Christian Heritage Art Program

Yesterday at Co-op we worked on one of the art lessons from a new art program available to homeschoolers from Catholic Heritage Curricula. It is entitled Christian Heritage Art Program and the author is a Nashvile Dominican, Sr. Marie Vianney Hamilton, O.P. There are eight levels, each with six lessons that all correspond to chronological historical artistic movements: Pre-History, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries, and modern. My students watched the DVD for lesson Number Three, Medieval Art, from Level Eight. They watched the DVD that showed many interesting examples of Viking artistic rendition of animal ornaments, and the narrators went on explaining how the Vikings eventually embraced Christianity in the very lands they conquered, Examples of intricate designs from the Book of Kells was fascinating to the students. The final part of the DVD explained the project the students were to work on. I had already supplied each with the necessary materials—paper, scissors, glue, markers-- and they got right to work.

From the website:

Christian Heritage Art Program is the first and only fully interactive program that teaches art from a Catholic perspective. Its spiraling, chronological approach to the teaching of art combines art history, art appreciation and art production in a single, easy to use format. The Christian Heritage Art Program permits students from age 5 through 15 to visually experience the artistic heritage which inspires their faith. Each of the 48 lessons involves them in viewing famous works of art, interpreting their message, and creating their own masterpieces.

I am excited about using this program again at co-op, exploring other levels and other artistic periods. The Catholic/Christian aspect of this series is what is most appealing to me: indeed, I believe teaching art from a secular perspective to be an impossible task. So much of the world's finest Western Art has been done for God and His glory! This aspect makes this program unique, and it compensates for its most apparent weakness: the presentation on screen is made entirely of still shots, and most of them look quite dated.

I will post a few more of our results at co-op as we work through the program this year. In any event, I am thankful it is available to Catholic homeschoolers!