Page 1 of 1

Quick Tips for Talking About Art:

“What’s Going On in the Picture?”

A key goal of the ArtSmart program is to help young viewers create personal connections with

art. While the impulse may be to begin “teaching,” more is gained in the long run if you take

time to establish a conversation with the children about the artwork. Posing simple questions

such as those listed below, help the children discover connections that have to do with their

own ideas and lives. Subsequently, facilitating a project helps reinforce their discoveries in

addition to learning to value art in a tangible way.

♦ Make sure to begin by establishing a climate where students are comfortable, can see

the reproduction of the artwork, and listen to what each child has to say.

♦ Begin your presentation with a long moment of silent looking.

♦ Choose two or three key ideas you think will be compelling for the grade and age group;

plan key questions as they relate to the work of the artist or art form. Pause to allow the

children to think about their responses. If no one responds, try asking in another way.

Again, stick to simple questions. For example:

• What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that?

• Look closer at the details – what else do you see? Can you find and point to X?

• What may have just happened or what might happen next?

• How many people/objects are in the work of art? How would you describe them? What

are the people wearing? What are the people doing? What are they looking at? Do the

people/objects remind you of anyone/anything you have met/seen?

• How are the people/objects alike? How are they different?

• What is the setting? Day or Night? What time of year? Have you ever been to a place like

this?

• How would you feel if you were “in” the work of art? What would you hear? Touch?

Smell? Taste?

• What is far away? What appears close up?

• What “story” is the artist trying to tell? What person/object do you think was most

important to the artist?

• What is the mood of this work? How does it make you feel? What else makes you feel

that way?

• What colors do you see? Where are the brightest/darkest colors? What does X color do

for the picture? What would happen if you changed a color?

• What if the size of a person/object were changed? What if a person/object were moved?

What if something was left out?

♦ Relax! Have fun! Be innovative and creative!