Various San Jose Museum of Art, Teacher Resource Books are available for FREE, through the book title or download links below.
To purchase any of the teacher resource books listed below that are not available for download on this page, please call 408.291.5393 or email: education@sjmusart.org. The resource books that must be ordered through SJMA are $20 each ($15 each for five or more).
Take a Look Around! Architecture and the Built Environment
suggested grade(s): K–12
Discover the architecture of the San Jose Museum of Art and find information to further your knowledge about architecture and the built environment. This resource book will focus on ideas and information to help teachers in introducing architecture as a complement to traditional curriculum areas such as math, science, and social studies.
Dale Chihuly—The George R. Stroemple Collection
suggested grade(s): K–12
Prints of Andy Warhol
suggested grade(s): K–12
Prepare your students for their visit to the exhibition The Prints of Andy Warhol, through the exploration of artworks and overarching concepts that are explored in throughout the galleries.
Carmen Lomas Garza
suggested grade(s): K–12
Sensitive Symbols of Nature
suggested grade(s): K–12
This resource book was developed in conjunction with the exhibition Flying Colors: Celebrating the Art of Alexander Calder. The work of Alexander Calder, one of the first internationally recognized, and one of the most highly regarded, American artists of the 20th century, is showcased in this resource book, with slides that cover a variety of media.
Selections from the Gund Collection of Western Art
suggested grade(s): K–12
There is probably no way of estimating how many miles were traveled by some artists in the late nineteenth century in their efforts to record the American Frontier, its people, and its way of life. The result of their wanderings—their paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptural works—provide us with a captivating view of that unique time in America’s history. This resource book includes slides of artworks by Albert Bierstadt, Frank Tenney Johnson, Alfred Jacob Miller, Charles Russell, and Frederic Remington.
Poetry and Prophecy
suggested grade(s): K–12
This resource book was developed in conjunction with the exhibition Alternating Currents: American Art in the Age of Technology Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It concentrates on artworks from the last 30 years that alternately embrace, incorporate, critique, and sometimes satirize the mechanics and technologies of the post-industrial world. It includes slides of artworks by Jenny Holzer, Pepon Osorio, and George Segal.
Picturing Freedom
suggested grade(s): K–12
Every three years the Fleishhacker Foundation of San Francisco awards individual grants of $15,000 to visual artists living and working in the Bay Area. Bay Area museum directors, curators, and visual arts administrators nominate artists. This resource book focuses on the works of some of the winners of the 1996–1998 awards: the slides included are of artworks by Enrique Chagoya, Mildred Howard, Yolanda Lopez, Margaret Kilgallen, Kathryn Spence, and Wang Po Shu.
Diamonds and Blue Suede Shoes: Elvis + Marilyn: 2 X Immortal
suggested grade(s): K–12
This resource book examines the influence of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe on the visual arts and popular culture. To bring the discussion about these two quintessential American icons into the school, the slides included are of artworks by Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol.
Big Sky Spirit: Two in Montana: Butterfield and Buck
suggested grade(s): K–12
Deborah Butterfield and John Buck are two artists with strong ties to the Bay Area who now reside in Montana, the state called Big Sky country for its enormous sky that protects and encloses the vast plains. Horses are central to Butterfield’s life and art, while John Buck is deeply concerned with social, environmental, and political issues. This resource book focuses on the importance of humans and nature maintaining a balanced coexistence, with slides of the artists’ works, and of horses as subject matter in art.
Surroundings: Responses to the American Landscape
suggested grade(s): K–12
This resource book was developed in conjunction with the exhibition Surroundings: Responses to the American Landscape Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition begins with early-century realist paintings and continues through mid-century abstracted landscapes and more recent works that reference landscape in the form of documented Earth art. This slide program provides an introduction to 20th-century American art that includes work by Georgia O’Keeffe and Andrew Wyeth, among others.
Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art?
suggested grade(s): K–12
Contemporary art is an outcome and reflection of the culture and society in which people are immersed. This teacher resource book will focus on introducing teachers to the form, content, and concepts of contemporary art via highlighted artworks in SJMA’s Permanent Collection.