Courses

Creating art is uniquely human. From Stone Age cave paintings to contemporary street art, creative expression is bound to the very essence of our humanity. In this three-session seminar, led by Denver Art Museum teaching specialist and art historian Molly Medakovich, explore the powerful roles and benefits of art in our lives. Through interactive lectures, group discussions, and dedicated time in the galleries, we’ll consider art as a vehicle for personal well-being and mindfulness, community healing and connection, and societal statements and provocation. Walk away with new perspectives on the museum’s global collections and your own relationship to art.

Research shows that humans are hard-wired to create and to look at art. Both activities stimulate our brains, provoke our emotions, and help us to connect with the world around us. In this learn about the impact of artmaking and art-viewing on the brain, explore artworks that were created for the act of beholding, healing, and growth, and spend time in the galleries with a slow art experience.

Across cultures and time, art has played a deep role in human connection. Indigenous elders have passed down creative traditions from one generation to the next, some artworks were created to support spiritual connection (with higher powers or ancestors), and other objects came to be through human collaboration. In this session, we’ll consider artists and their work as ties that bind us together in the past, present, and future.

As a form of communication, art has the power to provoke, ask important questions, and call for change. In this we’ll look at artists as observers of and participants in contemporary life. Explore their visual interrogation of politics, identity, and history and celebrate their diverse creative voices. We’ll also ask what happens to the human creative voice and agency with the rise of AI.