School Tours
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Please note: The Gallery is no longer taking School Tour requests for this academic year. Please check back in August to begin requesting School Tours for the 2008–2009 academic year. You can still review information about tours and planning self-guided visits by clicking on the links below. Have a great summer. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.
National Gallery school tours led by trained docents are designed to introduce students to the museum experience and to the National Gallery's collection. Volunteer docents consult closely with teachers to ensure that thematic tours enhance, support, and extend classroom learning and curriculum objectives. The Gallery hopes tours are only the beginning of a journey toward a life-long love of art and museums.
Docent-led tours
- encourage careful observation
- foster an open exchange of ideas
- cultivate connections between art and life
The National Gallery aims to
- create a positive and welcoming learning environment
- utilize a variety of teaching strategies, which may include sketching, creative writing, and group activities that meet the needs and interests of diverse learners
National Gallery visits include in-depth study at four to six stops. By focusing on fewer works of art rather than many, students have a richer learning experience.
Preparatory materials are available for tours, except where noted.
Student-Centered Learning in the Art Museum: The Benefits of Object-Based Teaching
The National Gallery's tours for Pre-Kindergarten–12 immerse students in a uniquely rich and varied learning environment that features one of the country’s finest collections of Western art, spanning the 1300s to the present.
Museum tours, tailored to specific grade levels, offer students the opportunity to develop multidisciplinary skills and knowledge of content to complement and augment their academic studies. Students connect fine art with disciplines such as studio art, history, social studies, and language arts in a setting that supports a variety of learning styles. Below are some of the educational benefits teachers cite for bringing students to the museum.
- Language development and critical thinking skills: As students examine objects and discuss them with educators and peers, they build vocabulary as well as skills in reasoning and debate.
- Seeing original art: Looking at a reproduction is not the same as coming face-to-face with an original work by Rembrandt van Rijn—the ultimate primary source! The art museum offers an extraordinary arena for aesthetic experience, discovery, wonder, and inspiration, as well as practical discussions of the various tools and techniques of making art.
- Object-based learning: Many students are concrete learners and are motivated when educational resources are tangible and physical. Others are more engaged when stimulated emotionally or aesthetically. The art museum is an ideal alternative learning environment for all learners.
- Multidimensional knowledge: Museum discussions about art often lead students to see that there is seldom one definitive answer to a problem and that works of art can possess multiple levels of meaning, each equally valid. In this respect, museum learning emulates the complexities of real life.
- Student-centered learning: Inquiry-based programs allow educators to adapt their teaching to students' interests, observations, and questions. Student-centered museum programs can spark the imagination and capitalize on students' intrinsic curiosity about newly discovered treasures and the museum environment itself.
- Historical and global awareness: Museums with wide-ranging collections can offer students the opportunity to journey back in time and across cultural boundaries. Museum collections can foster powerful discussions about what societies have valued and preserved over time.
- Lifelong-learning and cultural stewardship: Museum programs foster awareness that learning can occur in informal, non-classroom environments. Studies show that museum visitation habits and cultural interests are formed during childhood.
- Requests for tours in 2009 will begin on August 1, 2008.
- Tours must be scheduled at least four weeks in advance.
- Foreign-language tours must be scheduled at least eight weeks in advance.
- Tours are offered at 10:15 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 1:30 p.m., and 2:00 p.m., except where noted.
- Groups must contain at least ten students.
Museum Visits for Elementary School Students
These tours engage our youngest viewers through a multisensory approach involving discussion, imagination, creative dramatics, and visual aids.
Pre-kindergarten-Grade 1 (ages 4–6)
Art Tales: "Matthew's Dream"
In-depth focus on one or two works of art through:
- reading aloud Matthew's Dream, by Leo Lionni
- carefully looking at and comparing works of modern art
- creating a collage project
No preparatory materials available
Reading / Art
Up to 30 students
45–60 mins.
Meet inside East Building entrance
Art Tales: "The Cow Who Fell in the Canal"
In-depth focus on one or two works of art through:
- reading aloud The Cow Who Fell in the Canal, by Phyllis Krasilovsky
- carefully looking at and comparing seventeenth-century paintings of Dutch life and landscape
- drawing / creating a postcard project
No preparatory materials available
Reading / Art
Up to 30 students
45–60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Tours: Kindergarten through Grade 3
Children in Art
Make friends with children from long ago. Discover their activities and interests, their clothes and customs.
Art / Social Studies
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Color, Line, and Shape
Bold and bright, curvy and straight, triangular and square—color, line, and shape are the building blocks of art. In this tour students will:
- develop elementary art vocabulary
- learn strategies to observe and describe art
Art / Language Arts / Math / Science
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet inside East Building entrance
*Sixth-grade teachers: see also tours for grades 6 through 8
Every Picture Tells a Story
Explore how artists create visual narratives based on stories from history, literature, and their imaginations. In viewing some of the Gallery's best-known works of art, students will analyze story elements, such as character, setting, and plot, and make connections to themselves and the world around them.
No preparatory materials available
Art / Language Arts
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet inside West Building Rotunda
Mythology
Unravel ancient Greek and Roman myths, captured in all their drama by artists through the ages. Which moment in the mythological account did the artist choose to show? What message does the painting intend to convey? Students will explore representations of:
- character
- plot
- setting
Art / Language Arts
Up to 30 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
The Sculptor's Workshop
How do sculptors create balance, movement, and realism in their work? Students will explore these questions while carefully examining a variety of sculptural materials and techniques. An additional sketching component is available that will help solidify key concepts for students. Please indicate on your registration form whether you would like to add sketching to this tour.
