Rebecca Sanghvi, Nikki Jondahl, Julie Steinberg

April 1, 2015
A&HA 4078
Museum Activity
Grade Level: K-2
Location: MOMA, New York, Post Impressionism room (5th Floor)
Before the Visit
1. Tell students that today we are going to explore why artists choose the colors they
do for their paintings.
During the Visit
2. Take students to post-impressionism room at MOMA. Introduce four paintings,
each with different uses of color. For each painting, introduce the name of the
artists, but do not tell students anything about the subject or background. In front
of each painting, ask students, What do you notice about color? and How do
the colors make you feel?
Paintings:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gough

Bridge Over the Riou by Andre Derain
The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau
Evening at Honfleur by Georges-Pierre Seurat

3. Direct students to decide with their partners one of the feelings that they
identified. Then ask partners to find another painting in the room that makes them
feel the same way.
4. Ask each set of partners to find another partnership who chose a different painting
and identified another feeling. Partners talk as a group about how they felt and
why the colors in this painting made them feel this way.
5. Debrief with students about what they noticed about how colors make you feel,
and how color can affect the mood of the piece of art.
After the Visit
6. Once the class is back at school, hold a conversation about how students can
make choices just like the artists at MOMA did, about the feelings or mood they
want to show, and the colors they choose to show them.
7. Guide students to each choose a feeling that they would like to convey through
painting. Without telling anyone else the feeling, they will create a painting,

choosing colors with their feeling in mind. Paintings can be representational or

nonrepresentational.
8. Put up all students paintings. Children walk around the room and put a Post-it to
say how each painting makes them feel.
9. Debrief with students about how the different paintings made the children feel,
and the patterns they notice in the notes they left.