The Whitney Museum of American Art is introducing For Kids, a new section of the Whitney’s website designed to engage children ages 8-12 with art and artists. The For Kids web pages encourage kids to think, create, and experiment like artists. They also provide a place where kids can express their ideas about art and share their own artwork, in a carefully moderated online community.
The goals of For Kids are to encourage young visitors to spend time exploring multiple dimensions of art, artists, and art-making. To make connections between the ways that Whitney artists make art and how kids today create their own art, works by Whitney artists are paired with artwork by kids on the landing page. Featured artist pages offer in-depth content that includes an introduction to the artist’s life and work as well as their inspiration and ideas about art. Featured art pages highlight selected works in the Whitney’s collection.
All of the activities on the web pages are based on the ways that Whitney educators work with kids in the galleries, engaging them to look deeply, explore new ideas, and think critically about works of art. Kids can collect art, add tags, take quizzes, vote in polls, and make their own profile page, which they can share with their peers. A special feature is the Pattern Maker, a type of graffiti wall that anyone can change at any time. When the pattern is changed, the new pattern populates throughout the For Kids site pages. New content will be added over time, introducing kids to the richness and diversity of Whitney artists and their work.
