That thought sent me on a search for other sites designed to teach lessons about art in fun and unusual ways. Art Detective - The name of this site, a play on Jim Carey s popular pet detective movies, offers automatic curiosity appeal. Young people may be drawn to enter the site just to see how the noir detective theme is going to play out. Once inside, they are invited to read the story of a woman who has found a painting in her grandfather s attic and brings it to A. Pintura to se if it is valuable. Site visitors then proceed through a series of exercises that examine various aspects of the painting and compare it to the work of a number of famous artists.
Visitors determine how the story flows based on their answers to questions posed about the painting.
Eventually they either make the correct guess about the artist or learn why their guess is incorrect. The story even includes an appropriately noir twist in plot after the mystery artist is revealed. Inside Art - Educational Web Adventure s companion site begins by having visitors imagine that they are looking at a painting in a museum. Once inside the painting, a brightly colored fish appears to take the visitor on a tour of the painting that incorporates issues such as subject, theme and technique. When visitors think they know enough about the painting to jump back out of it, they are invited to take a short quiz to see what they have learned.