Whitney Kids Art Challenge

These art projects are designed especially for kids and grown-ups to do together. All of the activities are based on works of art in the Whitney's collection. They introduce you to some of the diverse ways that artists think and work, and we hope they inspire the artist in you too! Share your creations with us using the hashtag #whitneykids.

Come back soon! We will add more activities on a regular basis.

Print Your Veggies

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (SF.045c, Potato print branches, purple/blue), 1951–52

Two hands holding a pineapple made of soft materials.

Sock Sculptures

Claes Oldenburg, Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich), 1963

Two hands holding a box each side showing a self portrait made of paper, curled ribbon, and drawings.

Six-Sided Self-Portrait

Marisol, Women and Dog, 1963–64

Two hands hold a black paper with the top layer scratched away revealing bright lines.

Scratch it Out

Charles Henry Alston, The Family, 1955

Three American flags on top of each other.

Image Transformation

Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958

An ivory armchair engulfed in soft globular shapes.

Stuff It!

Yayoi Kusama, Accumulation, 1963

A work by Willem de Kooning. An abstract painting of a woman with a bicycle depicted in vivid colors

Dramatic Composition

Willem de Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952–1953

Plants and flowers next to a fence and house.

Nature’s Mood

Charles Burchfield, Noontide in Late May, 1917

Toy Collection

Mike Kelley, More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid and The Wages of Sin, 1987

A Black man stands against a white backdrop wearing aviator sunglasses and a white suit.

Double Portrait

Barkley L. Hendricks, Steve, 1976

An installation view of a painting.

Portal Book

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Portals, 2016

An orange septehedron-shaped canvas

Geometric Composition

Alvin Loving, Septehedron 34, 1970

A painting of three figures carrying large round objects up an incline.

Visual Story

Jacob Lawrence, War Series: Another Patrol, 1946

A human-shaped costume with ornate decorations.

Dress Up and Make Noise!

Nick Cave, Soundsuit #20, 2005

Fabric banner with black bird grasping anatomical heart above pencil and microphone. Text in cursive reads "hahaha."

Create a Banner

Cauleen Smith, The Comedians, 2017

Painting of a woman and legs in bright colors.

Colorful Collage

Emma Amos, Baby, 1966

Person dressed as the Statue of Liberty, holding a torch aloft, standing against a plain gray background.

Stage a Performance

Puppies Puppies, Liberty (Liberté), 2017

Painting of trees and houses.

Mood Picture

Oscar Bluemner, A Situation in Yellow, 1933

Close up view of smokestacks

Unexpected Beauty

Elsie Driggs, Pittsburgh, 1927

Colorful painting of flowers and a sky.

Birthday Self-Portrait

Florine Stettheimer, Sun, 1931

A sculpture of a man and woman dancing.

Let’s Dance!

Elie Nadelman, Tango, 1920–1924

Illustrated portrait of a person in a frame.

Family Portrait

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Wall of Ambassadors, 2017

Vibrant abstract painting featuring bold geometric shapes and lines over a split complementary background. A large purple shape dominates the center, overlaid with thin white lines forming triangles, while a green shape and smaller areas of red, orange, and blue add contrast.

Line, Shape, Blob

Elizabeth Murray, Children Meeting, 1978

A miniature figure of a man standing inside a clear glass bottle sealed with a cork.

Teeny Tiny Room

Charles Ray, Puzzle Bottle, 1995

Abstract sculpture of flat interlocking pieces of stone

Rhyme Sculpture

Isamu Noguchi, Humpty Dumpty, 1946

Abstract painting with blue background, greenish shapes resembling hills, and a glowing white balloon-like form.

Dream World

Agnes Pelton, Sea Change, 1931

Abstract painting with geometric shapes, colorful vertical lines, and a bridge-like structure over a cityscape.

Build a Bridge

Joseph Stella, The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme, 1939

Gray layers of oil paint and sediment radiate in a starlike shape from a central white point that seems to emanate light in a monumental abstract artwork standing over 10½ feet tall.

Start from the Center

Jay DeFeo, The Rose, 1958-66

A billiards table sits in the desert angled towards a sky filled with with clouds of starkly different colors. There is a blue mountain range in the distance.

Surreal World

Man Ray, La Fortune, 1938

A painting of snow falling sideways across a landscape with the dark outlines of buffalo, and a tree to the left side in the foreground.

Layered Landscape

Horace Pippin, The Buffalo Hunt, 1933

A black wall with white drawn lines.

Drawing Instructions

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #289, 4th wall: 24 lines from the center, 12 lines from the midpoint of each of the sides, 12 lines from each corner, 1976

A painting with a yellow background, words written and crossed out, and three faces.

Create a Tag!

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983

A sculpture of long white poles with blue inserts at the top.

Family Sculpture

Louise Bourgeois, Quarantania, 1941

A portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney lounging on a couch.

Strike a Pose!

Robert Henri, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, 1916

Colorful abstract geometric shapes and bold text, including "ELSE" and "NOW," on a bright yellow background.

Still Life Remix

Stuart Davis, Owh! in San Pao, 1951

An installation view of a work by Raul de Nieves. Beaded shoes in front of a stained glass window

Window Installation

Raúl de Nieves, Beginning & the end neither & the otherwise betwixt & between the end is the beginning & the end, 2017

An image of the Whitney galleries with small wire sculptures

Circus Character

Alexander Calder, Calder’s Circus, 1926–31

A pop art rendition of a bathroom.

Bathroom Portrait

Roy Lichtenstein, Bathroom, 1961

Hopper's iconic painting of empty street scene.

Window View

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930

Colorful artwork of woman faces by Andy Warhol.

Many Faces

Andy Warhol, Ethel Scull 36 Times, 1963

An abstract landscape in bright green, orange, and red.

Imaginary Landscapes

Shara Hughes, In the Clear, 2016

Concentric shrinking squares of color inlaid on each other.

Geometric Composition

Frank Stella, Gran Cairo, 1962

A brown terracotta sculpture of a woman's head down to the neck sits on a white plinth. The eyes of the sculpture are cut out.

Portrait Sculpture

Elizabeth Catlett, Head, 1947

A painting of a boy and a dog by Laura Owens.

Unfolding Adventures

Laura Owens, Untitled, 2014

An installation of projections on the wall of animated clouds in the sky.

Game World

Cory Arcangel, Super Mario Clouds, 2002

A painting of an animal skull in the sky above flowers and desert landscape.

Souvenir Sketch

Georgia O'Keeffe, Summer Days, 1936

Mesh wires shaped into a long, fluid blob, like lava in a lava lamp.

Continuous Line

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.270, Hanging Six-Lobed, Complex Interlocking Continuous Form within a Form with Two Interior Spheres) 1955, refabricated 1957–1958

Fruits and abstract leaves in red and green.

4-Color Composition

Lee Krasner, The Seasons, 1957