Are you looking to upskill? In a career rut? Need to give your brain a little exercise? But your bank balance is looking a little sad.
Coursera is an online learning website, offering world-class training and development programs developed by top universities and companies. Most of the courses are free to audit. But if you want to complete graded assignments or get a course certificate, you pay.
Here are 5 art courses you can currently take for free.
In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting
Offered by MoMA, this course offers an in-depth, hands-on look at the materials, techniques, and thinking of seven New York School artists, including Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. Through studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs, you’ll form a deeper understanding of what a studio practice means and how ideas develop from close looking, and you’ll gain a sensitivity to the physical qualities of paint. Readings and other resources will round out your understanding, providing broader cultural, intellectual, and historical context about the decades after World War II, when these artists were active.
Learn more here
The Language of Design: Form and Meaning
Offered by CALARTS, in this course, critique is defined as a detailed, objective analysis of a work of graphic design and its effectiveness. Critique is an integral part of the making process for designers: it’s not just how we determine if a work of design is or is not successful, it’s how we move our work forward. Critique is also where other voices and opinions can be brought into the design process.
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Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art
Also offered by MoMA, intended for primary and secondary teachers of all disciplines, Art & Activity builds upon the inquiry-based approaches of Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for Your Classroom, while delving into activity-based strategies that will make your students empowered participants.
Learn more here
Ignite Your Everyday Creativity
Offered by the State University of New York, this course will help you understand how creativity is an essential skill for the 21st Century that is innate in all people and can be nurtured. Upon completion of this course participants will: Recognize the inherent creativity in yourself and others. Identify characteristics of a creative person that relate to yourself. Develop creative problem solving skills using the basic elements of the creative process. Examine qualities of a creative environment in real world settings. And evaluate an idea using the creative product criteria.
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Arts and Heritage Management
Run by Bocconi, this course has been conceptualized to address the need of skills and techniques to help professionals and managers in running art and cultural institutions.
Learn more here
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