In this packet we look at works that span nearly a thousand years—from shortly after the foundation of Islam in the seventh century to the seventeenth century when the last two great Islamic empires—the Ottoman and the Safavid—had reached their peak. Although the definition of Islamic art usually includes work made in Mughal India, it is beyond the scope of this packet. The works we will look at here come from as far west as Spain and as far east as Afghanistan.

The internationally recognized WorldImages database provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It contains almost 75,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery. WorldImages is accessible anywhere and its images may be freely used for non-profit educational purposes. The images can be located using many search techniques, and for convenience they are organized into over 800 portfolios which are then organized into subject groupings.

Magnificent masterpieces of the Western world are presented in their cultural and historical settings. From the restrained classical tradition to energetic and spontaneous modern art, each artistic movement is interpreted through its major paintings, sculptures, and works of architecture. Comments from internationally known art experts and critics assist in understanding and appreciation of the works. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter. A video instructional series on art history for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 9 one-hour video programs and coordinated books

This course serves as an introduction to the pre-modern Islamic artistic traditions of the Mediterranean, Near East, and Central and South Asia. It surveys core Islamic beliefs, the basic characteristics of Islamic art and architecture, and art and architecture created under each dynasty and ruling party. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify the core beliefs of Islam, the major characteristics of Islamic art, and the major forms of Islamic architecture; identify major pre-modern Islamic works of art and monuments from the Middle East, Northern Africa, Spain, and South Asia; explain how the core beliefs of Islam contributed to the basic characteristics of Islamic art and architecture and the secular art works and architecture of the Islamic world; identify the succeeding dynasties that ruled the Islamic world; explain the important role that the patronage of art and architecture had played in definitions of kingship. (Art History 303)

Visualizing Cultures opens a window on modern times by wedding popular images and scholarly commentary in ways that were not technologically possible until recently. Focusing to date on Japan and Asia in the modern world, these units enable users to “see” historical moments as they were actually depicted for mass audiences at the time from various national, cultural, racial, ideological, and individual perspectives. The graphics themselves also reflect the evolving nature of different mediums of visual communication. Before our present-day digital revolution, most of these evocative images were exceedingly difficult for students and scholars to access in any systematic or comprehensive way. In a word, the on-going Visualizing Cultures project exploits virtual technology to open new avenues of public education and global historical and cultural understanding.

PTPI's Global Youth Murals Project poses a wonderful introduction to the ways in which children around the world represent their cultures through visual art. Using this collection in the Global Gallery, learners can examine different depictions of culture as an entry point to studying cultures of countries around the world. This activity can be an introductory exercise to social studies or world geography research projects.

Even while the United States was entering the Cold War with the Soviet Union in 1961, the Kennedy administration strengthened their commitment to cultural diplomacy. This audio story highlights some of the important ways President Kennedy used the arts to help improve the image of the United States around the world.

al-hakawati is the Arabic word for 'the storyteller'. al-hakawati Arab Cultural Trust is an independent non-profit educational organization, registered in May 2006. Management and staff are located in Beirut, Lebanon, and New Jersey, USA. al-hakawati is a free educational resource and reference, made possible by the Arab Cultural Trust. The content of al-hakawati covers the 22 Arab states, members of the Arab League. The content is arranged thematically in ten sections, each with several subsections. New entries are regularly added.

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The principal objectives of the WDL are to:Promote international and intercultural understanding;Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

Contemporary art denotes a specific period of art starting in the 1960s that is characterized by a break from the modernist artistic canon and a desire to move away from the dominant Western cultural model, looking for inspiration in everyday and popular culture. This course focuses on Western art and culture, yet also explores a selection of contemporary art around the globe. The student will examine a variety of specific aesthetic and social issues and look at the different strategies contemporary artists proposed and used in their work. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify significant works of contemporary art and visual culture; describe the difference between modernist and contemporary works of art; explain the geographical shift of artistic centers from Europe (Paris) to the United States (New York), and then in the 21st century to a global spreading (Asia and Africa); define and discuss the development of contemporary art as a series of different cultural, social, and political inquiries over the past 50 years; identify and discuss multiple and vital relationships between contemporary art and such broader social and cultural issues as ideology, gender, race, or ethnicity; describe and explain a relationship between different contemporary art strategies, such as performance or installation, and their immediate social and cultural context; discuss how important contemporary artworks relate to their social and historical contexts; define contemporary art as a continuing, international artistic project; identify and define the importance of contemporary art and contemporary visual culture in today's increasingly globalized world. (Art History 408)

This course surveys art of America from the colonial era through the post-war 20th century. The student will consider broad stylistic tendencies in various regions and periods and examine specific artists and works of art in historical and social contexts, with emphasis on the congruent evolution of contemporary American multi-cultural identity. Overarching issues that have interested major scholars of American art and its purview include the landscape (wilderness, Manifest Destiny, rural settlement, and urban development); the family and gender roles; the founding rhetoric of freedom and antebellum slavery; and notions of artistic modernism through the 20th century. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Understand the historical (geographic, political) formation of the present United States of America; Be familiar with renowned influential American artists from the 18th through the 20th century; Be conversant in common stylistic designations used in Western art of the 17th through 20th centuries; Recognize subjects and forms in American art through history that mark its distinction; Be able to engage specific images, objects, and structures from different critical perspectives to consider their functions and meanings. (Art History 210)

The Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon provides CC licensed images for use in World Language classrooms and for developing your foreign language teaching materials .

