Springtime in the art room typically means one thing; art show season is upon us. 

Like many things in the last few years, your art show this year might look a little different than normal. But here’s the good news; a digital art show is still a great way to showcase the hard work that your students have done this year, which is really what is most important. Plus, it can be easier to reach a wider audience than a one-night event. 

Though digital art shows don’t require as much heavy lifting as a traditional art show, they do require some preparation to be successful. 

Here are our top three tips for a successful digital art show. 

1. Choose the platform that works best for you 

Unless you’re creating a slideshow of student work to share in person, it’s likely that you’ll need to enlist the help of a platform or app that allows you to share your art show with parents and families in a secure way. 

Here are a couple of our favorites: 

Google Slides: using Google slides offers easy sharing options, especially if you use Google Classroom with your students already. Simply drop images onto the slides, add a text box with students’ names and share the link to parents and families. 

Flipgrid: this kid-friendly classroom app gives students the ability to record their own video displaying their artwork and you can even assign them a question to answer to serve as an artist’s statement. This app is easy enough for even your youngest students to navigate and what parent wouldn’t love to see their student both display and talk about their art?

1. Take quality photographs

Good photographs can make or break a digital art show. Crooked, badly lit photos can detract from the beauty of your students’ art. Be sure to take photos from directly above, using natural lighting from a window, without bright spots or shadows. 

You can also set up a photo station and train students to take their own photos with a classroom iPad or camera. Place a pad of Post-Its or small pieces of scrap paper near the station that students can use to write their names on. Teach them to take one photo with their name card on their artwork, then one nice photo of their artwork. This way you aren’t tracking down names when it comes time for your art show. 

We’ve created a guide for taking photos of students’ artwork to help. 

Download it HERE. (We recommend using Chrome or Safari for this download!)

1. Decide on the organization system that works best for you 

Sequencing a digital art show can be a bit different than putting pieces of artwork together in a display. One thing to consider if you teach in a large school is how to make it easy for parents and families to know their childrens’ work is coming. Consider dividing a slide presentation by grade and class by inserting a slide with the teacher’s name and grade level before each class’ artwork. 

Another option is to sequence by lesson, so all of the same lessons are grouped together. This can help to create a visually appealing, cohesive art show. 

Join us in the Sparklers’ Club to get access to our newest bonus bundle, the Art Show Bundle. It has everything you need to plan a successful art show, whether in-person or digital. 

Looking to learn how to figure out what lesson to teach next? 

I’ll show you how to drastically reduce the amount of time you spend on planning your lessons in this completely free webinar. Mark your calendars for April 5th at 4pm PST) for a brand new art teacher training! Sign-ups and more details coming!

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