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| “As we learn from Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank on the Smarthistory website, it drew on the Byzantine, Venetian, and Spanish worlds he knew to offer contemporary viewers a cogent moral exemplum.” |
“Beth and Steven have not just democratized art history education in profound ways, they’ve helped democratize art itself,” says Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. “Their conversational tone and humor backed by their depth of knowledge has allowed millions — including myself — feel like they, too, can be part of the conversation in the art world.” | |
| “In pleasingly reverent whispers, Dr Steven Zucker and Dr Beth Harris take you inside the Sainte-Chapelle on a scholarly but accessible YouTube tour. Models, maps, manuscript illuminations and filmed footage of the stained-glass windows recreate the interior of this royal chapel commissioned by King Louis IX and completed in 1248 as a glorious reliquary to house the Crown of Thorns. You can almost smell the incense….I couldn’t get enough of these videos.” |
“If you want to learn a little — or a lot … Smarthistory [has] terrific short videos about major artworks and bigger topics within art history….You could lose yourself in these for months, if not years. It’s all easily available online and free.” | |
“In modeling this process of meaning making on so many levels—in YouTube conversations, between a work of art and a viewer, or between instructor and peers—SmartHistory.org has radically shifted the boundaries and possibilities of art history research and scholarship.” | |
“Realizing both the value of openly licensed textbooks—not just cost-savings to students, but also content collaboration—and the reach of MOOCs, is Smarthistory, a leading resource for the study of art and cultural heritage.” | |
The Smarthistory videos, which are paired with articles and contributions from more than 200 experts in the field, have elbowed aside traditional textbooks and have become so popular that their content is the first result to appear in Google, after Wikipedia, when one searches “art history.” | |
It’s impossible for anyone to see what ancient Rome looked like in all of its splendor, since we’ve failed to invent a time machine. But [this] video, which shows a 3D rendering of Rome in 320 AD, is about as close as we can get. | |
“The interactive elements could suit flipped classroom techniques, online courses, or independent scholarship as well. Museum curators, educators, and librarians may appreciate how entries contextualize works of art in their museum settings. It’s popularity indicates that art history, open access, and digital learning are indeed compatible concepts.” | |
“Harris and Zucker are the innovators behind Smarthistory, which bills itself as a “multimedia web-book about art.” They believe that Smarthistory can involve and inform students with video “conversations” that allow the passionate, subjective side of art history to shine though in a way that traditional textbooks, with their authoritative and singular viewpoints, do not allow.” | |
“Smarthistory focuses on art history, from cave paintings to Warhol. And while the site calls itself a textbook, it’s not the text—or even the illustrations—that make it special. It’s the growing library of videos that feature spirited, unscripted conversations among historians about notable works.” | |
“Two Brooklyn-based art historians are looking to blow the dust off a stuffy subject with their chatty Web videos on museum masterpieces.” | |
“Smarthistory is perhaps the most centralized effort to make art history an accessible field.” | |
“Given the efficiency of the site’s schematic and the wellspring of accurate and interesting information it provides, it’s easy to understand why smarthistory.org is rapidly becoming a favorite of would-be art historians on college campuses everywhere.” | |
“…[W]hy not use the personal voice they use when they teach online and couple it with multimedia they’d already created for their course to create a “web-book” like no one has ever seen before?” | |
“It’s a series of unpredictable discussions, rather than monologues, that compel people to learn the subject in meaningful and personal ways and presents topics and ideas that hopefully will transform the way people think about and understand art history.” | |
“Smarthistory, an open educational resource dedicated to the study of art history, seeks to replace traditional art history textbooks with an interactive, well-organized website.” | |
“Since winning a Webby this year, the site has only gotten better, as new contributors have fleshed out more than 3,000 years of art history.” | |
“Introductory art history and art appreciation courses, long a staple of liberal-arts education, are getting a new look.” |