Question for Understanding
What earlier visual work influenced the maker?

Activity Ideas for All Students
Explain the notion that successful people of today reached their heights because they are standing on the shoulders of those who went before.  For example many writers through the centuries were influenced by Shakespeare. Some contemporary composers are influenced by the music of John Lennon.  Some young actors seek to reach standards set by Robert DeNiro or Meryl Streep. Today’s talk show hosts build on the achievements of their predecessors, such as by Johnny Carson and Oprah Winfrey.

Show the DVD segment, “Everything Comes from Somewhere,” asking students to watch for ways the artists are influenced by the work of earlier artists.  Give students practice and feedback by using some or all of the interactive “Everything Comes from Somewhere” CD activities, which you can project for an entire class or which individual students can view in a computer lab. Students can use the CD to 1) review what they learned on the DVD, 2) apply what they learned to their everyday visual world, and 3) recognize how inquiry into art influence applies to old and new art.

Activity Ideas for Art Students
Ask students to investigate the work of an artist whose work they admire and share with the class qualities in the work of that artist that they would like to achieve in their own.

Complementary Activities from Stories of Art
A K-12 curriculum resource from CRIZMAC
The theme, The Individual, invites students to discover how art comes from art by investigating prominent modern and contemporary artists.