Web Resources

Robert J. Belton 's compilation of IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN CANADIAN ART HISTORY is a comprehensive list of art and artists from pre-historic times to 2000. This would give students a dry but well documented source of information. Although a good start for a web listing of facts it is not an exciting piece of literature more of a collection as to where an art teacher can point a student. It also gives a student terms he or she can use once they start searching on their library catalogue or the Internet for literature sources.

This Website is not Canadian oriented but is a world art history approach listing 14 sites from the Librarians Index to the Internet. It would help art teachers get a general idea of what art sources are available. One of the 14 sources, Mother of All Art History Resources had deadlinks but it listed tons of material and was quoted by many sites as a place to look for literature, pictures, biographies and history of art.

Owl Books - A First Book of Canadian Art is an example of a great book for young people that examine about 35 styles in Canadian art history. It ranges from primitive art works and the Inuit to contemporary art.

The Website is designed to give readers samples of pages but the entire book has to be ordered. I'm using this only as an illustration as to how a subject that might not be exciting to teenagers - art history - is actually exciting and would put them more in a frame of mind as to how they want to present their projects to their teacher using the library sources available to them.

The students when writing their literary pieces will need to understand the medium they are examining too.

Many of the works the students will examine will be paintings. Aside from the rich collection of material in the visual art books available in my library that describe the technology behind the painting this Website looks at the preparation an artist has to go through in order to paint in oil, acrylic and egg tempera. How to stretch a canvas, the various characteristics of the pigments, mixing colours, and painting tools are some of the subjects examined.

Sites such as this are invaluable for students who are trying to understand the process the artists went through before and after they have been influenced by their environment. Consider this - canvas size alone and preparation for painting in the great outdoors or in the studio is a great determining factor on the finished product.

Artful Minds is a tool used by art teachers and full of useful information and resources on teaching art in the 21st century. It has a WebPage called Connecting the Disciplines in a Work of Art and suggests questions that students and teachers can ask about the work of art under discussion.

In putting together their papers they can examine it from a critical, historic, aesthetic or technical point of view. The questions that connect this with the disciplines include: What characteristics identify this work as a particular style or relate it to other works of art; Is this piece of artwork typical of the time it was produced; would a critic from our time have a different opinion of this work than a critic from the past?

This Canadian Art History collection is a fine WebPage that has about 55 linked sites. Students and teachers will find a good source of material here, even one that allows living artists to advertise their works. It is divided into six parts, History and Canadiana, General Information on Canadian art history/scholarly resources,Individual artists, Art galleries and Museums on the web, Contemporary Art, Theory and Politics and the fifth is Other Media.

This site as an example of visual resources, literary resources, and bibliographic material available on Emily Carr. It goes through her writings, books about her, and has pictures of her paintings and drawings.

It would be magnificent if grade 9 students doing research on the theme of "How Canadian artists' works are influenced by their environment." could come up with as rich source material as I found on Miss Carr.

The source below is an excellent site listing literature.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia under cultural policy "culture encompass nothing less than "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" - or, in the words of UNESCO, "ways of living together." Viewed in this way, culture is seen as a public good and cultural policies emphasize the need to preserve or to invigorate cultural identity, or at least to create an environment in which a distinctive culture can emerge."

What does it mean to be a Canadian, and does art help us to understand ourselves? This is a huge topic and under- standing what it means to be Canadian is the never-ending question. The best Websites to understand our culture are sites that reach into our society at all levels - the complex whole.

Two examples of these are

Canadiana, The Canadian Resource Page. This is a 12 page collection of sites that include Heritage, Culture and Entertainment. The pages are simple to understand and are divided into literature, stage, screen, music, Radio & Television, Sports, and Culture.

Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources. This is a 39 page guide to everything Canadian and divided into 10 topic areas. The culture area is called Culture High and Low. If you can't find what your looking for in culture and heritage than chances are it isn't there.

The Group of Seven is the best example of "How Canadian artists' works are influenced by their environment." The above Website focuses on the Group of Seven works from the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg, Ontario. This site has plenty to offer the students, learning through art activities, complete bibliographies, contemporary artists, Inuit art, and art history.