The Art Assignment

Culture Series / 6 Seasons

The Art Assignment is a weekly PBS Digital Studios production hosted by curator Sarah Green. We take you around the U.S. to meet working artists and solicit assignments from them that we can all complete.

Watch Latest: S6 E32

5m 25s

We Love PBS | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

S3 E103 / 3m 7s

Here's how you can get involved: 1. Tell us what you love about public media using #IlovePBS 2. Learn more about public media at http://pbs.org/value. 3. Find your representative at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members

Look What We've Done

S3 E99 / 3m 21s

Over the past 3 years, 60 artists have offered art assignments, and thousands of artworks have been made in response. Here's a brief glimpse of what we've all made together over the course of this series so far. So KEEP ASSIGNMENTING!

Whitescapes - Odili Donald Odita | The Art Assignment | PBS

S3 E98 / 10m 56s

What is white? What is any color? Philadelphia-based abstract painter Odili Donald Odita talks with us about his work and offers us an assignment about color.

Art Trip: Houston

S3 E95 / 14m 4s

We take an art pilgrimage to Houston, Texas, and visit the likes of the Rothko Chapel, James Turrell's Twilight Epiphany, the Menil Collection, and Project Row Houses, among others. Come with us we feast upon Houston's many cultural riches, and some good food, too!

The End of Art Assignments

S3 E92 / 4m 26s

With 2017 comes great change. Assignments are ending, but the channel is not! Starting in March we’ll be focusing on "The Case for" videos, Art Trips, and other art and art history related topics. We're also starting an Art Assignment Work Group to keep the assignment flame alive.

Cases for Political Art

S3 E90 / 12m 7s

This week we explore some of the most powerful artworks ever made, making the case for political art one work at a time. Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Kathe Kollwitz's prints, Kazimir Malevich's Black Square, Iri and Toshi Maruki's Hiroshima Panels, and Martha Rosler's House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home photomontages. What do you think of as political art?

The Art of Complaining - The Guerrilla Girls

S3 E86 / 8m 55s

The Guerrilla Girls are asking, nay demanding, that we complain! But we must do so in ways unique and memorable. We met up with them in London at Tate Modern's new Tate Exchange space, where the Guerrilla Girls were in residence and operating a Complaints Department. Your instructions:

Public Art Trip: New York City

S3 E85 / 7m 39s

New York City offers way too many art-viewing opportunities for us to cover in a single art trip video, so this time we decided to focus on the abundant public art around the city.

Self Shape - Tschabalala Self

S3 E83 / 7m 20s

If you were a shape, what shape would you be? This week we meet with Tschabalala Self, whose work explores ideas surrounding the black female body, and her assignment asks you to consider your own body as a symbol too. Here are your instructions:

The Case for Ai Weiwei

S3 E82 / 5m 53s

Ai Weiwei has been called an iconoclast, a radical, a voice for the voiceless, and was once named the most powerful artist in the world. Who is Ai Weiwei? And why is he considered one of the most renowned artists of our time?

Combinatory Play - Pablo Helguera

S3 E80 / 10m 6s

This week we meet Pablo Helguera, an artist, museum educator, and writer, at the Indianapolis stop of his Spanish language bookstore Librería Donceles. His assignment challenges you to give old books new lives through combinatory play. Here's what he means:

The Case for Performance Art

S3 E79 / 9m 9s

Dubious of performance art? Break into a cold sweat when you realize it’s about to begin? There’s a reason. Here we present you with a brief history of performance art and attempt to sway you to its potential charms. Let us know if you buy it.

Vanessa Hill of BrainCraft

S3 E77 / 5m 39s

We interview the remarkable Vanessa Hill, creator of BrainCraft, a production of PBS Digital Studios, which explores psychology, neuroscience & why we act the way we do. And we challenge Vanessa to respond to our recent art assignment Conjure a Studio offered by Hope Ginsburg:

Exquisite Corpse - Hugo Crosthwaite

S3 E75 / 9m 34s

This week we come to you from Rosarito, Mexico AND Chicago, IL to bring you an assignment from Hugo Crosthwaite. Hugo asks you to create a collaborative drawing by playing the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse.

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