Students will consider the ways that artists respond to political and social events and ideas; think about sources of inspiration; learn about symbols and think about what they represent.

Whether specialising in Painting, Graphic Design, Photography, textiles or Sculpture, most high school Art students begin by selecting a topic for their Coursework or Examination project. One of the most crucial decisions an IGCSE, GCSE or A Level Art student has to make is what subject or theme they will spend the year exploring. It is a decision that many find difficult, whether due to a lack of inspiration, an inability to discern between two or more possible ideas or a general misunderstanding about the type of topic that is appropriate. This resource contains a step-by-step guide that students can use to brainstorm, evaluate and select (in conjunction with advice from their teacher) an outstanding topic for their high school Art project.

Students will explore the varied meanings of “identity; learn how irony and satire can function in a work of art; discover how maps can be used to chart not only geography but also psycho-logical, emotional, and intellectual states.

Students will be able to discuss a photograph and write a descriptive narrative using sensory details; identify the events leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation and speculate what life was like for newly freed slaves in 19th-century America; write journal entries from the perspective of a freed slave in the 19th century; and create a print using scratch foam.

Students will create and use pinhole cameras to understand how artists use and manipulate light to capture images in photographs. They shoot and develop photographs made with pinhole cameras. They compare and contrast a nineteenth-century image, photographs taken with a pinhole camera, and pictures created with a digital camera or camera phone.

Students will create pinhole cameras to learn how artists manipulate light to make photographs. They describe and analyze a nineteenth-century photograph and use their cameras to capture the architecture of their school or other buildings.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students are tested on what they learned about the history of ceramic forms in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History—Lesson 1." They start work on a personal clay vessel that has a specific use or meaning in their contemporary culture, which could be discerned through study by future archeologists and art historians.

Students will look at Oldenburg's "Late Submission to the Chicago Tribune Architectural Competition of 1922: Clothespin" and discuss scale, function, and form. Students will consider Oldenburg's reimagining of every day objects into monumental works of art. Students will then create their own "late submissions" for the world's most beautiful office building.

Students will look at Oldenburg's "Mouse Museum, 1977" and discuss the function of museums, the idea of collections, and the meaning of "alter ego". Students will create their own representation of their alter ego. Each student will be provided an object and asked to draw that object and then to draw the object again but transforming it into something else of a vastly different scale. Students will reflect on what they collect and sketch out the design for a museum based on their collection including internal and external views of the buildings.

Students will make word associations while looking at an American flag. Students will then compare the American Flag with Oldenburg's "The Old Dump Flag, 1960" concentrating on proportions, materials, color, movement, shape, etc. Discussion will proceed to Oldenburg's idea of "grand symbols". Students will then collect recyclable items, flatten them, and sculpt a "grand symbol" of their community by tearing, crumpling, folding and spray painting the work. Students will divide into groups and create a performance piece incorporating all the objects made by group members.

Students will:

* Learn about The Highrise of Homes Project and James Wines (architect) and his design firm SITE (Sculpture in the Environment).
* Work in groups as "city planners" and "architects" to create a proposal for a home construction.
* Research examples of high-rise housing by other architects and compare them to the Highrise of Homes project and high-rise housing where you live.

From Creative Living: Residential Architecture in MoMA's Collection: The Curved House--Endless House
Project (unbuilt). 1950-60

Students will:

* Learn about The Endless House project and Frederick Kiesler (the architect).
* Compare the Endless House with other homes from this guide and in your neighborhood.
* Build the Endless House
* Research Kiesler's vision for the Endless Theater.

From Creative Living: Residential Architecture in MoMA's Collection, A Guide for Educators

House Three: The House on Stilts--Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France, 1929-31

Students will:

* Discuss the particulars of the Villa Savoye.
* Discuss the Le Corbusier's "Chaise Longe" chair.
* Learn about the occupants, the Jeannerets, of the Villa Savoye.
* Analyze and evaluate "home" and "home atmosphere".
* Compare and contrast, through a series of writing exercises, the qualities of Villa Savoye with their own.
* Learn about Le Corbusier's "Five Points of Architecture" and the "International Style".

From Creative Living: Residential Architecture in MoMA's Collection, A Guide for Educators

House Two: The Red and Blue House--Schroder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924

Students will:

* Discuss the particulars of the Schroder House.
* Discuss the "Red Blue Chair".
* Learn about the occupants, the Schroders, of the Red and Blue House.
* Analyze and evaluate "home" and "home atmosphere".
* Compare and contrast, through a series of writing exercises, the qualities of Schroder home with their own.
* Learn about the "De Stijl" movement.

Students will explore different artistic techniques for communicating motion; analyze how a work in series can depict narrative and motion.

Students will examine the ways in which an artwork is innovative or daring for its time; investigate how a new style was furthered by the exchange of ideas between Picasso and Braque; compare and contrast Cubist works depicting the human figure.

Students will analyze how a portrait reflects the events and trends of its time and then create a portrait of a public female figure today. Students will be able to research the effects of European expansionism and colonialism on different groups of people during the Age of Exploration; discuss the notion of "exoticism" as it relates to a 19th-century painting, the burgeoning of stereotypes, and modern-day stereotyping in the media; and create a portrait of a female public figure from a different culture.

Students will be able to discuss and analyze the sculpture Sketch for a Fireplace Overmantel by Francesco Antonio Franzoni; consider current styles of home interiors; create studies in 2-D and 3-D for a decorative overmantel for the celebrity patron of their choice; research and read about the life and style of an arts patron and create a design for an overmantel that reflects the patron's life; and articulate in writing the processes they followed to create their overmantels.

Students will be able to respond in written and/or visual form to photographic stimuli; create a movement theme (phrase) based on elements perceived in a photograph; and choreograph a solo composition based on chosen photographic stimulus.

Students will be introduced to artists who developed new visual forms through experimentation; consider artists' choices of material; introduced to the term "Constructivism."