Website
Tate Kids
Young people will find plenty here to amuse them, says Jonathan Knott
This site offers children aged between five and 13 a wide range of art-related content.
It is divided into three main sections, each represented on the homepage menu. “Explore” provides an introduction to art history, with articles on key artists (including Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Mark Rothko) as well as movements such as impressionism and
pop art.
This section also includes “top five” lists of artworks that are linked by themes including cats, sports and monsters, and a range of videos where children respond to exhibitions and meet practising artists.
“Games and quizzes” speaks for itself. The former offers the opportunity to create street art and an imaginary city. The latter includes “Which artist should design your bedroom?” and “Turner, Turnip or Turtle”, a surprisingly tricky challenge where players need to decide whether they are being shown close-ups of Turner paintings or images of turnips and turtles.
Meanwhile, the “Make” section has instructions for creative projects to do at home in areas such as performance, technology and sculpture, as well as painting and drawing. There are helpful estimates for the time each activity takes and instructions for some of the activities can be downloaded to print out.
The site’s design is simple and user-friendly. The amount and variety of content should cater for a broad range of ages and personalities. There is a lot of interactivity, including an online gallery where users can save and upload the artworks they create. Equally, there’s the opportunity to learn a great deal.
A key strength is the website’s tone, which is accessible without dumbing down. A significant amount of content is presented through children’s voices, which is likely to boost engagement.
It also leads to wise insights such as that by Fatimatu, aged 9. Responding to an exhibition on conceptual art at Tate Britain, she says: “Some people think art is about making stuff. It’s not about that, it’s just about creating your own imagination.”
Website
Europeana Photography
This new strand of the vast Europeana portal displays more than two million historical photographs from more than 50 institutions in 34 countries across Europe.
The collection includes images from the first 100 years of photography, sourced from archives, agencies and museum collections across Europe, including work by photography pioneers. A fifth of the images are openly licensed. The website features themed galleries and exhibitions. The first exhibition is on industrial photography from the early- 20th century, and includes breathtaking images that illuminate the working life of the time.
You can search the collection using keywords, although there are some difficulties around language. Entering “Paris” returns a selection of Latvian wedding photos – as it turns out, this is the Latvian word for a couple.
Such issues are inevitable in a multilingual project, but the collection nonetheless provides
a rich and valuable photographic resource. JK
App
Qurator
This free app uses your location to provide information on nearby museums, galleries
and other cultural venues, and their events. It displays brief information about the sites and a link to their websites. You can also be shown directions and there are photos for some venues. Searches can be filtered by distance. And the app can either use your location or one you choose elsewhere in the UK.
Qurator provides useful information in an intuitive and user-friendly way, and is a good way of discovering small venues. It doesn’t feel essential though, because the decision to visit a museum doesn’t tend to be as spontaneous as going to, say, a pub. Many people will already know about museums near them and if they don’t (or they are going to a new place), similar information can be found online.
There does seem to be potential in the app’s Facebook- like “activity feed” function, which allows you to follow museums that interest you and be updated about their events. This could be a helpful way of keeping track of things that are easy to miss. J
Tate Kids
Young people will find plenty here to amuse them, says Jonathan Knott
This site offers children aged between five and 13 a wide range of art-related content.
It is divided into three main sections, each represented on the homepage menu. “Explore” provides an introduction to art history, with articles on key artists (including Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Mark Rothko) as well as movements such as impressionism and
pop art.
This section also includes “top five” lists of artworks that are linked by themes including cats, sports and monsters, and a range of videos where children respond to exhibitions and meet practising artists.
“Games and quizzes” speaks for itself. The former offers the opportunity to create street art and an imaginary city. The latter includes “Which artist should design your bedroom?” and “Turner, Turnip or Turtle”, a surprisingly tricky challenge where players need to decide whether they are being shown close-ups of Turner paintings or images of turnips and turtles.
Meanwhile, the “Make” section has instructions for creative projects to do at home in areas such as performance, technology and sculpture, as well as painting and drawing. There are helpful estimates for the time each activity takes and instructions for some of the activities can be downloaded to print out.
The site’s design is simple and user-friendly. The amount and variety of content should cater for a broad range of ages and personalities. There is a lot of interactivity, including an online gallery where users can save and upload the artworks they create. Equally, there’s the opportunity to learn a great deal.
A key strength is the website’s tone, which is accessible without dumbing down. A significant amount of content is presented through children’s voices, which is likely to boost engagement.
It also leads to wise insights such as that by Fatimatu, aged 9. Responding to an exhibition on conceptual art at Tate Britain, she says: “Some people think art is about making stuff. It’s not about that, it’s just about creating your own imagination.”
Website
Europeana Photography
This new strand of the vast Europeana portal displays more than two million historical photographs from more than 50 institutions in 34 countries across Europe.
The collection includes images from the first 100 years of photography, sourced from archives, agencies and museum collections across Europe, including work by photography pioneers. A fifth of the images are openly licensed. The website features themed galleries and exhibitions. The first exhibition is on industrial photography from the early- 20th century, and includes breathtaking images that illuminate the working life of the time.
You can search the collection using keywords, although there are some difficulties around language. Entering “Paris” returns a selection of Latvian wedding photos – as it turns out, this is the Latvian word for a couple.
Such issues are inevitable in a multilingual project, but the collection nonetheless provides
a rich and valuable photographic resource. JK
App
Qurator
This free app uses your location to provide information on nearby museums, galleries
and other cultural venues, and their events. It displays brief information about the sites and a link to their websites. You can also be shown directions and there are photos for some venues. Searches can be filtered by distance. And the app can either use your location or one you choose elsewhere in the UK.
Qurator provides useful information in an intuitive and user-friendly way, and is a good way of discovering small venues. It doesn’t feel essential though, because the decision to visit a museum doesn’t tend to be as spontaneous as going to, say, a pub. Many people will already know about museums near them and if they don’t (or they are going to a new place), similar information can be found online.
There does seem to be potential in the app’s Facebook- like “activity feed” function, which allows you to follow museums that interest you and be updated about their events. This could be a helpful way of keeping track of things that are easy to miss. J