What separates a great photograph from a snapshot?

In our online Art of Photography course, students learn that good design doesn’t just happen. A snapshot captures a moment, whereas a great photograph captures it beautifully by being composed. All of the elements are chosen and arranged to fit together. Elements such as line, texture, and pattern can add visual interest and heighten a photograph’s drama.

The students discussed examples from photographers Pamela Pecchio and Aaron Siskind, whose work is in our permanent collection, exploring how actual and implied texture can create a visually engaging image, and also created photographs of their own.

Examine these images and consider students’ choices in composing each photograph. Whether you notice the skewed worm’s-eye view of brightly patterned ribbons or the rhythmic patterns of leaves growing between pipes, your eye is drawn through the composition.

The students’ work will be on display in the Museum’s Education Lobby from January 11 through April 14. Pecchio’s work is featured in the exhibition Dwelling: Interiors by Page H. Laughlin and Pamela Pecchio, opening February 10 in the adjacent North Carolina Gallery.

Art of Photography is one of five online semester courses offered through the Museum that students can take for high school credit.

Looking out across the Grand Canal, I’m reminded of two landscape paintings at the NCMA: Capriccio: The Rialto Bridge and The Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore (circa 1750) by Canaletto and Venice without Water, June 12, 1990 by Donald Sultan. Both depict the Rialto Bridge yet evoke completely different emotional responses. Canaletto painted a postcard-worthy fantasy to “sell” the city to visitors. His painting appears realistic, but the historic landmarks shown beside the bridge are actually located in different areas of Venice (think Photoshop, 1750s-style). North Carolina artist Donald Sultan takes a much different approach in his work. His foreboding, tar-splattered image of the Rialto Bridge (based on a 1990 newspaper photo of the bridge over a waterless canal) reads more like an environmental awareness PSA, showing us the barren wasteland that a city known for its beautiful canals could become if changes aren’t made to maintain its waterways.

Each artist, in his own way, distorts the reality of this architectural symbol of Venice and of the city itself. But what is the reality? I can only answer for myself. My reality here feels like a dream. Layers of peeling paint and rusty watermarks on vacant, flooded buildings are not signs of deterioration. To me, they’re magic; they’re tactile symbols of the passage of time. Without the distraction of “real life,” I’m free to find beauty in every detail, whether it’s a rare sculpture on display at the Salvador Dalí exhibition or the sock-and-shirt-shaped shadows dancing on the wall behind a clothesline.

Visiting a city so rich in history and art makes me wonder: isn’t “real” art almost always a distortion of reality to some degree? And this distortion—which I like to view as the artist’s interpretation—seems to be the very thing that makes us stop, lean in, and take a closer look.

These two landscape paintings are featured together in Art of Game Design, an online course we’ve developed in collaboration with the North Carolina Virtual Public School to empower high school students to make real-world connections between works of art at the Museum, commercial advertising media, and game design. These paintings are also featured side by side in the Museum’s European Galleries in West Building.

—Cindy Byrd Yandle is writer and editor for the NCMA’s teen and college programs.

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), Capriccio: The Rialto Bridge and The Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore, circa 1750, oil on canvas, 66 x 45 in., Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Donald Sultan, Venice without Water, June 12, 1990, 1990, butyl rubber, acrylic paint, and plaster on vinyl composite tiles, mounted on four Masonite panels, 96 x 96 in., Purchased with funds from the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Art Trust Fund

Every day in our Museum, docents help visitors look closely at art. But how do they help someone with vision loss or blindness to look closely at those objects? Elizabeth Kahn, an NCMA docent, has worked with people who have vision loss. Museum Educator Diana Phillips asked her to tell about one of the methods she uses on her tours.

DP: What is audio description?

EK: Audio description is a technique designed to help people who are blind or have low vision to visualize the setting and action of stage performances, exhibits,and other arts and entertainment events. Audio description programs exist worldwide, and the prerecorded version known as “descriptive video” can be heard accompanying selected programs on television and specially formatted DVDs of films.

