Montessori Art Cards

Artistic expression is one of the fundamental needs of humans. Since the beginning of living memory, there have been artworks in every culture across the globe.

Art cards are uniquely positioned to help children learn about, appreciate and celebrate art and artists from around the world. Originally developed by Aline Wolf (author of Child-sized Masterpieces), they've quickly become a popular and easy way to introduce children to the world of art.

Organisation

Based on art postcards, the idea is to present artwork in a smaller format. To not overwhelm children, art cards should progress from simple matching to categorising the artworks and identifying their artists.

You can read more about why art is so important to children here, on Montessori Services.

How the Art Cards are Set Up

There are various levels of complexity, ranging from matching identical cards over matching similar cards to categorising cards by style. You can also get (3-Part) Vocabulary Cards for various artists.

Representation

When buying or downloading art cards, beware of copyright issues. Generally, 50 years after the artist's death, the work goes into public domain. However, that and the eurocentric internet make it really difficult to find usable art cards about indigenous, Black or Coloured art. I'll add links here as I source them!

If you want to read the full presentation write-up on how to use art cards, check out our article here.