12 Amazing Art Projects for kids Inspired by Women Artists
Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn’t always lead to action. Many of the women around me had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.
- Judy Chicago
Every year for Women’s History Month we round up a group of our incredibly creative friends in the Kids Art Community on Instagram to create a new batch of Women Artist Studies. The mission is always the same: celebrate and expose the work of women artists while simultaneously celebrating the work of the inspiring women owned creative accounts who contribute the projects.
The seed for the Women’s Week Collective was planted long ago in a Middle School art room. There I was pulling out a tried and true Georgia O’ Keefe flower project. Seated before me was a large group of 7th-grade students who had never heard of Georgia O’keefe which led to a discussion about “famous artists.” The hands went up and each kid rattled off the same list of old white guys: Picasso, Monet, and Van Gogh. If I am being completely honest the last name on the list was actually more like “the guy who cut his ear off.” After this experience, I started asking my adult friends if they could name 3 women artists. Most of them couldn’t. I guess it shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. Looking back on my own experience in k-8 “art class” I remember a Van Gogh sunflower project, A Monet water lily project, a Picasso cubist study, and the unfortunate exploration of pointillism by *q-tip (overseas friends, q-tip = cotton bud).
In my late teens my mom gifted me the holy grail of heavy a$$ art books, you know the one: filled to the brim with famous artist and their work but where were the women?!?. In 2019 the wonderful Danielle Kryssa (aka the Jealous Curator) published A Big Important Art Book: Now with Women and a year later the big fancy art book (the one mom gifted me in my teens) publishers came out with a follow up to their original called: Great Women Artists (coincidence? I think not). All this to say, that I really want our museums, classrooms, artist studies, and fancy art books to reflect all the people. Big cheers to this wonderful group of my Art Ed peers who have joined me on this mission!
This year we were joined by 10 wonderful, art-loving, IG accounts and the result of our collective effort is 12 incredible women artists studies. Get ready to be inspired:
Abstract Art X Play art game for kids
2. Wearable Art Cape inspired by, Sonia Delaunay - Contributor: Let’s Make Art UK. Click the picture below to head to the full post.
3. Printed Jungle Scapes with Giraffe inspired by Mary Blair - Contributor: Kudzu Studio. Click the picture below to head to the full post.
4. Textured Clay Tiles inspired by Liz Payne - Contributor: Hello, Moonpie. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
5. Abstract Play Tiles inspired by Ray Eames - Contributor: Barley & Birch. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
6. Stuffed Paper Doll Project inspired by Mirka Mora - Contributor: Oh Creative Day! Click the picture below to head to the full post!
7. Abstract Collage Project inspired by, Howardena Pindell - Contributor: Redviolet Studio. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
8. Ruth Asawa inspired hanging sculpture - Contributor: The Making Table. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
9. Layered Landscape Project inspired by Carolyn Gavin - Contributor: The Arterie Studio. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
10. Clay Project inspired by Louise Bourgeois - Contributor: Making Mini Masters. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
11. Personal Story Wall Hanging inspired by Betye Saar - Contributor: Suzy Ultman. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
12. Painted Portrait Project inspired by Ines Longevial - ART CAMP. Click the picture below to head to the full post!
Love what you see here? Be sure to check out last year’s collective for 8 more women artist studies!
