Become the Art Aficionado You’ve Always Wanted to Be with These Offerings from MoMa and More

Photo credit: Dylan Thomas
Photo credit: Dylan Thomas

From Veranda

This year’s health pandemic has taught us many things, and one of the sweet lessons we’ve gleaned from sheltering-at-home is the importance of cultivating our hobbies. Making time to participate in an activity you truly enjoy is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and finding free time is often more difficult than it should be. We're thankful for a few extra hours in our weeks to foster our individual passions, one of them being for art.

Whether you’re a long-time patron of the arts or are just looking to get creatively inspired, there are a host of online art lessons out there to help foster your love for art history, culture, and the subject itself. Discover some of our favorite online opportunities to become the art aficionado you’ve always dreamed of being, whether you have endless free time or can only bear to spare a few minutes at a time.

Phaidon’s 15-Minute Art Lessons

While some of us have a few extra hours more in the day than we’re used to, others seem to have less. Enter: Phaidon’s 15-minute art lessons. These are perfect quick escapes in your day to transport yourself to the world of abstract impressionism or Picasso’s cubism.

The lifestyle publisher offers six different peeks into some of their most popular art books to elevate your appreciation of art through studying its biggest names, how it impacts our culture, and the role it played in defining history across the globe.

MoMA Open Online Courses

The Museum of Modern Art is blessing us with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the breadth and depth of the Manhattan landmark from home. You can enroll in free Massive Open Online Courses through Coursera, with offerings on fashion, post-war abstract painting, and more. The best part? You can take your time going through each course so you can relish every moment.

Sotheby’s Online Course and Lecture Series

Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London offers a fascinating array of online classes, offered in one-time, two-week, and four (eight-week) sessions. While these classes aren’t free, they will be worth every penny, led by industry experts and professors from around the globe who will expand your worldview as much as your passion for the arts.

Those interested in a one-time course can immerse themselves in one- to three-hour seminars on a wide variety of art-related subjects. Might we suggest Precious Elegance & Scandalous Decadence: Marie-Antoinette at Versailles?

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

SAIC offers a free, self-paced online class, Charting the Avant Garde: From Romanticism to Utopic Abstraction, via Kadenze. Taught by Lisa Wainwright, this class covers some of the most famous periods of art history from 19th-century Romanticism to Post-Impressionism that defined modern art as we know it. This class is offered in four sessions, making it an experience to savor once a week or over a quiet weekend.

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