OER Subject Guides

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning [2016]

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation, by Lumen, includes resources copyrighted and openly licensed by multiple individuals and organizations. Click the words "Licenses and Attributions" at the bottom of each page for copyright and licensing information specific to the material on that page.

  Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals [2015]

 From the site: "This textbook -- written by a group of select experts with a focus on different aspects of the design process, from creation to production -- addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed,   or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. It covers the concept that, while most modern graphic design is created on computers using design software, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer.   The ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process. Keywords are highlighted throughout and summarized in a Glossary at the end of the book, and   each chapter includes exercises and suggested readings."

 Art History [2023]

'Art is that which elevates our interpretation of the world and of ourselves from simple description or narrative to the sublime. Art occurs when images and objects, sights and sounds, or drawings and carvings convey the beauty and splendor of the world, or a realized imagination of an artist, for the purpose of self-expression or the shared enjoyment of its creation.'  This is a wikibook that is a survey of art history from Prehistoric Art to The 20th Century Art. 
This work is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

Boundless Art History [2014, MODIFIED 2023]

'The Boundless Art History textbook is a college-level, introductory textbook that provides an overview of the culturally rich subject of Art History from pre-history through to modern global art.  Boundless works with subject matter experts to select the best open educational resources available on the web, review the content for quality, and create introductory, college-level textbooks designed to meet the study needs of university students. 

This work is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

A Text-Book of the History of Painting [2011, MODIFIED 2023]

Art History WikiBook

Text is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

A World Perspective of Art Appreciation (Gustlin and Gustlin) [compiled 2024]

Written by faculty members at Evergreen Valley College; licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Western Art from 18th to Mid-20th Century (Taylor) [compiled 2024]

Written by a faculty member at Whatcom Community College; licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Art and Contemporary Critical Practice: Reinventing Institutional Critique [2010, modified 2023]

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Introduction to Design Equity [2018]

From the site: "Why do affluent, liberal, and design-rich cities like Minneapolis have some of the biggest racial disparities in the country? How can designers help to create more equitable communities? Introduction to Design Equity, an open access book for students and professionals, maps design processes and products against equity research to highlight the pitfalls and potentials of design as a tool for building social justice."

Tutorials of Visual Graphic Communication Programs for Interior Design [2021]

This book is for the beginning level of both architecture and interior design students who learn computer graphic communication software. The author developed multiple tutorials to teach three computer graphic applications, AutoCAD, Revit, and Enscape. AutoCAD is an essential computer drafting software which is 2D drawing software. Revit is a Building Information Modeling software, which is 3D based modeling software. Lastly, Enscape is a real-time rendering, animation, and virtual reality plug-in for users' 4D experiences.