Design An Art Exhibition

In this activity, you will:

• explore how curators organize artworks around a theme, story, or big idea by designing your own art exhibition
• create three artworks for your themed art exhibition and discuss the choices you made as an artist and curator

• Paper
• Crayons, markers, or colored pencils
• Scissors
• Collage materials and glue (optional)
• Optional: printed images of artworks from the Getty Museum for inspiration

Think Like a Curator (and an Artist)

Every exhibition you visited during your field trip to the Getty Museum was carefully planned by a curator. A curator chooses which artworks to display, looks for connections between them, and organizes exhibitions around a theme, story, or big idea. In this activity, you'll be both the artist who creates the artworks and the curator who plans the exhibition. You’ll create three artworks that work together to express a common message or theme.

Before creating your art pieces, plan your exhibition by writing or discussing the answers to the following questions:

• Which artwork from your Getty Museum visit stood out to you the most, and why?
• What other types of art have you seen elsewhere that you have enjoyed?
• What story, theme, or big idea do you want to share through your art? Here are a few examples to get you thinking: Nature and the Environment, Dreams and Imagination, or Art and Emotion.
• Will your exhibition include one type of art, like drawings, paintings, or collages, or will you combine different media?
• What do you want visitors to learn, think about, or remember after viewing your exhibition?

Time to Create

Now that you’ve planned your exhibition, it’s time to create your three artworks. The most interesting exhibitions include art that are connected but also show variety. Let your big idea or theme tie the art pieces together while keeping each one unique. Experiment with different subjects, settings, colors, or materials. You can draw the works, or make a collage. Give your exhibition a title that reflects the main message. For example, if your theme is Nature and the Environment, the exhibition title could be The Beauty of Nature.

Use your imagination and create an exhibition that’s uniquely yours.

Discuss Your Exhibition: Share or Challenge

When you’re done, talk about your exhibition with a partner or in a small group. Choose how you’d like to discuss it:

Option 1: Share what inspired your exhibition. Explain why you chose to include each artwork, how the three fit together, and how each is also unique. Describe the main message or big idea behind your exhibition.

Option 2: Challenge your partner or group to identify the main message or big idea of your exhibition by looking closely at your art pieces. Can they figure it out? What details helped? Ask them how each artwork fits the theme.

Optional Activity: Gallery Walk

Turn your classroom into an art gallery by displaying everyone's exhibitions around the room. Then take a gallery walk and explore the ideas your classmates chose to share through their exhibitions. Do you notice common themes, or is there a lot of variety?

A museum professional who selects and organizes artworks in a museum or exhibition to share ideas, tell stories, and create meaningful experiences for visitors.

The main message that connects different ideas, artworks, or stories and gives them meaning.

Plural of medium: The materials or techniques used to make art. Examples of media include drawing, painting, collage, photography, and sculpture.