The Study Guide invites young visitors to make personal connections with works of art featured on the web site. The first step in using the study guide is to choose a conversation leader to guide the conversation, using the suggested questions. As the adult, we suggest you lead the first few conversations. As soon as the members of the group become accustomed to talking with one another, you can select different individuals to take turns being conversation leaders. We suggest changing leaders each time you discuss a different work or begin a new activity. The following suggestions for the conversation leader will facilitate the discussion.

  • Before you start asking or answering the suggested questions, make sure everyone has had a chance to get a good look at the art. Allow at least thirty seconds to one minute for silent looking.
  • Try starting the conversation by asking, “What do you see?” or “What do you think is going on in this image?” Use the other suggested questions to keep the conversation flowing.
  • Ask only one question at a time and give the group a chance to respond. When appropriate, ask, “What do you see that makes you say that?” to encourage participants to back up their ideas with what they see in the image.
  • When asking a question, try pretending “not” to look at the artwork, or even literally turn your back to the image. Then ask the group to describe the work of art. Ask them to be as specific as possible and to use precise words.
  • Avoid providing any information about the image, for example the title of the work or the artist’s name, before you have had a chance to look at and talk about the image.
  • Ask participants to use phrases such as “in the upper left corner” or “on the lower right-hand side” when describing the image in order to orient the group.
  • Make sure to be polite and follow the norms of a good conversation. Only one person should speak at a time, and everyone should have a turn.
  • At the end of each conversation, try to summarize the main ideas that you talked about.
  • Have fun!

After conversing about the works of art in the Study Guide and trying some of the activities, we encourage you to explore as a group the rest of the Colección Cisneros web site to find out more about these artists and artworks.