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Open Educational Resources (OER)

Textbooks

American Encounters

American Encounters:
Art, History, and Cultural Identity

From the Description:
"American Encounters provides a narrative of the history of American art that focuses on historical encounters among diverse cultures, upon broad structural transformations such as the rise of the middle classes and the emergence of consumer and mass culture, and on the fluid conversations between "high" art and vernacular expressions. The text emphasizes the intersections among cultures and populations, as well as the exchanges, borrowings, and appropriations that have enriched and vitalized our collective cultural heritage."
Introduction to Art

Introduction to Art:
Design, Context, and Meaning

From the Abstract:
"Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students' educational experiences beyond the textbook."
Peer Reviews
Trivium Art History

Trivium Art History

From OER Commons:
"Trivium Art History is a free, online art history textbook designed for discovery. Meet history's greatest artists, browse artwork, and explore the timeline of human creativity. Trivium offers short, conversational essays and artist biographies and encourages exploration by artistic movements, mediums and themes."
Fashion History Timeline

Fashion History Timeline

From the About Page:
"The Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history. Started as a pilot project by FIT art history faculty and students in the Fall of 2015, the Timeline aims to be an important contribution to public knowledge of the history of fashion and to serve as a constantly growing and evolving resource not only for students and faculty, but also for the wider world of those interested in fashion and dress history (from the Renaissance scholar to the simply curious)."
 

Journals

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

Art History
Pedagogy & Practice

From the Description:
"Art History Pedagogy & Practice is a peer-reviewed open access e-journal devoted to scholarship of teaching and learning in art history. It is published biannually by Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR), a peer-populated open educational resource, in partnership with the Office of Library Services of the City University of New York and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York".
ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

From the Description:
"ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830 (ISSN 2157-7129) is an open access, interactive, scholarly journal, launched in 2011 by the Aphra Behn Society. The journal is supported by the University of South Florida Tampa Library. The journal focuses on gender and women’s issues, and all aspects of women in the arts in the long eighteenth century, especially literature, visual arts, music, performance art, film criticism, and production arts.

Its public scholarship blog, ABOPublic, publishes shorter articles and interactive content geared toward a public audience. It also houses Ask Aphra, a professional advice column.".

Courseware

Art History Teaching Resources

Art History Teaching Resources

From AHTR:

"Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) is a peer-populated platform for educators who use visual and material culture in their teaching practice. Home to an evolving and collectively authored repository of open educational content, AHTR serves as a collaborative virtual community for art history instructors at all stages of their academic and professional careers."

AHTR provides a variety of pedagogical resources including:

  • Adaptable lesson plans and downloadable powerpoint presentations
  • Assignments
  • Learning activities for museum and classroom settings.
SmARThistory

SmARThistory

From SmARThistory:

"At SmARThistory, we’re on a mission to open museums and cultural sites up to the world. We’re creating world-class resources on art and cultural objects for learners from around the globe—for free.

SmARThistory is the window through which to learn about today’s biggest clash points: we interrogate faith, class, race, gender and power through a study of art and objects from ancient times until the present. We help learners navigate their world by teaching the skills of interpretation and judgement to help them make meaning of the world around them."

SmARThistory includes:

  • Conversational videos by theme, region, style, and more
  • Essays by noted scholars
  • Course syllabi for both short and long format courses
History of Art | Open Yale Courses

History of Art | Open Yale Courses

  • Roman Architecture
  • This course is an introduction to the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its empire, with an emphasis on urban planning and individual monuments and their decoration, including mural painting. While architectural developments in Rome, Pompeii, and Central Italy are highlighted, the course also provides a survey of sites and structures in what are now North Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and North Africa. The lectures are illustrated with over 1,500 images, many from Professor Kleiner’s personal collection.