Greetings from our home (literally) office in New York! We know many of you across the country and the world are also staying in these days. In addition to staying safe and healthy, we hope you’re taking this time to continue exploring your creativity!

There is a whole world of art and writing available to you right from the comfort of your own home. To help you get started, we put together a short list of just a few of the many resources out there so you can continue learning and creating, even while staying in!

1. Visit the online collection of your favorite local (or far away) museum!

Many museums have made their entire collection available to visitors online and for free! We’ve put together a list of some top museums in RAL areas that feature an online collection.

• The Heckscher Museum of Art (Huntington, NY)
• The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, UT)
• Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX)
• The Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, SC)
• San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, CA)
• Arkansas Arts Center (Little Rock, AR)
• Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL)
• Museo de Arte de Puetro Rico (Santurce, Puerto Rico)
• … and so many more! Try searching for an “online collection” in your area to see if your favorite local museum or the museum you’ve always dreamed of visiting has their collection online too!

2. Get creative with some prompts

Revisit our 2019 Start.Write.Now summer series for some inspiration from Awards alum and prompts to get started on your next great piece. Start.Write.Now will be back this summer with new prompts starting in June 2020, but why wait? Get your creative juices flowing now!

3. Explore virtual exhibitions with Google’s Arts & Culture!

Google’s Arts & Culture platform has done the amazing work of partnering with cultural institutions around the world to bring us, the people of the internet, free high quality documentation of collections and virtual exhibitions. A few of our favorite tours so far (we haven’t even made it through them all yet…) are:

• Pueblo Grande Museum (Phoenix, AZ)
• Maryhill Museum of Art (Goldendale, WA)
• Wyoming State Museum (Cheyenne, WY)
• National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago, IL)
• Huntington Museum of Art (Huntington, WV)
• National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (Gwacheon-si, Seoul, South Korea)
• Alberta Foundation for the Arts (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

You can find the full list of available resources on Google’s Arts & Culture collection here and keep exploring on your own.

4. Check out our National Medalists’ works for inspiration!

Monday, March 16 was National Notification Day! Now you can check out the full list of 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Medalists here (if you won a medal, don’t forget to log in to your account to see your next steps!). While you’re thinking about your next great creation, take a look at our Online Gallery to see National Medalist works through the ages for some fresh inspiration. Keep an eye on the gallery for the 2020 National Medalist works, coming soon!

Have other ideas of how to stay creative?

Comment below or email us at ral@artandwriting.org to share your pro-tips on how you’re continuing to learn and grow while staying healthy, safe, and indoors. We could all use a little inspiration right now, and we bet you have brilliant ideas and resources to share!

Are you or a young person you know struggling with grief in light of the global pandemic?

The National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC) is offering free educational webinars to professionals supporting youth who may be facing challenges due to social distancing and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Check out the full calendar of upcoming webinars here. You can download and share a free copy of the “Responding to Change and Loss,” a booklet from the NAGC, here.