School Tours
The Museum’s school and teacher programs promote critical thinking and interdisciplinary curriculum applications. On their visits to the Museum, students strengthen visual literacy skills, develop and cement vocabulary, and foster observational and evidence-based thinking.
View, print, and download the School and Teacher Programs Brochure.
Resources for your Trip
- Advocate for your trip: print a letter from the Museum Director to your principal
- Review state and national standards met by the Museum’s tours and programs
- Read the Guide to Planning Your School Tour
- Prepare your chaperones with this printable chaperone guide
- Prepare your students by watching the Museum Manners Video
- Try a pre- or post-activity in the classroom
Fees and Chaperones
School Tours are $4 per student. One adult chaperone per 10 students is required; these adults are admitted free. One additional adult per 10 students is admitted at the $4 student rate. Additional chaperones and adults must pay $10, the group tour adult admission price. Please note groups of 10 or more children are not eligible for the Target® Free First Thursdays free admission offer.
Complimentary Family Passes
The Museum’s 2011–12 school programs are sponsored by the Terri and Verne Holoubek Family Foundation. As part of this sponsorship, each school that participates in a school group tour during the academic year will receive one Museum Family Pass per student who visits the Museum. Each Family Pass provides free admission to the Museum for two adults and up to four children younger than 18 years old.
Contact us
Planning your visit
Video: Check out these do’s and don’ts for visiting the Museum.
Registration
Register online or contact the Tour Scheduler at grouptours@mam.org or 414-224-3842 for more details. Register for a School Tour Today!
For All Grades
Art from Many Places and Times
In this overview of the Museum Collection, students acquire basic art vocabulary and critical-looking skills while exploring the making and meaning of art from different cultures.
Self-Guided Tour
Don’t need a docent? This option is available for teachers who would prefer to lead their own tour. Find resources at teachers.mam.org.
PK–Grade 3
A Is for Art
Take a tour with the alphabet! Inspired by the book A Is for Art by Marjorie Nelson Moon, explore art from many cultures while reinforcing language development.
Animals in Art
Discover a menagerie of friendly animals and fantastic beasts from different cultures and times in paintings and sculptures.
Exploring Art Through the Senses
Take a journey through the galleries using your imagination: how might artworks smell, taste, feel, and sound?
Line, Shape, and Color
Learn how artists begin to create masterpieces by getting to know the building blocks of art—line, shape, and color.
Storytelling in Art
Imagine, tell, and listen to stories that artists portray in their work.
Grades 4–12
Themes
World Communities
Investigate Western (European and/or American) and non-Western (Haitian, Asian, and/or African) art, discovering similarities, differences, and cross-cultural influences.
Teachers, find resources about this tour.
Portraiture
Meet the people—and animals—revealed in the portraits throughout the Museum’s galleries.
Sculpture
Steel, glass, bronze, and even buttons make up the three-dimensional works in the Museum’s sculpture collection.
Technique
Glazing, scumbling, impasto, collage, assemblage? These mysterious words are demystified after exploring the many techniques artists use to create their work.
Foreign Language Tours—French, Spanish, or German
Enhance study of French, Spanish, or German by exploring related art and culture. (Specify your language choice with the Tour Scheduler. Docents for these tours are limited.)
Collections
Feature/Special Exhibition
Take an in-depth look at the exhibitions, which are at the Museum for only a limited time. Take your visit into the classroom with our Teacher Guides.
Museum Architecture
Look inside (and outside) at the Museum’s layers of architectural history, with designs by Eero Saarinen, David Kahler, and Santiago Calatrava.
Calatrava: Art, Science, and the Creative Design Process
Follow Santiago Calatrava’s creative process from idea to completion, examining his addition to the Museum, in which he combined nature with state-of-the-art engineering.
American History Through Art
From folk art to fine art, explore works of art that celebrate African American heritage.
Haitian Art
Learn about the culture of this Caribbean country through the Museum’s rich collection of Haitian paintings and sculpture.
Folk Art
In these works by self-taught artists, history and inner visions emerge and people and animals are animated, inviting questions about art and its role in society.
Modern Art
Get to know the “isms,” from Realism and Impressionism to Cubism and Expressionism, by comparing and contrasting art from the mid-1860s onwards.
Contemporary Art
Look at art created after World War II, considering how artists were influenced by the work that came before them.
School Tours
Kohl’s Art Generation Program
Classes
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