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Even though all the links claim to take you to artists' statements, they don't, so you have to do a bit of digging.

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The Diane Farris Gallery provides numerous examples of descriptive, didactic and personal statements written by and about the artists who are exhibiting (or have exhibited) their work at this local gallery. Sam Lam provides a good example, a nd there are plenty more.

The Bau-Xi Gallery provides brief third-person objective statements that accompany the works of artists such as Lisa Burke, Jack Shadbolt, Bobbie Burgers, Karen Yurkovich, Margaretha Bootsma, Stuart Slind, Ken Wallace & Tom Burrows (to name only a few).

Artspeak, a local, artist run gallery, has a web site with good examples of press releases about individual artists (though please note that these press releases are not actually written by the artists themselves).

The Agnes Bugera Gallery in Edmonton provides examples of artist's statements, bios, cv's and images. Some of the links are better than others - but worth perusing.

TROUT: UVIC's 1996 Graduating Exhibition: This site provides over a dozen images accompanied by artists' statements. Some are written by the artists themselves, others are quotes from writers, theorists, and other visual artists.

Richmond Art Gallery provides artists' statements that are often accompanied by images of the work.

China: Fifty Years Inside the People's Republic: Click on this site and you will get more than 125 photographs, over twenty artists' statements, an essay, and a chronology of Chinese history. The artists' statements vary in length from three lines to two pages. Some are very academic in nature; some are written in the form of a didactic panel; others are poetry.
In order to access the artists' statements, you must click on the photo on the main page and then click on the artists' individual names. These include: Antonin Kratochvil ( rather formal and didactic), Eve Arnold (a good example of a longer, more personal artist statement and a poem), Lois Conner (longer, more personal) Hiroji Kubota, Xiao-Ming Li, Zhang Hai-er, and Wang Jinsong, Xu Jinyan, Reagan Louie, Mark Leong, Richard Yee, Wu Jialin, Sebastião Salgado, Eve Arnold, David Butow, Macduff Everton, Stuart Franklin, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Liu Heung Shing, Brian Palmer, Wu Jialin, Xu Jinyan. If nothing else, the images are amazing and they are ever changing!

Artes Magnus Gallery Is a good place to look if you would like to see examples of short descriptive statements.

TAETZSCH and Thomas Paquette provide examples of longer, more personal statements.

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The Diane Farris Gallery provides numerous examples of descriptive, didactic and personal statements written by and about the artists who are exhibiting (or have exhibited) their work at this local gallery. Sam Lam provides a good example, a nd there are plenty more.

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Check out any article in the magazine and read it like a writer. What do you notice in terms of its organization, voice, word choice, use of visuals? Anything else?

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The leading source of art coverage since 1902.

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If you scroll down, you'll see a variety of ways to write about art.

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Blogs about writing about art: Painters Table (Mentor text)

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Blogs about writing about art: Painters Table (Mentor text)

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Read a few of the blogs and see what you notice. Be sure to read like a writer. What do the bloggers do? How do they organize their blogs? What about word choice? Visuals?

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Contemporary Art Magazine: Daily Painting Links on Artist Blogs, Painting Blogs and Art Websites

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How to write a critical analysis of a painting

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How to write a critical analysis of a painting

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How to teach students to write like an artist

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How to teach students to write like an artist

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Writing continues to be a hot topic in my world these days! Incorporating short (and long) writing prompts as part of an arts integrated (AI) lesson/unit is my new look-for. I am looking and listening everywhere for ideas to pass on to teachers about how to infuse Common Core (CC) writing standards into their lessons.

This week I attended the Maryland Administrative Briefing for Coordinators of Fine Arts. Of course, the hot topic at the meeting, and in several breakout sessions, was the development of Fine Arts Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). Many of the counties showed SLOs that focus on CC writing. This caught my attention! I immediately zeroed in on the types of prompts that were included in the assessments.

In the case of visual arts, having students write an artist's statement about their work was included in lots of the assessments. In the case of music and dance, the assessments included writing to a prompt that asked students to reflect on their own performance and their success in meeting the unit's performance objectives.

Artful Writing Prompts for Assessment

The AI connection light bulb lit up! Let's include more opportunities for students to take on the role of the artist (themselves or others) and write from that role. The reflective/informative aspect of these artist perspective type of writing prompts provides a great addition to the range of writing opportunities we can provide in the arts integrated classroom.

An artist statement writing prompt can be approached either as informative or opinion writing, or a combination of the two. According to author, Daniel Grant,

"An artist statement presumably offers some information about the art one sees - such as, who the artist is, how the work was made, but also may include the artist's philosophy and belief system as well as how the art fits either within the artist's overall body of work or into the political and cultural times - and would enable a viewer to grasp something essential about it."

An example of a lesson that provides instruction on how to write an artist's statement about one's own work can be found on the Incredible @rt Department website: Writing an Artist Statement. I am of the opinion that we want students in and AI class to see themselves as artists.

Writing about the art they produce in a content classroom can be just as rich an experience as what the art studio student writes. However, we can also ask students to step into the role of the artist they are studying.

An excellent example of a lesson on writing an artist statement with the student writing from the point of view of the artist (after activities to help them analyze the art they are observing) can be found at The Getty (museum) website. They provide a series of three lessons about exploring photographs, check out Lesson 3: Writing the Artist's Statement.

Writing in Role

Doesn't a "role" remind you of another art form? In an integrated classroom we might consider using drama as a pre-writing strategy.

Drama strategies that ask students to take on the role of the artist, musician, dancer etc., such as tableau, thought tracking, interviews or hot seating would prepare students for writing either about others' artwork as well as their own.

Once students have put themselves physically and mentally in the shoes of a performer or an artist, they will have less trouble with writing in that role. An added benefit: it could provide insight into aspects of a career in the arts: all artists reflect on their work.

Supporting Writing Activities

There are lots of writing activities that ask students to imagine themselves in the role of an artist, musician, actor or dancer. They might be asked to write a museum label, a CD label, or even create a QR code to accompany an artwork or a performance.

Students can write exhibition titles, artist's biographical statements, captions, program notes, or website entries. Asking students to assess the quality of a performance, media presentation, exhibition or specific musical composition, dance, play, film, or visual artwork will give practice in opinion/argument writing.

Whatever activity you choose, it doesn't have to be long to be good practice in writing.

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Writing continues to be a hot topic in my world these days! Incorporating short (and long) writing prompts as part of an arts integrated (AI) lesson/unit is my new look-for. I am looking and listening everywhere for ideas to pass on to teachers about how to infuse

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How to Write an Artist Statement - Explaining Your Art

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Like an introduction to a good book, your statement presents and conveys the fundamental underpinnings of your art, aspects that people should be aware of. Write it for people who like what they see and want to know more, not those who already know you and everything your art is about.