MoMA Launches Free Online Courses to Enrich Your Coronavirus Quarantine
The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) is currently offering free online courses on art, photography, and fashion. And as we remain in isolation for the foreseeable future due to the global coronavirus outbreak, there is no better time to level up your IQ.
As revealed by i-D, courses include What Is Contemporary Art?, Modern Art and Ideas, Fashion as Design, Seeing Through Photographs, and In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting. Each of these classes can be completed entirely online in anywhere from 12 hours to 38 hours, as they are all considered beginner level programs.
You can learn more about the MoMA's free online courses below, complete with descriptions directly from the institution.
What Is Contemporary Art?
In this course, you’ll consider this question through more than 70 works of art made between 1980 and the present, with a focus on art from the past decade. You’ll hear directly from artists, architects, and designers from around the globe about their creative processes, materials, and inspiration.
Modern Art & Ideas
This course is designed for anyone interested in learning more about modern and contemporary art. You will look at art through a variety of themes: Places & Spaces, Art & Identity, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art & Society. You will hear audio interviews with artists, designers, and curators and learn more about selected works in the additional readings and resources.
Fashion as Design
Fashion as Design focuses on a selection of more than 70 garments and accessories from around the world, ranging from kente cloth to jeans to 3D-printed dresses. You’ll hear directly from a range of designers, makers, historians, and others working with clothing every day—and, in some cases, reinventing it for the future.
Seeing Through Photographs
This course aims to address the gap between seeing and truly understanding photographs by introducing a diversity of ideas, approaches, and technologies that inform their making. In this course you will look closely at photographs from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art and hear a variety of perspectives on what a photograph is and the ways that photography has been used throughout its nearly 180 year history: as a means of artistic expression, as a tool for science and exploration; as an instrument of documentation; to tell stories and record histories; and as a mode of communication and critique in our ever increasingly visual culture.
In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting
This course offers an in-depth, hands-on look at the materials, techniques, and thinking of seven New York School artists, including Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. Through studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs, you’ll form a deeper understanding of what a studio practice means and how ideas develop from close looking, and you’ll gain a sensitivity to the physical qualities of paint.