DP: How do you provide audio description for someone with vision loss who wants to look at a work of art?

EK: For the visual arts and exhibitions, specially trained describers begin by stating exactly “what is there” in a painting, sculpture installation, or display. The information is given in a very precise and organized way.

DP: How is that information different from what you might find on a gallery label?

EK: Audio description does not interpret the meaning of a work of art; nor does it give information about historical background, the artist’s life, or symbolism.

DP: So it just focuses on what is physically present?

EK: Yes, and for people who are blind, this description levels the playing field for a discussion of the meaning of the image. For people who have low vision, the description defines aspects of the image that may be unclear.

DP: Is there a difference between what a listener might hear in an audio description and what they might hear on an audio guide or cell phone tour?

EK: An audio guide program usually assumes that the listener sees the image discussed. On the other hand, audio description assumes that the listener cannot see the image or sees it imperfectly. If both were available, I would recommend that a visitor who has impaired vision listen to the audio description first, followed by the audio guide discussion.

Listen to Elizabeth Kahn’s audio description of the Jacob Lawrence painting Forward:

Download audio file (Forward-AD.mp3)

You can also hear a reading of the gallery label, which offers more interpretive information about the work of art:

Download audio file (Forward-label.mp3)

“The submerged bit of the museum is much more of an iceberg than [a] picture gallery.”—Neil MacGregor, director, British Museum

Would you believe that work on our exhibitions often starts years before you see the works on the wall? At the NCMA, as at the British Museum, there is more going on behind the scenes than you might expect. Our fall college exhibition, A Life, Still, offered one group of college students an opportunity to dive under the iceberg to see what happens behind an exhibition.

Months before the opening of the college exhibition (planned to complement the special exhibition Still-Life Masterpieces), Museum educators started collaborating with students and faculty at East Carolina University through “Under the Iceberg,” a program designed to give students a hands-on experience of planning and curating an exhibition. The development of A Life, Still included large- and small-scale projects, from deciding on the exhibition theme and marketing the call for submissions to selecting the final works and arranging them in a thoughtful visual narrative.

ECU senior Anna Hajjar took away a better understanding of the resources required to put on an exhibition, noting that she had never before considered spatial limitations and obstacles, museum aesthetics, and promotion when imagining the exhibition process. She noted, “It’s not just about finding artwork and nailing it on the wall.”

For artist Kendall Temotio, a senior at ECU, the best part of the experience was “being on the other side of the table.” Temotio said, “Usually I’m the one submitting my work and waiting at home to hear the results. It was interesting to see how decisions are ultimately made. Now I can look at my own work when it is declined or accepted and better understand why or how the selections may have occurred.”

ECU senior Abigail Jones noted the importance of their cumulative decisions: “Everything from writing the wall texts to judging the works of art to understanding the layout of the show affects how well and smoothly the exhibition process will run.”

Collaborating with the Museum, these students helped recruit over 180 submissions from across the globe (172 two-dimensional, 12 video). The resulting collection represents college students from 21 universities, 13 states, and two continents. Visit the exhibition blog or see the show in person at the Museum through January 13.

—Michelle Harrell is coordinator of teen and college programs at the NCMA.

Flash forward eight months, when six teens, ranging from a rising 8th grader who had no experience in filmmaking to a rising 12th grader preparing his portfolio for NYU film school, sat in the conference center ready to learn. The diversity of ages and experience startled me for a minute, but there was no time to waste! Three hours a day for one week is not a lot of time. The best way to learn video is not by sitting in a classroom reading a textbook. It’s by getting out, learning the technology, drafting scripts, scouting locations, and collaborating with your group. This is exactly what we did.

