by James H. Pence

As parents, we all enjoy displaying our children's artwork around the house. Often, the gallery of choice is the refrigerator. And, as galleries go, that's a pretty good location. It's certainly a place that's visited many times during the day by all the members of the family. What could be better?

While it's true that the kitchen refrigerator is a great gallery for young artists, why stop there?

This week I set out to find some online galleries where children could upload and display their work, and it was a much bigger challenge than I'd expected. There are a lot of online galleries, but many of them are no longer being updated. As far as I can tell, all the sites I've listed in today's post are currently accepting submissions of artwork from children.  

How exciting will it be for your children when they see their work displayed online alongside of other young artists? Check out these sites:
 

ARTSONIA KIDS ART MUSEUM - http://www.artsonia.com/museum/

This is a very extensive site with lots of different galleries, sorted by age, media, school (Yes, they have a homeschool category!). They also feature an "artist of the week" contest (along with several other art contests).


THE KIDART PROJECT - http://www.kidlink.org/KIDART

This site isn't nearly as extensive as Artsonia, but it does have some nice artwork. One challenge: the site is in Italian (although the home page was in English). However, it wasn't any problem with the Google Chrome browser. It asked if I wanted to translate it and with one click, the site was in English.


KID CARTOONISTS - http://ohbrothercomics.com/art-gallery/art-by-you

If you have a budding cartoonist in the family, you might check out this page done by the producers of the "Oh Brother" comic strip. In addition to a lot of fun activities, the site features a gallery where young artists can upload their work.


LITTLE SKETCHERS - http://littlesketchers.com/

This is a beautifully-done site; however, was slow to load (and I've got a pretty good broadband connection!). The site is meant to encourage parents to understand the importance of art in their child's creative and emotional development. This is a great site if you have a prolific young artist. Thechild who uploads the most sketches between the 1st and 9th of each month is featured as the "Super Little Sketcher of the Month."


KIDSART - http://www.kidsart.com/Gallery/

This is a commercial site, and although they accept submissions of artwork, they do not accept everything that is sent to them. Their gallery page says "Send us an example of art you have created and maybe your art will end up in our Gallery." Even if your child's art isn't accepted, this is a great resource site. In addition to the gallery, they offer art supplies, lesson plans, activities and more.

I hope you get a chance to explore some of these sites. And if your child's work ends up in one of these galleries, be sure and send me an email (jim.pence@seethelightshine.com) and I'll post a link to it in a future blog!

Keep drawing, and have fun!