With museums closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, art museums throughout the world are providing opportunities for patrons to browse their collections online. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles went one step further by asking viewers to choose a masterpiece and to re-enact the work at home in an activity called the Getty Challenge. 

Wantagh Elementary School art teacher Laura Pashayan could not resist the opportunity to have her students participate in the challenge. She instructed her students to peruse the museum website for their favorite piece of artwork and to re-enact the scene using materials at home. Some of the artwork chosen by the students included Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” Norman Rockwell’s “Girl at the Mirror,” René Magritte’s “The Son of a Man,” and Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.”

In an Instagram posting by the museum, students participating in the challenge were better able to identify and understand famous works of art, and through their emulation of an art piece, learned how to pay attention to facial detail, to orient their compositions by casting similar lighting, think abstractly by focusing on shapes and colors and to express creativity by the household objects chosen. 

Ms. Pashayan said she received a lot of great feedback from parents and students. “The students have blown me away with their submissions during this quarantine,” she said. “They will bring a smile to your face as they did mine.”