Introduction
You work for a famous museum. The curator of the museum wants to have a special exhibition of portraits from various periods of history.  Therefore, the museum plans to send teams on historical expeditions to gather information.  The museum will send you, as part of a team, on an expedition to research the historical time period of the portraits, to find facts about the person in the portrait as much as possible, and to report the events in the artist's life at the time of the portrait.

• The reporter will research the artist's life at the time of the portrait.
• The art expert will research the portrait itself and facts about the person in the portrait.
• The historian will research the time period in which the portrait was done and record what events were happening at that time.

After gathering the information, your team will present the information using PowerPoint, Hyperstudio, or a Website and exhibit your knowledge of technology to effectively communicate your data as it will appear in the exhibition at the museum.  The reporter will speak first about the artist's life, then the art expert and the historian will supply the other information from their research.  

Reporter Your task is to research the life of the artist. Consider ideas such as: How old was the artist at the time of the work? What was happening in his/her personal life at that time? In what city was the artist living? The following sites will be helpful: National Portrait Gallery of Americans Biographies of Artists Portraits of famous men of Christendom Looks Are Deceiving: the Portraits of Christopher Columbus Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun: self-portraits Henry Ossawa Tanner

Art Expert Your task is to research the art work itself. Consider these ideas: If it is sculpture, is it bronze or marble? How big is it? If it is a painting, is it a fresco, oil, or water color? What art techniques are used? What else is in the picture? The following sites will be helpful:. Criticism of art works Colonial Portraits Women Artists from the Medieval Period to the Present A Gallery of Portraits of Queen Victoria Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance Rembrandt's self-portraits

Historian Your task is to research the significant historical events that were occurring at the time of the portrait. What was their relevance to the artist and the portrait? The following sites will be helpful: Portraits of the Civil War by Matthew Brady Hall of Presidents GALILEO Galilei Portraits Iconography Britannica Encyclopedia Encarta Encyclopedia African-American Portraits

Evaluation

Your grade will be a team effort grade.  

• Criteria	Beginning 5	Developing 10	Accomplished 15	Exemplary 20	Score
  Search	Located one of each culture	Located, evaluated, and collected 1 of each culture.	Located, evaluated, and collected 2 of each culture.	Located, evaluated, and collected 3 of each culture.
  Art Expert	Identified medium,  and gave one significant technique of art	Identified medium, analyzed face, clothing, and background to illustrate two  significant techniques of art	Identified medium, analyzed face, clothing, and background to illustrate several significant techniques of art.	Identified medium, analyzed face, clothing, and background to illustrate multiple significant techniques of art.
  Reporter	Identified one significant fact in the artist's life.	Identified two significant facts in the artist's life.	Identified several significant facts in the artist's life.	Identified many significant facts in the artist's life
  Historian	Identified one significant fact in the artist's life.	Identified two significant events and their relevance to the artist.	Identified several significant events and their historical relevance to the artist.	Identified many significant events and their historical relevance to the artist.
  Presentation for museum exhibit	Page design is basic and plain; used one or no advanced features of technology.	Page design is basic and plain; used two advanced features of technology.	Page design is attractive and colorful; shows creativity; used three advanced features of technology.	Page design is attractive and colorful ;shows creativity; used four or more advanced features of technology.

• Conclusion

  You will have created a visually successful and informative presentation with relevance to our contemporary world of museums or any other cultural exhibitions.

• As a follow up activity, you might interview a curator at a museum to find out what is really involved in presenting an exhibition, how contacts are made to get the items on loan and the cost and manner of transporting them.

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  Credits & References

  Thanks to Bill Byles and Linda Eller and Diane Raley for their help in developing this WebQuest.

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  Last updated on April 18, 2002. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page