Classroom Activity

Art Starters: Joseph Cornell

Part of Art Tales for Pre-K

Joseph Cornell liked to make art at his kitchen table. He never went to art school, and he didn’t draw or paint—instead, he made boxes. He filled these boxes with pictures and objects that he found on his walks around New York City.

Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Medici Prince), c. 1953, construction, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1982.54.1

Grade Level

Subject

Look

What colors do you see? What shapes?

Do you see any patterns that repeat in the artwork? Point them out.

Does this artwork remind you of anything? What do you see that makes you say that?

What would you ask the child in this work of art? What would you ask the artist who made it?

What title would you give this artwork?

Read

Not a Box (Spanish language version: No es una caja)
by Antoinette Portis

A bunny explores how a box is not always just a box.

Mr. Cornell’s Dream Boxes
by Jeanette Winter

The book tells the story of Cornell's life and asks you to imagine living as a child with Cornell as your neighbor.

Make: Build a story box

You Will Need

  • Shoe box or box lid
  • Found objects such as shells, buttons, or small toys
  • Assorted papers, magazines, and/or photographs
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Small pieces of cardboard
  • String or wire
  • Paint and paintbrush (optional)

To start, you might want to paint your box a solid color and let it dry. Then, think about the pictures and objects you want to put in your box. Which ones seem to go together?

To build your box, first create a background by gluing printed or patterned paper to the inside of the box. Then arrange your objects until you are happy with where they are. For example, you might hang things from the top of the box with string or wire or use small pieces of cardboard to raise them up. When you are finished, glue the objects in place. What will you name your box?

Vocab Bank

  • arrange
  • object
  • pattern

Download

Art Tales: Coloring and Cut-Outs booklet (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Art Tales for Pre-K (PDF, 7.2 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte (PDF, 7.5 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte: Colorear y Recortes (PDF, 3.7 MB)

Visit

Register for the Art Tales pre-K school tour

Submit Student Work

Send images of your students' projects that follow these activities - email [email protected]

You may also like

Educational Resource:  Art Starters: Joseph Cornell

A lesson for preschool to kindergarten students about artist Joseph Cornell’s artwork Untitled (Medici Prince). Students learn how to look at this artwork, what you can read to learn more, how to build your own story box, and a list of vocabulary terms related to this activity.

A pale-skinned young woman with copper-orange hair, wearing a turquoise-blue robe, stands in a pastel-infused landscape in this stylized, vertical painting. The woman fills most of the left half of the composition. She faces our right in profile with her head bowed as she looks down at the silver and brown box she holds in her right hand, closer to us. Her body angles away from us so we see her back. Her hair is held back under a gold-colored headand, and her blue robe falls over a white skirt. Beyond her, rocky mountains in ice blue and pale lilac purple span the horizon, which comes about three-quarters of the way up the painting, beneath a pale, rose-pink sky. An area of mottled parchment-white to our right of the person could be a field. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, rounded and organic shapes in scarlet red, turquoise, lapis blue, golden and lemon yellow, and pumpkin orange could be abstracted earth or flowers at the woman’s feet.

Educational Resource:  Pandora's Box

Educational Resource:  Uncovering America: Activism and Protest

Artists in the United States are protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedoms of speech and press. This module features works created by artists with a range of perspectives and motivations.