts & Culture
Well-curated art history invites open-ended or directed exploration
Bottom line: An easily explored one-stop shop for a vast amount of compellingly curated and contextualized art and history resources, but it's lacking educator supports.
MoMA
Museum companion can stand alone as a modern art resource
Bottom line: Free access to a wealth of images with detailed commentary from artists and curators makes this a great arts education resource.
Ancient History Encyclopedia
Crowd-sourced ancient history site features extensive, varied resources
Bottom line: It's free, web-based, and regularly updated with vetted info, so classrooms can turn to this site often to kick off research projects.
Smarthistory
Bring traditional art education to life with fresh, interactive multimedia
Bottom line: A worthy supplement to an art history or humanities class.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
History and art intersect on the Met's vast, reading-centric site
Bottom line: This resource from the Metropolitan Museum of Art beautifully illustrates art's evolution and is great for research, but more interactivity would help balance out the text-heavy content.