The camp focused on heroes and villains as a theme. I wanted the students to understand the importance of character development and narrative. For example, in one exercise we looked at Sir Henry Raeburn’s Thomas Robert Hay, Eleventh Earl of Kinnoull (1785-1866). The teens stood in a circle in front of the painting. The first student started a fictional story based on the painting with one sentence. The next student continued with one sentence, and so on, until the final student wrapped up the story. Then they went around again, but this time they had to fill in the gaps between their sentences to add to the story and character development. In the end, they created a robust and thoughtful story about the Eleventh Earl of Kinnoull.

The group of six split up for their first of three videos. In their groups they created a backstory for a hero and villain. For their final project, they worked all together to create another short film focusing, again, on the conflict between a hero and villain. During their first video, the rising 8th grader and rising 12th grader were in the same group. When I peeked in to observe their progress, the 8th grader had taken charge of the camera and was directing his two groupmates. Be still, my heart! Collaboration and communication happening naturally through a fun process at the Museum? As an educator, I was thrilled.

By the end of the week they had created four videos, including their final project, seen above. All the videos can be seen at www.vimeo.com/ncma.

Emily Kotecki is associate coordinator of teen and college programs at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Visitors to the Museum always delight in discovering Devorah Sperber‘s After the Mona Lisa 2 in the permanent collection. Sperber used an amazing  5,184 spools of thread to re-create Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Her piece explores the reproduction of images in the digital era, the links between art and technology, and visual perception (how the eye and the brain make sense of the visual world).

Taking a popular image and manipulating it into something new is a way both to honor the masters of art and to express personal creativity. This echoes the reason we developed our Teens, Inspired blog and our annual Teen Art and Video Competition. Sperber’s work inspired 2010’s first-place winner, Virginia Niver, who recently graduated from Broughton High School in Raleigh. Niver’s submission, made from M&M’s, is a great example of how a high school student can reinvent a piece from the NCMA’s permanent collection. Current students are invited to submit art or video entries to this year’s competition. For details on how to do that, visit Teens, Inspired.

Today’s guest contributor is Sydney Snedeker, who will graduate from Apex High School in May and plans to attend the University of Texas to major in public relations. Sydney is a member of the Museum’s Teen Advisory Council and is the intern responsible for managing the Teens, Inspired blog. The blog contains posts by Sydney and other members of the Teen Advisory Council as well as images of works from last year’s Teen Art Competition.

Before I had the opportunity to work with the North Carolina Museum of Art, I thought integrating art into my classroom meant drawing pictures and coloring diagrams. After spending time with Museum educators, I learned that art integration includes observing, interpreting, critiquing, and using pieces of art to relate to the science curriculum. It also includes having students create their own paintings, drawings, and sculptures. By using art in my classroom in these new ways, I have come to the realization that art and science have many connections. And now that I see these natural connections, bringing art into a science classroom has become an easy way to engage, empower, and excite students about learning.

One lesson that has been successful in my classroom is using art to discuss texture in geology. After learning about types of rocks, students are introduced to the painting Orange Outline by Franz Kline. I guide a discussion about the painting and then use it to introduce the students to texture and scale, words that relate to both science and art. I ask the class to compare and contrast how texture is used in art and how it is described in terms of rocks and geology. As a final product, the students create a rock painting. They choose a rock and make careful observations of a small portion of it. They use that small part of the rock to create a larger-scale painting, referring to the rock as often as needed to help complete the painting. I encourage them to use layers of paint, brushes, sponges, and other materials, such as sand and glitter, to add texture to the painting, similar to Orange Outline. Afterward the students complete a reflection that assesses their knowledge of geology as well as their understanding of the art techniques used in this activity.

Using art in a science classroom is a way for me to connect with my students. All students—AIG, EC, ESL, and everyone in between—can have success through art integration. By observing different works of art, students are able to make personal connections, use higher-level thinking skills to analyze the work of art, and learn to value the thoughts and opinions of their peers. Art gives the students a different way to look at the science concepts, which ultimately gives them a better understanding of what is being studied.

Jennifer Rogers is a math and science teacher at Hunters Creek Middle School in Onslow County.

