Open Arts Objects
Open Arts Objects (OAO) is an open access platform which provides over 50 free films to support the teaching of Art History.
Watch this short film outlining the Open Arts Objects project
Open Arts Objects:
- inspires wider and diverse audiences to enjoy and understand art works and visual culture, leading to a change in museums’ educational programmes and professional practice, and has increased public awareness about a global approach to Art History.
- supports teachers by providing free open access materials including films, activities for students, and teaching support documents. OAO films are a recommended resources for the new A-level Curriculum by Pearson, covering the themes of Identities, Nature, and War, but they can also be easily adapted to the Cambridge Pre-U. They are an ideal resource for any teacher who incorporates art and design into their teaching.
- underpinned by the research of members of the Art History department at the Open University, OAO promotes the understanding of art informed by the innovative methodologies of mobility and global approaches.
- emboldens communities, regional groups, school children, teachers, and OU students with art historical skills, with a mandate to widen participation in Art History.
- ensures the sustainability of Art History at all teaching levels, advocating for the democratisation of the subject and the decolonisation of the curriculum, and promotes educational opportunity.
We need your help! Our funding and support depends on feedback from you. Please take a few minutes to fill out this very short survey (6 questions, approx. 4 minutes). If you’d like us to visit your school or community group, get in touch: openartsobjects@open.ac.uk.
Partake in our Facebook group and check us out on Instagram and twitter (where every Monday when we post an interesting object/work of art at the start of every week for #materialmondays).
In 2017-18 members of the Open Arts Objects team served as academic consultants for the 9-part BBC series Civilisations produced in partnership with the OU, reaching over 13.7 million viewers. In 2019 OAO was short-listed for the Times Higher Education Awards in the category of Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year.
Clare Pollard, Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean brings to life a Japanese scroll, and what it reveals about the lives of courtesans in nineteenth-century Japan. Learn more about the work with additional resources.
Catherine Whistler (Keeper of Western Art) discusses a curious work likely by Michelangelo Buonarroti of The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist from the sixteenth century and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Learn more about the work with additional resources.
Susanna Brown, curator of Photographs at the V&A, discusses Beaton’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation day. Learn more about the work with additional resources.
Professor Gill Perry explores House - a sculptural installation made by British artist Rachel Whiteread in 1993 and commissioned by the arts charity Artangel.
Dr Anne Pritchard considers how Renoir used a sumptuous blue dress to bring the nineteenth-century Paris art world face to face with modernity.
Dr Leon Wainwright tackles the issue of meaning and experience around a contemporary artwork by the New Delhi-based artist Sonia Khurana.
Dr Leah Clark discusses the function of female profile portraits, a genre that was popular in fifteenth-century Italy. Learn more about the work with our teaching resources.
Dr Leah Clark reveals the complexities of a small devotional diptych made for the collections of Eleonora d’Aragona, the Duchess of Ferrara. Learn more about the work with our teaching resources.
Dr Emma Barker explores Caravaggio’s unusual and innovative approach to depicting a story from the Bible. Learn more about the work with additional resources.
Dr Leah Clark explains the role of devotional images for Renaissance viewers by exploring a well-known work by Bellini. Learn more about the work with our teaching resources.