Open Educational Resources (OER) by Subject

Prehistory through the Middle Ages

• Introduction to Art History I: An OER Textbook for Survey of Western Art from Prehistory through the Middle Ages (Myers, Caldwell, Taylor, ASCCC OERI, 2022, CC BY-NC-SA)

  This textbook, designed specifically for C-ID ARTH 110 and produced by a team of art historians working within the CCC system, curates Smarthistory and other scholarly resources into a coherent textbook by providing chapter introductions, a comprehensive glossary, and explanatory editors’ notes. Throughout, it acknowledges and explores the historiography of art history and brings in global connections to provide a broader, more diverse, and more inclusive survey of art history from the Paleolithic through Gothic periods.

• Reframing Art History (Smarthistory, CC-BY-NC-SA)

  “Reframing Art History, an open-access multimedia art history ‘textbook,’ gives you a guided journey through the living, breathing, meaningful side of art history. We’re less concerned with names and dates than with meaning and movement. With chapters developed by a group of more than 40 experts, it showcases art and history from the bottom up.”
  Note: this project is still in progress, with many of the individual chapters marked “coming soon” and scheduled for publication in upcoming phases of the project. Even still, it is a highly usable textbook alternative that provides new Smarthistory content to help introduce and structure existing resources.

• Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 1 (Global Prehistory, Ancient Mediterranean) and Volumes 2 (Early Europe, Colonial Americas) (Smarthistory, CC BY-NC-SA)
  • An alternative is the Smarthistory Guides by Subject:
    • Ancient Near Eastern Art
    • Ancient Egyptian Art
    • Ancient Aegean Art
    • Ancient Greek Art
    • Ancient Etruscan Art
    • Ancient Roman Art
    • Guide to Byzantine Art
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1300s
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1400s
• Art History (Boundless, License Varies)

  Note: a very basic, somewhat outdated, text, based largely on Wikipedia and with some formatting and/or accessibility issues. May be helpful for filling small gaps in other resources.

• SUNY’s Art History and Appreciation I (Lumen Learning, License Varies)

  “This courseware includes resources copyrighted and openly licensed by multiple individuals and organizations. Click the words ‘Licenses and Attributions’ at the bottom of each page for copyright and licensing information specific to the material on that page.”
  Reviewer’s note: arguably the weakest of the full-text resources presented here, but may give a starting point for some resources

• ASCCC OERI ARTH 110—Glossary Project on Canvas (Lynch) (CC BY-NC 4.0)

  “This glossary contains over 250 key terms and is illustrated with more than 100 images. A few of the key terms are repeated to give a different context to the term with each use. In such cases, a different illustration may be used, in keeping with the culture and time period under which the key term is listed. This resource can be used digitally, as a series of webpages (on Canvas, for example) or as a PDF of this entire glossary that is made available on certain platforms. As a series of webpages, the book is organized in modules. The PDF, when available, can also be printed into a hard copy of the entire glossary. The structure of this glossary follows art historical periods culturally. When viewing this glossary as a series of webpages, each of the topics listed under Table of Contents (see previous page) is contained on its own page. The length of each page varies a great deal due to the arbitrary “length” of a webpage. All image captions, as well as their attributions and licenses, are listed at the bottom of each page.”

Renaissance through Contemporary

• Reframing Art History  (Smarthistory, CC-BY-NC-SA)

  “Reframing Art History, an open-access multimedia art history ‘textbook,’ gives you a guided journey through the living, breathing, meaningful side of art history. We’re less concerned with names and dates than with meaning and movement. With chapters developed by a group of more than 40 experts, it showcases art and history from the bottom up.”
  Note: this project is still in progress, with many of the individual chapters marked “coming soon” and scheduled for publication in upcoming phases of the project. Even still, it is a highly usable textbook alternative that provides new Smarthistory content to help introduce and structure existing resources.

• A World Perspective of Art History: 1400 CE to the 21st Century (Gustlin and Gustlin, ASCCC-OERI, 2022)

  Art history uses multiple art disciplines to study culture and people’s development through time. Visual arts are one of the oldest forms of communication between humans and the fundamental beliefs of their culture. The background of art history has been written from the canon of wealthy individuals from Western countries, focusing on well-known art and artifacts in isolated environments. To become more culturally inclusive, the textbook is written to redefine art history by discussing art from every continent, civilization, and unknown artists and comparing different cultures that existed simultaneously.

• Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 2 (Early Europe, Colonial Americas), and Volume 3 (Later Europe, the Americas) (Smarthistory, CC BY-NC-SA)

  Note: Volume 2 covers material from Late Antiquity through Hogarth’s Marriage a la Mode. Volume 3 begins with Cabrera’s, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and ends with Venturi, Rausch and Scott Brown’s House in New Castle County.

  • An alternative is the Smarthistory Guides by Subject:
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1300s
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1400s
• Art History (Boundless, License Varies)

  Note: a very basic, somewhat outdated, text, based largely on Wikipedia and with some formatting and/or accessibility issues. May be helpful for filling small gaps in other resources.

• Asian Art History (Lumen Learning, Licenses vary)

  Mostly resources compiled from Smarthistory

• South and East Asian Philosophy Reader: an Open Educational Resource (Levin, CC BY-NC-SA)

  Includes religious texts and background biographies of key religious figures

• Guide to AP® Art History, Volumes 4 (Indigenous Americas, Africa, West & Central Asia) and 5 (South, East, and Southeast Asia, The Pacific, Global Contemporary) (Smarthistory, CC BY-NC-SA)

• Resources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (licenses vary)
  • Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums (catalog for the 1982 exhibition)
  • The Art of South and Southeast Asia: A Resources for Educators © 2001
  • The Art of Korea: A Resource for Educators © 2001
  • Art of the Islamic World

• The Bright Continent: African Art History (Kathy Curnow, CC BY-NC-SA)
• Guide to AP® Art History, Volumes 4 (Indigenous Americas, Africa, West & Central Asia) (Smarthistory, CC BY-NC-SA)

• American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (Miller, Berlo, Wolf, and Roberts, CC BY-NC-SA)

  Please note: The PDF version of this text appears to have been scanned from the print version and thus isn’t accessible.

• Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 4 (Indigenous Americas, Africa, West & Central Asia) and Volume 2 (Later Europe, Colonial Americas (Smarthistory, CC BY-NC-SA)