This lesson is designed to increase comprehension and appreciation of the National Gallery of Art brochure Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World, and the accompanying informational labels on featured works in the National Gallery of Art’s permanent collection. Reading comprehension activities help students understand the background essay about the context of cultural exchange between Europeans and others in the eastern hemisphere during the century before 1500. Through picture study, students learn to identify the evidence of these exchanges in the art objects and correlate them to the larger context of interaction among cultures over a long and formative period of world history.

A 3-part audio series that explores different aspects of Arab music: the musical instruments of the Arab World; what makes Arab music unique; and the styles of music in the Arab World.

Take a trip across the world and back through the ages to experience the art of many cultures and historical periods. Thirteen themes encompass hundreds of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photos, and works in non-traditional media in this vibrant approach to the study and appreciation of art. International artists, scholars and curators from major museums and specialized collections guide the viewer through the millennia of human thought and expression while contemporary artists and their work bring the forms into the present day. An extensive Web site includes sortable images of more than 250 works, as well as online text helping viewers to explore the works and topics in greater depth. The series, text, and Web resources can be used to supplement art history courses, or for individual learning and enrichment. A course for high school, college, and adult learners, including 13 half-hour video programs, a Web site with art images, accompanying text, and course guide.

New Deal arts projects were guided by two novel assumptions: artists were workers and art was cultural labor worthy of government support. That commitment was demonstrated most dramatically in the Federal Art Project (FAP), a relief program for depression-era artists. Some painters and sculptors continued working in their studios with the assistance of relief checks and the occasional supervision of WPA administrators--their work was placed in libraries, schools, and other public buildings. FAP also sponsored hundreds of murals and sculptures designed for municipal buildings and public spaces. FAP's Community Art Centers worked to create new audiences for art by bringing art education and exhibitions to neighborhoods and communities with little access to galleries and museums. These essays by FAP employees Thaddeus Clapp and Lawrence A. Jones lauded programs that brought "art within reach" for people in Massachusetts and affirmed the democratic possibilities of a project that reached across class and racial lines in New Orleans.

This course is an exploration of visual art forms and their cultural connections for the student with little experience in the visual arts. It includes a brief study of art history and in depth studies of the elements, media, and methods used in creative processes and thought. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: interpret examples of visual art using a five-step critical process that includes description, analysis, context, meaning, and judgment; identify and describe the elements and principles of art; use analytical skills to connect formal attributes of art with their meaning and expression; explain the role and effect of the visual arts in societies, history, and other world cultures; articulate the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic themes and issues that artists examine in their work; identify the processes and materials involved in art and architectural production; utilize information to locate, evaluate, and communicate information about visual art in its various forms. Note that this course is an alternative to the Saylor Foundation’s ARTH101A and has been developed through a partnership with the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; the Saylor Foundation has modified some WSBCTC materials. This free course may be completed online at any time. (Art History 101B)

Like most literary geeks, I’ve read a lot of Jorge Luis Borges. If you haven’t, look into the influences of your favorite writers, and you may find the Argentine short-story craftsman appearing with Beatles-like frequency. Indeed, Borges’ body of work radiates inspiration far beyond the realm of the short story, and even beyond literature as commonly practiced. Creators from David Foster Wallace to Alex Cox to W.G. Sebald to the Firesign Theater have all, from their various places on the cultural landscape, freely admitted their Borgesian leanings. That Borges’ stories — or, in the more-encompassing term adherents prefer to use, his “fictions” — continue to provide so much fuel to so many imaginations outside his time and tradition speaks to their simultaneous intellectual richness and basic, precognitive impact. Perhaps “The Garden of Forking Paths” or “The Aleph” haven’t had that impact on you, but they’ve surely had it on an artist you enjoy.

Now, thanks to UbuWeb, you can not only read Borges, but hear him as well. They offer MP3s of Borges’ complete Norton Lectures, which the writer gave at Harvard University in the fall of 1967 and the spring of 1968:

In this course, the student will study the history of Eastern (Orthodox) Christian art. The course begins with the emergence of Christianity and the formation of the Christian visual language that grew out of the Classical tradition. The course then follows the development of Christian art after the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Byzantine Empire. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: identify works of art from Early Christian and Byzantine culture, recalling such information as date of creation, artist (if known), patron (if known), medium, and culture (i.e. Early Christian, Early Byzantine, Middle Byzantine, Late Byzantine); recognize the features (stylistic and iconographic) typical of the arts of the early Christian and Byzantine world; explain and discuss the general arc of the history of Early Christian and Byzantine culture; describe the significance and function of works of art produced in Early Christian and Byzantine culture; discuss the sources of influence (from previous historical periods as well as from neighboring geographical regions) that affected Early Christian and Byzantine art; compare and contrast works of early Christian and Byzantine art to those of other cultures; explain the relationship between Christianity (and Early Christian art) and Byzantine culture, and discuss the symbiotic nature of this relationship; describe the methods and materials used to create works of Early Christian and Byzantine art; explain the ways in which Early Christian and Byzantine art reveals the social, religious, and political mores of the culture. (Art History 401)