This 12-week Meet the Masters curriculum is a complete, ready-to-use art history and ELA unit featuring 12 diverse, trailblazing artists — women, artists of color, activists, and visionaries whose stories have been missing from traditional curricula. Designed for grades K–12 with full differentiation for every grade band.
✦ WHAT'S INCLUDED
Each of the 12 weekly units includes:
• Full artist biography with historical context
• Step-by-step art project with complete supply list
• K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12 differentiated extensions
• ELA writing assignment (narrative, informative, argumentative, and reflective)
• Common Core ELA standards alignment (CCSS.ELA)
• Class discussion questions
• Links to school-safe institutional resources (Smithsonian, MoMA, Tate, NGA)
✦ THE 12 ARTISTS
Week 1 — Alma Thomas (African American woman, Abstract Expressionism)
Week 2 — Jean-Michel Basquiat (Afro-Latino, Neo-Expressionism / Street Art)
Week 3 — Yayoi Kusama (Japanese woman, Avant-Garde / Pop Art)
Week 4 — Diego Rivera (Mexican, Muralism / Social Realism)
Week 5 — Faith Ringgold (African American woman, Folk Art / Story Quilts)
Week 6 — Frida Kahlo (Mexican woman, Surrealism)
Week 7 — Jacob Lawrence (African American man, Harlem Renaissance)
Week 8 — Kehinde Wiley (African American man, Contemporary Portraiture)
Week 9 — Georgia O'Keeffe (American woman, American Modernism)
Week 10 — Kara Walker (African American woman, Conceptual Art)
Week 11 — Zanele Muholi (South African non-binary, Visual Activism / Photography)
Week 12 — Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Cubism / Modern Art)
✦ ELA STANDARDS COVERED
W.K-12.1 Opinion & Argument | W.K-12.2 Informative | W.K-12.3 Narrative
RI.K-12.3, 6, 7, 8, 9 | RL.K-12.4 | SL.K-12.4–5 | L.K-12.3–5✦ DESIGNED FOR
• Microschools, homeschools, and independent schools
• Mixed-age and multi-grade classrooms
• Art teachers, ELA teachers, and humanities educators
• Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month — and every month in between
• Any educator who believes diverse stories deserve permanent space in the curriculum
✦ FORMAT
Delivered as a beautifully designed, print-ready PDF and HTML file. No prep required beyond gathering basic art supplies. Every unit is self-contained and can be taught in any order.
This is not a worksheet packet. This is a full curriculum built with the same joy-based, humanist philosophy as Kind Academy — where art history is treated as what it really is: a record of human survival, resistance, and beauty.
Search "Kind Academy" on TPT or our Website at https://www.kindacademy.org/curriculum-shopfor more culturally responsive, standards-aligned curriculum.
