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Featured Resources

Request free interactive videoconferences,
dynamic real-time discussions with SAAM presenters

Enroll in Smithsonian Summer Sessions for Teachers
Session 1: July 6-10, 2020 Join Waitlist
Session 2: July 20-24, 2020 Join Waitlist

Find digital teacher guides and resources

Access Smithsonian Learning Lab Collections

Explore history and civil rights through American art

Watch Re:Frame, an interdisciplinary video series
featuring experts from across the Smithsonian

Art to Go: Creativity Packets (English and Spanish)

Self-guided looking, writing, and drawing activities engage elementary and middle school aged students in creative and critical thinking. Explore artworks using routines from Harvard's Project Zero and connect with big ideas.

Contemporary Artist Interviews

Use these videos of artists sharing insights about their work in SAAM's collection to spark discussion and inspire further inquiry. Watch thematic playlists on the following topics:

Looking at Art: Five Ways to Engage

Robert Ebendorf, Off the Street, On the Beach, 1992

1) Spend one minute looking closely at this artwork. Touch every part with your eyes -- from top to bottom, left to right, and all around.

2) How would you describe this artwork to someone who isn't looking at it?

3) This artwork is made up of various objects that the artist found while taking walks. Can you identify three different objects that are part of this artwork?

4) Fill in the blank:
"This artwork makes me think about_________."

5) If you could add an object to this artwork, what would you include?

Now that you've looked closely, learn more about this artwork.

More Resources

SAAM on Smarthistory's "Seeing America" Project

Includes videos, teaching guides, and quizzes

Roger Shimomura, Diary: December 12, 1941
"Superman, World War II, and Japanese-American Experience"
Millard Sheets, Tenement Flats
"American Resilience and the Great Depression"
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, State Names
"What's in a Map? Reading the United 'States'"
Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
"The Painting That Inspired a National Park"
Emmanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (mural study for the United States Capitol building)
"Envisioning Manifest Destiny during the Civil War"

Archived Webinars for Teachers

A Woman's Place Is in the Curriculum: Women's History in American Art and Portraiture
A three-part webinar series facilitated by educators from SAAM and the National Portrait Gallery.

Social Studies Online with the Smithsonian
An online exploration into key social studies topics, featuring museum resources from the Smithsonian.

Easy PZ with the Smithsonian: How to Engage Your Students with Project Zero Thinking Routines

April 1, 2020 webinar with featured artwork Iceman Crucified #4
March 30, 2020 webinar with featured artwork Tenement Flats

Smithsonian Estudios Sociales en Línea (en español)
Through close examination of works of American art, SAAM's acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art E. Carmen Ramos examines the questions "Whose stories do we tell and who tells them?"

Get STEAMed: Art Conservation
An exploration of the STEAM-based classroom connections of art conservation, a blend of science, art, math, and history.