Art History Teaching Resources.
arthistoryteachingresources.org
[Visited Nov'16] Funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the CUNY Graduate Center, Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) describes itself as a "peer-populated platform for art history teachers." The site incorporates resources such as lesson plans for survey and thematic courses, syllabi, assignments, rubrics, suggestions for museum visits and writing about art, plus a section devoted to advanced-placement AP art history courses. It also features the AHTR Weekly, an online newsletter published since 2012, and a Tweets column. Plans are to launch a scholarship-of-teaching ejournal called Art History Pedagogy & Practice in late 2016. The editorial staff includes academic and museum professionals, with contributions from a growing community of teachers, curators, and art experts.
The lesson plans are nicely organized with basic definitions, a list of resources, a selection of visual materials, some content notes, and suggestions for assignments. The survey lessons are basic, with references pointing mainly to free materials hosted at Smarthistory (CH, 47-1815) and the Khan Academy. The thematic lessons offer greater challenges in their selection of resources, and future growth in this section will enhance the site's value for coursework above the survey level. AP art history and art appreciation instructors as well as those teaching art history surveys at the college level will want to bookmark this site and visit it regularly. It provides a very helpful basic framework for those in their first years of teaching who are juggling the development of content simultaneously with refining their methodology. It also invites contributions from members of the art history teaching community and contributes to continuing professional education. Having access to such a resource helps mitigate the fact that at many institutions, art historians frequently work in isolation without colleagues in their field. A good resource, designed for growth and diversification and the potential to address the needs of undergraduate art history teaching above the survey level. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels; professionals/practitioners. —M. Nilsen, Indiana University South Bend
