Lesson 1

1. view and discuss postcards from the Guggenheim Museum as an orientation to the museum site.

2. appreciate a virtual sensory experience through touring the Guggenheim Museum’s unique location across the street from Central Park in New York City.

3. analyze and interpret how this setting influenced the work of the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Advanced Preparation: Teacher previews postcards and books from the collection of the Guggenheim Museum purchased at the museum bookstore. (See Resource List)

Materials: An assortment of picture postcards illustrating the following: Frank Lloyd Wright, The Guggenheim Museum, Aerial view of the Guggenheim including Central Park, Spiral Ramp

Procedure: Students will view and discuss postcards from the Guggenheim Museum as an orientation to the museum site. Utilizing postcard photos, aerial view of museum and park sites, and interior and exterior views, students will spiral through this unique design.

After viewing postcard photos, students will respond in their notebooks to the following:

What sounds do you hear? (a blend of urban street sounds & nature sounds of Central Park)

What odors do you think you would experience? (horse manure, bus fumes, car exhaust fumes, and hot dog vendor foods)

What sights do you see and how do they change with the different seasons? (tree leaves, flowers, wildlife, tall buildings, smoldering heat of steamy summers to frosty snow and ice of winter)

What sensations of touch would you feel? (seasonal fashions, bear midriff to bulky layers of coats, hats and scarves, cold cutting winds off the park to the sweaty palms of a handshake)

Class discussion will follow as to the sharp contrast of the built environment to the natural environment.

Homework/Evaluation: Create an original artistic interpretation, music, dance poetry, or illustration to reflect today’s experience of spiraling through, finding location and spiraling through a unique design. (ex. spiraling dance, flute notes, landscape painting).

Follow up: Find and use web maps quests of NYC with the Guggenheim Museum location, and experience a virtual tour of the Guggenheim neighborhood.

Teacher Notes: In 1973, Solomon R. Guggenheim established a foundation to operate a museum that would publicly exhibit his non-objective art. Today the museum’s collection consists of Non-Objective paintings, Surrealist and Abstract paintings, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and early Modern Art. Added to this collection have been German Expressionism, Avant-Garde, Minimalist, Post-Minimalist, Environmental, and Conceptual Art.