I first blogged about the Google Art Project in February 2011.

Since then this project has grown in size and usefulness.

At the time of writing there are 155 art collections and 32470 artworks available to view: once there you can look at entire collections, look at the work of individual artists, or at individual artworks.

Either way it’s a great resource. My grade 11 students are embarking on an assignment that asks them to create their own ‘virtual’ exhibition – to select artworks or artefacts from different times and cultures, according to personal choice or around linked ideas or concepts, and present to the group their collection, along with an explanation of the choices made.

This may or may not lead to studio work, but in investigation terms it certainly gets them into the idea of curatorship and requires them to delve into artworks from different times and places.

As an assignment it also clearly has the potential to hit some on the Investigation assessment descriptors – for example,

analyses and compares perceptively art from different cultures and times, and considers it thoughtfully for its function and significance, and

demonstrates the development of an appropriate range of effective skills, and techniques and processes when making and analysing images and artefacts.