Worcester Art Museum

How do labels help visitors learn about works of art?

Labels at the Worcester Art Museum

The Worcester Art Museum’s collection of arms and armor is the second largest in the United States. The Museum has over 1,500 works in the armor collection. Do suits of armor seem like works that an art museum would have on display? Look at these parts of the Teuffenbach armor and think of how you might think of the objects as works of art.

Armor as Art: The Teuffenbach Armor

How fast can you escape the Worcester Art Museum's Arms and Armor exhibit? Look and click on the different works from the medieval period to find out. Will you gain a victorious win and escape? Or, will you be a fallen hero who brings dishonor to their kingdom? Come and play to find out!

Teuffenbach Escape Room!

There are many portraits at the Worcester Art Museum. We will look at two portraits to see what we might learn from them.

Portraits

About 20 people are involved with making the design  Can take 6-12 month to make  7,000-14,0000 The price depends on the amount of work done  Most craftsman are in their 60s and 60s 

Steps to making a Kimono

With the hotpots, we can look more closely at the details of the Worcester Wedding Kimono. Click on the hotspots to learn more. 

Creating the Worcester Wedding Kimono - A New Work of Art for the Museum

Come explore the works from around the world that will be featured in the following activities. Click on the hotspots to learn more about each work and its corresponding Visual Thinking Strategy activity. 

Art World Map

Students often read about ancient times at school. It can be difficult to picture how people lived during this time period. Seeing ancient objects at a Museum can help you to picture how people lived in the past.

What Can We Learn from Ancient Art?

The Worcester Art Museum is located in central Massachusetts. It is a museum where people come to see works of art from all over the world and from all different time periods. 

What is an Art Museum?

The Worcester Art Museum's exhibitions tell global stories—from art made thousands of years ago to works being created today. The Museum’s collection has over 38,000 objects, collected since the Museum opened in 1898. Students will examine a sampling of artworks from different time periods and places. They will learn more about how artworks come to a Museum, how they were created, and how they can explore and learn from them.

Museum Discovery Educator Resource Doc.pdf     

Make Your Own Label Worksheet (blank).pdf

Make Your Own Label Worksheet (example).pdf

Art Museum Discovery

World History

Social Studies

Visual Arts

The Arts

When you're visiting the Museum, you can look next to a work of art to find the label. This picture is Delaney's 

There is a lot of information you can learn from the artwork's label.

Read this label and see what you can find out about the artist and his work.

The Worcester Art Museum has a contemporary mural that was painted on a wall at the Museum in the winter of 2023 by artist Nevena Prijic. 

 is not on the same wall as the work. It would be in the way of people looking at the work. Sometimes you have to look near a work to find a label. You can see the label for 

 in this slide. It is larger and has more information.

This label shares about the artist and the artwork. It also has a sketch of the artist's original idea for her mural. The label has photographs of two works that the artist was thinking about while she created her artwork.

While works at the art museum have labels with information, a fun part of looking at art is to think beyond the label. You can read about Nevena Prijic's inspiration for creating 

 and about her life. Then you can step back and look closely at the painted mural she created. What shapes and colors do you see? What do you think is going on in this painting?

Now that you've learned all about labels, it's time to make your own! The image here is an example of one of the ones we made

*For more information on this activity, see documents under the "Educator Material" tab in the resource kit*

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Art Museum Discovery

Labels at the Worcester Art Museum

Background Knowledge

Look for the Label