AMA Life Imitating Art 
​Online Challenge 

Over the centuries, artists have captured their respective views on life in their art. Now, the Albany Museum of Art is asking people in Southwest Georgia who are sheltering at home to use everyday objects around the house to recreate masterpieces in its Life Imitating Art challenge.

The local challenge is based on the Getty Center and Villa’s home art challenge that asked people to recreate a Getty online collection artwork using three objects from around the house. The Getty challenge was inspired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and an Instagram account called Between Art and Quarantine. 

“We thought this would be a fun, entertaining activity for folks who are doing their part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by staying at home,” AMA Executive Director Andrew James Wulf, Ph.D., said. “Our staff jumped on it over the weekend, recreating famous works by Bellini, Mantegna, Fuseli, Beckmann and Magritte.”
“We’re also extending a friendly challenge to our fellow Albany arts and cultural organizations to participate—the Albany Area Arts Council, Georgia Artists Guild of Albany, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Theatre Albany, Flint RiverQuarium, Chehaw, Albany Civil Rights Institute,” Wulf said. “We’re calling you out, partners! Let’s see how creative everyone can be.” 

To participate in AMA Life Imitating Art, choose any work of art and create your own version of it. Once you’re happy with your re-creation, post it on social media and tag the Albany Museum of Art so we can share your masterpiece. We’ll also upload it to our website for visitors to view.

“This is something the entire family can enjoy,” AMA Education and Public Programming Director Annie Vanoteghem said. “We have our daily Staying Inspired! art activity blog for children and parents, and our online book club for adults, but this is something anyone can do together or alone, young or old.”
Some suggestions when you take the challenge:
  • Incorporate children and pets as models.
  • If you’re recreating a portrait or group scene, pay attention to facial expressions in the original and try to capture the same expression(s).'
  • Try to position yourself so that the light is similar to that in the original artwork.
  • If you have trouble recreating an artwork, take an abstract approach using objects to approximate the colors and shapes.
  • Shoot more than one—multiple photos will help ensure you get one you like. You can always delete the others.
  • Unite your photo with the picture of the original. If you don’t have an app like PhotoShop, there are free apps such as Layout or PicCollage that you can download onto your smartphone.
  • If you want to share your Life Imitating Art work internationally, in addition to the Albany Museum of Art’s tag, include the hashtags #betweenartandquarantine and #tussenkunstenquarataine with any Twitter or Instagram posting.
  • Above all else, have fun playing the challenge game!