How to teach your kid to look at art like a critic (and give a talk on an artist)

"I don't get it" is how a lot of people, kids and grown-ups alike, feel standing in front of a painting. But looking at art is a skill. Once you know what to look for, and which questions to ask, a museum stops being quiet and boring and becomes a place full of stories and puzzles.

Why it's worth it

Museum visits may sharpen thinking. When the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in Arkansas, more schools applied for tours than it could take at once, so researchers from the University of Arkansas used a lottery to compare students who got a tour with similar students who hadn't yet. About three weeks after a single visit, students who toured wrote essays about an unfamiliar painting showing stronger critical thinking, noticing and describing more details. They also scored higher on historical empathy and tolerance. The effects were modest overall, and larger for students from rural or high-poverty schools. It's one museum and one region, but it's a rare randomized study of the arts.

Responding to art is a core arts skill. The National Core Arts Standards include three standards for responding to art: perceive and analyze it, interpret intent and meaning in it, and apply criteria to evaluate it. These quests walk through all three.

Skill 1: Visit a museum or gallery, in person or online

1. Visit a museum, or its website, with a grown-up.
2. Find three pieces you like.
3. Write down each one's name and artist.
4. Tell your family about your favorite.

Online counts. Many major museums let you explore their collections online for free, and you can zoom in closer than you could stand in a gallery. Search for a museum's "collection" page together.

In person, keep it short. An hour, and only one or two rooms, beats a tired march through the whole building. Let your child lead the way to what catches their eye.

Three pieces you like is the right goal. Kids don't need to like what's famous. Starting from what they're drawn to makes the rest easier.

Skill 2: Describe a work's colors, mood and choices

1. Name the main colors, or sounds if it's a song.
2. Say how it makes you feel.
3. Guess why the artist made those choices.
4. Write three sentences about it.

Three questions that unlock almost any artwork:

• What do you see? Just describe: colors, shapes, people, objects, where things are.
• How does it make you feel? Calm, tense, sad, happy, curious?
• Why might the artist have done it that way? Dark colors for a sad feeling? A tiny person in a huge landscape to feel lonely?

There's no single right answer to the "why." The point is to back it up with something you can see or hear. "I think it's lonely, because the person is tiny and far away" is great critical thinking.

Works for music too. Is it fast or slow? Loud or soft? What instruments? Why did the musician make it build up at the end?

The challenge: a two-minute talk on an artist

The mastery goal is to give a two-minute talk on an artist or musician you admire.

1. Learn about your artist's life and work, from books or sites your grown-up trusts.
2. Write three key points on cards.
3. Practice until it takes about two minutes.
4. Give your talk to the family.

Three key points that work for anyone:

1. Who they were: when and where they lived.
2. What made their work special: a style, a subject, an invention.
3. Why you admire them: your own opinion, with a reason.

Show an example. Hold up a book, show a picture on a screen, or play 20 seconds of a song.

Two minutes is short. That's the challenge: picking only the best facts. Use a timer when practicing.

Pick anyone. A famous painter, a comic artist, a favorite band's songwriter, a sculptor from your family's heritage, a local muralist. The CDC's tips for ages 9 to 11 include helping kids think about skills and abilities they'd like to have, and studying an admired artist does exactly that.

Make it a quest

In Family Quests, this is the Art Critic skill, the top of the Arts and Music branch. Practice quests are visit a museum or gallery (in person or online) and describe a work's colors, mood and choices, and the mastery quest is give a two-minute talk on an artist or musician you admire. Start free.

Next: go back to finishing a creative project, or to drawing every day.