We’re all curious beings at heart, and play is one of the best ways to learn!
So, why not learn about famous artwork and culturally significant people, places, and moments - in a totally fun engaging way?
Photo via Christian Science Monitor
Google Arts & Culture Lab offers amazing gaming experiments that can be easily worked into quality family time at home - whether you prefer a solo experience or enjoy doing them with others…
1. Restore pieces of art back into one piece
Puzzle Party is a collection of collaborative jigsaw puzzles, made for family and friends to solve together (you can even play solo, if that’s how you roll).
Dive into the rich detail of over 500 artworks, including Andy Warhol’s “Flowers,” Johannes Vermer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Amy Sherald’s “First Lady Michelle Obama” You can even choose between three different difficulty settings so everyone in the family can pitch in.
Here’s Johannes Verner’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” on easy mode.
With three different levels of difficulty to choose from - easy, medium or hard - you can also choose if you want to play Puzzle Party solo or with others.
2. Quick, lock in your answers for What Came First!
The Statue of Liberty or the game of volleyball? The faster you select, the correct answer the higher you score. If it isn’t enough to know just when something emerged into the world, you can dig a little deeper into its history by tapping on an item to reveal more information.
There’s hundreds of items from across different categories such as culture, inventions, celebrities, and more.
What Came First is all about comparing cultural moments in time and doing it in the fastest time, for the most points!
3. Get cultured through a word puzzle
Cultural Crosswords are a fun way to explore art, history or themes such as African textiles or yoga postures.
How to play? Just tap on the boxes in the grid to reveal the clue and fill in your solution. Once you’ve got the right answer, you can click through and discover more about it - in this game, words are gateways to arts and culture.
You can even choose your own themes from the menu of options - ‘Arts’, ‘Around the World’, ‘Science & Technology’. ‘Fashion’ and ‘Natural History’.
4. Discover more art through visual pairings
Regular crosswords are too easy for you, and want a little bit of a challenge? Visual Crosswords takes the concept a step further- instead of letters, you’ll be using images to solve the puzzles!
Figure out where each artwork fits in the grid: Is it Renaissance or Modern? Is it Van Gogh or Gaugin - or it could also be both? Drag each one to the correct box and progress through levels of difficulty.
5. Add colour to famous paintings in your own way!
Van Gogh’s sunflowers might be yellow, but yours doesn’t have to be!
Colouring has always been a favourite activity for children, but it’s becoming increasingly popular among adults looking for dome mindful downtime. Exercise your talents with the Art Colouring Book and get inspired as you colour famous artworks and even landmarks from Street View.
Here is Moon Masque by artist Lois Mailou Jones (1971).
You can always try to imitate the original artwork from the reference, or you could just go with what feels right to you.
No matter if you’re playing for fun or to learn something new, Play with Arts & Culture will help add some much-needed splashes of colour to your day.
Have fun!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
