Creative Ways to Share Art with Kids: Every Picture Tells a Story

Edgar Degas   The Dance Lesson, c. 1879  National Gallery of Art

Engage Kids with Art: Help Them Find the Story
This concept is a great way to share art with children. As human beings we are hard wired to love stories and actually depend on them for our survival. It's how we share information and cultural values. Degas's The Dance Lesson is full of stories. As a docent at the Maier Museum at Randolph College, helping kids see stories in art is something we do all the time.

Finding the Digital Stories
In developing the app ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet, I selected 26 works of art from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. that are kid-friendly and created an animation for each work. With this piece, I wanted to add delicate lines to show her dancing. This simple animation brings the scene to life and encourages a deeper level of involvement with the image. Does this help you find the story in this painting?

  

Robert Peckham's The Hobby Horse is a slice of 19th century American life children will find amusing and curious. Who are the girls? Who made the hobby horse? What's it like to ride that hobby horse?  My toys don't look anything like that. Some kids may never have seen a hobby horse, especially one like this. The time and place may not interest a preschool child, but what will is imagining the fun of riding such a wonderful wooden horse. This master artwork is courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

5 Features of ABC Apps

The first book I bought for my daughter, all those years ago, was an ABC book from the Brooklyn Museum. She is now a PhD candidate in Art History and lives in Brooklyn. 
Probably not a direct correlation, but a nice coincidence.

ABC Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Museum by Florence Cassen Mayers

After many years producing fine art and linear animation, my media production for kids turned to apps. An interactive, animated ABC book with images from museums was the first project I wanted to develop. Soon after that the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. released 20,000 images into the public domain and I was off to the races. ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet was released in February, 2014. I has just been updated.

Here are 5 reasons I think the alphabet is a great structure for children's media.

10 Things to Know About iArt4Kidz

iArt4Kidz is a new brand of Kristin Harris Design. We pulled our preschool media products out to rebrand with a name more reflective of our products. We are focusing on iOS apps with a special interest in art and nature.

1. Our Talent

I am an artist. I have been making art for over 40 years. The last 25 years I have worked with some amazingly creative people to produce animated media for preschool kids. I'd like to introduce my team, provide some samples of our work and talk about why we do what we do.

What I Learn from Three Year Olds on iPads

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

I am back in the house, that is the Yellow House at Elizabeth's Early Learning Center. I had been visiting my three year old friends at this day care center for a number of years when my schedule last year made it difficult to get there. I'm back and boy am I thrilled about it.

What's so wonderful about this experience?

It's always fun to spend time with individuals who are happy, friendly and into what's happening right now, whether they are three or fifty.  

I am so respectful of their intelligence. These kids are curious and smart. As a general rule they are pretty fearless, certainly about making mistakes. They spend quite of bit of their day learning by making mistakes. (I do too.) This comes quite naturally.

I love sharing information and helping others build skill sets. That is what education is all about and interactive experiences can be a great way to explore information. 

iPads and Engaging Kids in Art: App with Museum Assets

Kristin Reiber Harris

Art Museum Apps for Kids
Independent Developer's Art Museum Assets Apps for Kids
Free Solution Anyone Can Use

I just returned from the Virginia Docent Exchange at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Va. Two other docents and I were representing the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. At the conference I had the opportunity to present a session about iPads, kids and art museum related apps.

Chrysler Museum

This was my first visit to the Chrysler Museum which was recently renovated. It is beautifully situated on a body of water known as the Hague in downtown Norfolk, VA. The museum was originally founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. It changed names in 1971 when industrialist Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. donated his extensive collection to the museum.

We arrived at the museum early on Sunday afternoon so we would have a few minutes to visit their collection before the conference started. I was pleased to find this in their collection.

Standing Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin Pusa), 19th century, China.
Chrysler Museum Photo credit: Kristin Harris

iPads, Flip Books and Animation

Kristin Reiber Harris

I Love Animation

I love watching it and I especially love making animations. Some of the coolest people I know are animators. I have enjoyed sharing this enthusiasm with others for many years. iPads add a twist to the process with a new set of tools and great portability. I recently did an animation workshop for elementary age kids using FlipBoomCartoon. Now I have a chance to offer this same opportunity to my students at Lynchburg College.


What Tools Will We Use?
My Drawing 1 students will be using iPads next week. This is a first for me to be able to offer beginning drawing students access to art making tools on an iPad. The college just got 30 iPads last semester. They will be using FlipBoomCartoon to make animations and Procreate for drawing. If we have time, I'd like to see them bring gesture drawings from Procreate into iMovie to create an animation of stills.

The Jazzy Letter J

A whole new way of looking at the alphabet....letters, animation, music and great art. Coming soon to the App Store, ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet. Check out Jazz J...who knew?

Henri Rousseau,The Equatorial Jungel,  image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Kristin Reiber Harris is a media producer specializing in educational media for kids, with a focus on introducing young children to wonderful art from museum collections.  Learn more at KristinHarrisDesign.com.

Another ABC app? Why?

Kristin Reiber Harris

ABC.DC:An Art Alphabet  Available soon in the App Store.

Why another ABC app?

I spend an hour a week with 3 year olds and my iPad at Elizabeth's Early Learning Center in Lynchburg, VA. I love this time with them because they are such radiant, intelligent individuals that embrace the moment and run with it. They constantly amaze me in wonderful ways.