Online Art Activities

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) has a fantastic site for kids. There are a number of impressive activities to choose from; fun and educational for both children and adults. This is a good site for families to spend time together.

Their painting machine, named Brushster, offers different textures, special effects and more. The Collage Machine and Collage Machine II allows you to choose shapes and objects from different palettes and change their size and transparency. (Note: click on the green arrows to change the available palette.)

Jungle is an interactive tool inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau. It allows you to create an imaginary landscape with choice of animals, foliage, lighting and more. You can even make it rain!

And check out Flow, a motion painting machine where you create two moving layers ("paths") of color and design that will play simultaneously.

And that's not all...You can go to the Art Zone to see all the other interactive art activities.

(You'll need to download Shockwave if you don't already have it.)

A few years ago I stumbled upon,
A. Pintura - Art Detective.

It's a clever art education site that is designed as an interactive mystery adventure. The participant follows the clues to determine who painted a specific piece of artwork. As the case unfolds you learn about famous artists and view images of their paintings. Once the mystery is solved, the evidence is reviewed by looking at the color, subject, style and composition of the painting. And just when you think you are done, it leads you to another art adventure.

FunSchool.com has a series of art and music games with fun sounds, color and fun designed for the preschool child. Click here to visit the site.

Here's an interactive Website designed for kids, ages 4 thru 12. It is colorful and fun looking with several art related games. Non-readers will need some help getting through the activities. To visit the site: Click Here.

The Getty Museum has several kid oriented art games at their site.
The choices include:

Match Madness-an art matching game

Detail Detective-choosing the detail which matches the full piece of art

Switch-finding the changes that have been made to the artwork

Jigsaw Puzzles-choose the number of pieces in your jigsaw puzzle and put it back together by clicking and dragging the pieces with your mouse. This was my personal favorite.

Make Art at Home-instructions are provided for three activities to do on your own.

I recently found a fun art site, Artsology. They have a whole list of art games that seem appropriate for children and adults. My daughter and I spent some time playing a few of them, together and separately. You'll find that some are better than others.

There are loads of art games and activities to choose from at Tate Kids. You can paint, draw, or build something with imaginary clay. Create an imaginary city or spray paint some street art. Learn something about art history or challenge yourself as an art detective and search for symbols.

The games have been categorized in three levels, so it's easy to choose a game that's better suited for a younger child. To visit the page: Click Here.

Destination: Modern Art is a Web site for children ages five to eight. An interactive online gallery offers an introduction to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and its affiliate, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. This site gives children the opportunity:

to learn about works in MoMA's collection and site-specific works at P.S.1

to look carefully at works of art

to learn about artists, their techniques, and their inspirations

to engage in online and at-home activities

Click Here to visit the site.

Art.com offers a painting activity where you can choose the color and either a paintbrush, paint splashes and even text for your creation. To visit the site: Click Here.

The Saatchi Gallery has a Web page where you can create a painting with text and choice of backgrounds. You choose the size of the brush you use, the colors, typing tools, and you can save your work. Have fun. To visit the page: Click Here.