The thought processes behind designing games, as well as the development of games throughout history, are elements of a new online high school course, The Art of Game Design, that the Museum created in partnership with the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation. The multimedia course uses two works of art at the Museum to teach about one of the earliest known sports, referred to as “the ball game.”

Artist: Unknown, Ball Court Marker, circa 550-850

The game, which resembled soccer, was played by the ancient Mayans and may have been the earliest team sport. But this was anything but a friendly Saturday competition. The players’ survival depended upon the outcome—the captain of the losing team was sacrificed. It sounds like something out of The Hunger Games rather than our history books! Read this article from the Ball State University Museum of Art for more about the ancient Mayan game.

To learn more about the ball game, listen to the story behind the Ceremonial Ball Game Yoke in this video that accompanies the audio tour in the Museum. You can also visit this interactive Web site created by the Mint Museum. My inner soccer mom finds plenty food for thought in our Museum’s Ancient American Gallery and invites you to join me on your next visit in contemplating the power of games throughout history.

North Carolina Museum of Art Teen Event 2011 from The North Carolina Museum of Art on Vimeo.

In January 2011 a group of Museum educators presented a charge to our new Teen Advisory Council: create a renaissance of teen programs at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

What does “a renaissance” mean? Well, it is all in the capitalization. A renaissance with a lowercase r refers to a renewal or revival. The Renaissance with a capital R was the rebirth of classic Roman and Greek art, literature, and philosophy in Europe between 1400 and 1600. Learning and innovation were celebrated, which led to new discoveries, inventions, and great advances in technology.

The past 20 years have also been a time of tremendous change, as the information age unfolds a steady stream of technological advances that enable us to communicate with thousands instantaneously. With support from the Wells Fargo Foundation, for example, the NCMA is offering a new series of online courses in collaboration with North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. The renaissance theme presented to the Teen Advisory Council was an outgrowth of the first course in this series: Videography with a Renaissance Twist. Regardless of geographic barriers, students have the opportunity to take these courses that foster critical inquiry and thinking skills for the 21^st century. The Museum’s first Teen Event introduced this course along with other exciting programs for high school students.

Considering both the capital R of the Renaissance’s artistic innovation and the lowercase r of the renaissance of vibrant teen programs, our Teen Advisory Council brainstormed about what high school students want from their state art museum. Over the course of five months, these students planned an evening to celebrate the newly resurrected teen art competition and the Museum’s first online course.  Thanks to a gift from Tekelec, the Teen Event was preceded by a symposium including a talk by Michael Gelb, author of How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci. Students and teachers explored the mind of Renaissance genius through the galleries of our permanent collection and returned to the studio for hands-on exercises in creativity.

Our new series of inventive course-related programs is just the beginning; we are piloting our second course, The Art of Game Design, and planning a third, Art of Persuasion, in the fall of 2012.

Watch the video to see how the NCMA Teen Advisory Council began this renaissance for teens at the Museum. And save May 19, 2012, on your calendar for the Spring Teen Event, and see what this passionate group of teens will plan. Finally, come visit the new Teens Inspired site to learn more.

We spent the first hour in the Portrait Gallery, where we learned points in analyzing how a portrait is developed: where the features are placed, how the lighting and shadows bring the face to life and add to the model’s expression. Information I know is going to enhance my enjoyment of the Rembrandt exhibition.

Then it was off to the studio to try our own hand at creating great art. Well, not exactly, but we did have a good time trying. After some preliminary instruction, we each chose a photograph cut from a magazine to copy. There was a lot of friendly interaction and kind words when we all held up our “finished” pictures.

I had looked forward to the class with anticipation and wasn’t disappointed, and I’m already looking forward to the next classes. Who knows where this will lead: the next Grandma Moses?

The NCMA’s next Senior Sampler is Tuesday, January 10. Find out details and reserve your spot here.

Irene Lejman is one of the NCMA’s most dedicated volunteers and a happy participant of the Senior Sampler program.