Resource Collections
Resources from across the Digital Resources Library, arranged by topic
Featured Collection
Hip Hop Culture
What does hip hop mean? Is it the music with a chest-thumping beat? The rapid-fire lyrics rapped into a handheld mic? Gravity-defying dance steps? Writers turning walls into canvases with larger-than-life letters and illustrations? The answer is, all of the above—and more!
Browse All Collections
Directory Listing
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Collection Africa
Explore a rich tapestry of music, dance, drumming, and theater performances and conversations ranging across a number of countries and regions in Africa.
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Collection America
Discover the multicultural heritage and history of the United States of America through explorations of immigrant life, the lives of legendary pioneers like Lewis and Clark, the modern political system, and significant works of American music, including our National Anthem.
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Collection American Presidents and Politics
Learn about America’s most famous leaders and their appreciations and influences over the arts; from Lincoln’s connection to music, to Kennedy’s advocacy for the arts, to the importance placed in having White House photographers capture the president’s everyday achievements.
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Collection Ancient Civilizations
From the music, theater, and mythology of Ancient Greece, to traditional music of Chinese and Arab cultures, to the lore of Arthurian England, discover past and present civilizations through their arts.
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Collection Animals & Nature
Is there poetry in the ocean? How can the wind inspire dance? How can the arts represent the change of seasons? Discover patterns and cycles in nature with these resources that address cell composition and reproduction, animal habitats, the metamorphasis of a caterpillar to a butterfly, and an artistic representation of our relationship with the planet.
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Collection Asia and Pacific Islands
Fish painting, lion dances, larger-than-life calligraphy, shadow puppets, a tornado of fire, and much more! Experience the vibrant diversity of the arts across Asia and the Pacific Islands.
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Collection Ballet
What does ballet have to do with the Russian Revolution? What's a plié or a jete or cinquième? How do ballerinas condition their bodies to perform like athletes? Delve into an art form with a language all its own and a rich history interwoven with cultural revolution, political rebellion, and artistic innovation.
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Collection China
An army of buried warriors, lion dances, dancing shadows and a tornado of fire... experience the vibrant diversity of the arts across China.
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Collection Civil War
Through songs and letters, explore the stories and people who lived through the American Civil War, including the relationship President Abraham Lincoln had with the music of his time.
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Collection Classical Music
Meet great composers, explore the vast musical world of the orchestra, study the science behind the instruments, and discover how classical music is anything but boring.
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Collection Dance
What’s the difference between troika and hula? How can dance tell stories and preserve histories? Discover dance and its impact on culture by exploring Ancient Egyptian rituals and Native American legends. Learn how dance tells stories and poems through a language of movement and music, and pick up a few moves yourself.
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Collection Great Composers
Get inside the mind of a composer—from a popular song, to a Broadway musical, to a symphony, how does a composer write music?
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Collection Halloween
Welcome, foolish mortals. Haunted music and monsters are just the beginning—look here for spooky resources.
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Collection Hip Hop Culture
Hip hop embraces these artistic elements, most definitely. But it also has blended and transcended them to become a means for seeing, celebrating, experiencing, understanding, confronting, and commenting on life and the world. Hip hop, in other words, is a way of living—a culture.
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Collection History & Geography
Travel the historic silk road, explore European castles, and discover the long-lasting influence of ancient cultures on modern society in this journey through the past and around the globe.
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Collection Holidays & Traditions
Explore how the arts connect with our traditions and celebrations. Haunted music and monsters are just the beginning—look here for more spooky Halloween resources. For Valentine’s Day, these resources offer ways to look at the concept of love beyond the lovey-dovey. Whether as sweeping ballet choreography or tragic Shakespearean poetry, you’ll explore how love can be expressed in different artistic contexts.
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Collection India
Explore India and its multiple cultures and the art they produce. Listen to experienced musicians perform tabla beats, learn about the Bharatanatyam dance, and catch a movie produced by Bollywood, one of the largest centers of film production in the world.
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Collection Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Experience and honor cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas through dance, music, literary, and visual arts. Watch Native Pride the eagle and hoop dances, trace the life of a Navajo weaver, learn how Keith Bear makes a flute, make a listening doll, and meet fancy dancers Larry and Jessup Yazzie.
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Collection Innovators, Inventors, & Explorers
Lewis and Clark explored the American West; Japanese artists Maywa Denki invent performance art “products.” These resources can help you discover the process of discovering.
