LOS ANGELES, CA.-What if the J. Paul Getty Museum’s paintings were in pieces, and it was up to kids to put them back together again? Or if someone switched the details on the artworks, and kids had to find the changes? That’s the world of GettyGames, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s newly launched web feature that uses game strategies to help kids focus on art.

On GettyGames, youngsters can reassemble Van Gogh’s Irises from jigsaw puzzle pieces, find the changed details in Walker Evans’ Two Elderly Men Conversing, and match the fabric of the dress in Renoir’s La Promenade. If kids become intrigued by the artwork while they’re playing the game, they can click and learn more about the artist and the work.

“GettyGames is a fun, dynamic way tor kids to sharpen their looking skills and become interested in art,” says Peggy Fogelman, assistant director of education and interactive programs at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The site debuted this fall at a Getty Family Festival, and Fogelman watched in delight as families lingered at the computer kiosks to play the games. “Even with all the other activities going on at the Family Festival, kids were completely engaged in the games, and their parents were playing right along with them.”

The GettyGames site, reached through www.getty.edu, offers two levels of play: “hard” and “not so hard.” Activities include:

·Detail Detective – where kids match the right detail with the painting it comes from
·Match Madness – where kids click on cards to turn them over and find the matching pairs
·Switch – where kids find the differences in two seemingly identical artworks
·Jigsaw Puzzle – where kids reassemble paintings

In addition, there are art projects to download and complete at home, allowing kids to make bookmarks in the style of illuminated manuscripts, wheat stacks like Monet’s, or a Mardi Gras mask reminiscent of James Ensor’s Christ’s Entry into Brussels.

“GettyGames is a site kids can enjoy on their own, but we also hope it becomes a resource for parents in an era when art education has been cut back in the schools,” said Fogelman. “We think it’ll be a fun thing for parents and kids to do together, and a wonderful way to expose kids to art.”

Ideally, of course, once kids have explored an artwork through GettyGames, Fogelman hopes they will want to visit the Getty to see the real thing. “We hope that Getty Games helps kids become art lovers and museum-goers,” says Fogelman.