The Arts
Ngā Toi

Children exploring art is a feature of early childhood education. In choosing sites for this page we have avoided collections of art activities and focused on sites which encourage a more open ended approach. This is a very small beginning - we welcome your suggestions.

Online resources

Artrage
Artrage is one of the free downloadable painting programmes available from Software for Learning. It is very simple to use and has some unique features in particular it's virtual imitation of real paint behaviour. The Software for Learning page includes examples and links to online tutorials.

Discover: Te Kohinga Taonga
Discover is an online database of resources developed by the National Library to provide access to their collections of New Zealand art and music. It includes audio clips of New Zealand birds and early waiata as well as images and other historic information.

NGA Kids: The Art Zone
This site from the National Gallery of Art (United States) has a collection of interesting tools for creating art online that reference a diverse range of artistic techniques used in historic art works.

Queensland Art Gallery Online Interactives
These interactives from the Queensland Art Gallery encourage children to explore aspects of modern art. The third link on the page Kusama'a World of Dots gives children an opportunity to explore Yayoi Kusama's fascination with dots. The Queensland Art Gallery is committed to developing innovative exhibitions and programs for children - well worth an explore of the whole site.

Tate Kids
This wonderful collection of online art activities from the Tate Gallery in the United Kingdom also has a whole section of suggestions for "offline" creative explorations.