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Collection Japan
Larger-than-life calligraphy, giant bamboo weaving, and robots both real and toy... experience the vibrant diversity of the arts across Japan.
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Collection Jazz & Blues
Foot thumping rhythms, crooning voices, soulful melodies – jazz is a music with a history as rich as its sound. Follow the great migration that lead African Americans to Harlem, meet jazz icons such as Bessie Smith and Charlie Parker, and stop by the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater on a journey through the past of this American art form.
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Collection Language & Literary Arts
How do fables and myths explain the unknown and preserve cultures? What makes a good story? How do plays comment on societal issues? Grab a pencil and prepare to create original poems, experience the Civil War through letters, and parse symbolism and metaphor in this exploration of language arts.
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Collection Latin America
Travel through the diverse cultures of Latin America, as represented by artists from Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, El Salvador, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas and California. Enjoy art rich in both tradition and innovation.
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Collection Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in a small city in Germany in 1770 and started playing the piano when he was very small—so small he had to stand on the piano bench to reach the keys. When his father heard him play, he knew right away that he would be a big star.
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Collection Math
Explore how math and art go hand in hand through a study of Aesop’s fables, Tibetan art practices, and music composition.
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Collection Media Arts
Audio, video, animation, photography, and technology. From Depression-era images that captured the attention of a nation, to student-produced videos on local artists, to how to make your own blood and guts special effects, explore the ever-changing world of media arts.
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Collection Myths, Legends, & Folktales
Greek and Egyptian mythology, the story of the Lion King, and the legend of King Arthus are just some of the ways these resources explore the different cultural interpretations of heroes. Then learn the stories of Cinderella, as well as American legends Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Pecos Bill.
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Collection Opera
Get out your opera glasses and prepare to take a look at the history and evolution of an art form over four hundred years old. Learn how singers train and condition their voices, become familiar with some of the stage’s most tragic love affairs, and discover how theatre and music combined can tell epic stories in unforgettable ways.
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Collection Pacific Islands
Teach a lesson on hula dance. Travel with artists from Indonesia as they embark on a cultural exchange with the Chicago theater scene. Watch a demonstration of Javanese dance, and learn all about the monkey dance from Bali!
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Collection Popular Music
“Popular” music isn’t just one type of music—it’s just a way to describe music that a lot of people really like. This collection explores popular music in different genres, like the chart-toppers of Motown, the fight songs in football, American styles like jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, and R&B as well as the history of popular American songs from other eras, and just WHY the music connects with us.
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Collection Russia
Sputnik and space travel, a soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer of incredible talent, and a dance called the troika – learn about all this and more in this journey through Russia’s art and history.
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Collection Science
Explore how art influences the scientific world (and the science behind the art). Learn about the lives of butterflies through dance, use mobiles to recreate the solar system, and discover the colorful world pulsing inside our own cells.
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Collection Sound & Acoustics
How do composers “hear” outer space? How did Beethoven compose music when he couldn’t hear? Browse lessons and multimedia that explore the art and science of the world of sound around us.
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Collection Space
Launch your celestial learning with these resources that explore the relationship between artist, art, and the cosmos.
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Collection Theater
Take a peek behind the red curtain and discover the artistry and history behind the world of theater. Explore the playwriting process first-hand, learn about the cultural impact of performance, and read and perform some of the most influential works of the 20th century.
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Collection Valentine’s Day
These resources offer ways to look at the concept of love beyond the lovey-dovey. Whether as sweeping ballet choreography or tragic Shakespearean poetry, you'll explore how love can be expressed in different artistic contexts.
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Collection Visual Arts
Fasten your smock, get out your art supplies, and prepare to get your hands dirty. Examine the physics behind Alexander Calder’s mobiles, the symbolism in the botany rendered in renaissance paintings, and the careful patience used in weaving a wampum belt in this exploration of a wide range of arts.
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Collection Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Meet boy genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), a keyboard whiz by age four and a composer by age five, he mastered musical forms from concertos to symphonies to operas and beyond, and his unique and unmistakable sound is a trademark of Western music’s Classical era
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Collection Women in the Arts
From providing historical inspiration to preserving cultural traditions to pushing the boundaries of creativity, explore the contributions women have made (and continue to make) to the arts.
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Collection World Arts & Culture
From the weather patterns of the Kapiti plain to the history of the Mexican corrido, travel across the globe to explore world cultures and the art they produce.