Mandalas are visual representations of the universe, imbedded with rich spiritual and cosmological meanings. Painted, sculpted, or even formed from sand, mandalas can take numerous configurations. In this discussion, learn how to read these complex geometric diagrams and their rich iconographic messages. Drawing from both Buddhist and Hindu sources, we will analyze mandalas from India,…
Request ProgramEducator Programs
Archived workshops. Some no longer available. Please visit the Statewide Faculty page for up-to-date listings.
In every area across the state, VMFA offers both teacher workshops at a variety of grade levels and Art on the Spot Statewide, elementary level classroom adventures.
Browse Teacher Workshops by Level: Elementary, Middle School, High School, All Ages
Arts of the Silk Road
As a network of trade routes that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, the Silk Road has played a critical role in facilitating the global exchange of art, religion, and technology since the 3rd century BCE. In addition to transporting silk and spices, these routes spread new artistic and iconographic motifs throughout…
Request ProgramThe Forbidden City
This program explores the rites of imperial rituals, court painting, family life, and religion in the Forbidden City. Utilizing selected objects from the Palace Museum, Beijing, in addition to works from the permanent collection of the VMFA, this talk explores the visual and cultural landscape established by Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasty imperial patronage…
Request ProgramMarking to the rhythm of the Beat
Explore the power of music as it effects our marks. In this workshop, participants will work with a variety of drawing materials to create a ‘marked’ composition. Measured and organic marks will be explored. An introduction of artists Julie Mehretu, Cy Twombly, Wassily Kandinsky will be addressed as it relates to mark and movement.
Request ProgramPet Portraits
A Drawing and Painting Workshop. Participants will work from photographs of their own furry friends to create drawings and a large scale acrylic painting. Students will exercise contour, and shading techniques on a smaller scale and then move onto to color mixing and painterly texture techniques to create a large scale portrait of their furry…
Request ProgramExperimental Painting Applications
Participants will work with a variety of tools and techniques to create mini compositions from a variety of acrylic painting mediums and construction materials. Examples to note: joint compound, glue, heavy gel medium, isopropyl alcohol, sand/pumice.
Request ProgramLarge scale Experimental Abstract Painting
In this workshop, participants with be working with acrylic to experiment with color, texture, traditional and non-traditional techniques. Participants will be introduced to various abstract painters as inspiration for their compositions on large-scale works.
Request ProgramHow European Refugees Lifted 19th Century American Popular Art
The 19th Century was the Age of Pictures, when imagery of all types multiplied and entered everyday life. A key agent was the new medium of lithography. Lithographic printing was seen in postcards and letterheads, labels and wrappers, and tickets and show bills. Framed lithographic prints hung in parlors, lobbies, and offices. The marvelous world…
Request Program“Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Walker Evans and James Agee in the American South”
In 1936, Fortune magazine hired photographer Walker Evans and writer James Agee to do an article on the conditions among sharecropper families during the “Dustbowl.” Spending weeks living with three different sharecropping families, Agee and Evans captured more than just a standard documentary; the final photographs and paired language became poetry. Though the article was…
Request ProgramLocation Digital Portrait Photography
This hands-on workshop teaches students the basic strategies of shooting street portraits (portraits outside). As a professional photographer himself, Glen McClure will share his own street portraits and ideas of how to help subjects relax in front of the camera. Students should bring a digital camera to class and be familiar with it.
Request Program