Art / Language Arts / Science
Up to 60 students
90 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Sketching component available
Museum Visits for Middle School Students
Artists' Choices
Abstract or realistic, portrait or landscape? Whatever its style or subject, a work of art depends on an artist's creative choices. In this tour students will:
- compare and contrast style, technique, and subject
- explore historical and cultural contexts
Art / Art History / Social Studies
Up to 90 students
90 mins.; offered at 10:30 a.m. and noon only
Meet inside East Building entrance
Every Picture Tells a Story
Explore how artists create visual narratives based on stories from history, literature, and their imaginations. In viewing some of the Gallery’s best-known works of art, students will analyze story elements, such as character, setting, and plot, and make connections to themselves and the world around them.
No preparatory materials available
Art/Language Arts
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet inside West Building Rotunda
Exploring Modern Art: Breaking the Rules
Explore the ways artists "break the rules" as they depart from realistic representation, use innovative techniques, and engage the viewer as a partner in creating meaning.
Preparatory materials: East Building Treasures teaching packet
Art / Social Studies
Up to 45 students
60 mins.
Meet inside East Building entrance
French Art
From crisp realism to ethereal impressions, examine and reflect on French art and:
- historical and social influences
- portraits and personalities
- scenes of everyday life
- politics and patronage
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 45 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Mythology
Unravel ancient Greek and Roman myths, captured in all their drama by artists through the ages. Which moment in the mythological account did the artist choose to show? What message does the painting intend to convey? Students will explore representations of:
- character
- plot
- setting
Art / Language Arts
Up to 30 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Portraits and Personalities
Come face-to-face with history by examining portraits of the people who lived it. Students will read clues in some of the Gallery's most renowned works of art that reveal the sitter's personality, mood, status, and social and historical environment.
No preparatory materials available
Art / Social Studies
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Renaissance Art
The Renaissance was a period of radical change in art and life. Students will explore new ideas of this period to understand artistic developments in:
- perspective, based on scientific and mathematical discoveries
- representation of the human figure
- subjects and style, based on the rise of humanism and the influence of classical culture
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
The Sculptor's Workshop
How do sculptors create balance, movement, and realism in their work? Students will explore these questions while carefully examining a variety of sculptural materials and techniques. An additional sketching component is available that will help solidify key concepts for students. Please indicate on your registration form whether you would like to add sketching to this tour.
Art / Language Arts / Science
Up to 60 students
90 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Sketching component available
Exploring Modern Art: Breaking the Rules
Explore the ways artists "break the rules" as they depart from realistic representation, use innovative techniques, and engage the viewer as a partner in creating meaning.
Preparatory materials: East Building Treasures teaching packet
Art / Social Studies
Up to 45 students
60 mins.
Meet inside East Building entrance
Exploring Modern Art: Materials and Techniques
From mussel shells, latex, and lead to burning, scraping, and dripping, this new tour examines the unexpected materials and innovative techniques of modern and contemporary artists.
Preparatory materials: East Building Treasures teaching packet
Art / Social Studies
Up to 45 students
60 mins.
Meet inside East Building entrance
French Art
From crisp realism to ethereal impressions, examine and reflect on French art and:
- historical and social influences
- portraits and personalities
- scenes of everyday life
- politics and patronage
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 45 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Portraits and Personalities
Come face-to-face with history by examining portraits of the people who lived it. Students will read clues in some of the Gallery's most renowned works of art that reveal the sitter's personality, mood, status, and social and historical environment.
No preparatory materials available
Art / Social Studies
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Renaissance Art
The Renaissance was a period of radical change in art and life. Students will explore new ideas of this period to understand artistic developments in:
- perspective, based on scientific and mathematical discoveries
- representation of the human figure
- subjects and style, based on the rise of humanism and the influence of classical culture
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 60 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Spanish Art: From El Greco to Picasso
How did Spanish artists respond to their cultural and political times? By studying works by El Greco, Goya, Picasso, and others, students will explore connections between art and society.
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 30 students
90 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
The Sculptor's Workshop
How do sculptors create balance, movement, and realism in their work? Students will explore these questions while carefully examining a variety of sculptural materials and techniques. An additional sketching component is available that will help solidify key concepts for students. Please indicate on your registration form whether you would like to add sketching to this tour.
Art / Language Arts / Science
Up to 60 students
90 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Sketching component available
French and Spanish Language Tours
Tours conducted in foreign languages by native speakers are intended for advanced high school language students. Tours are tailored to meet specific learning objectives and are only available in French or Spanish. Please note that we will make every effort to provide a tour in the language requested. Due to a small number of qualified instructors, this tour has limited availability. If a foreign-language docent is not available for your requested time slot, the National Gallery can make an English language tour available as an alternate. Please check this option on your Tour Request Form if you are interested. Please choose one of the following topics:
- French Art
- Renaissance Art
- Spanish Art: From El Greco to Picasso
Art / Language Arts
Up to 30 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
Religious Art Themes
Choose from:
- The Christmas Story
- Stories from the Hebrew Bible
Preparatory materials are only available for "The Christmas Story."
Art / Language Arts / Social Studies
Up to 30 students
60 mins.
Meet in West Building Rotunda
We are happy to work with you to customize a tour to meet the needs of your class, adapt an existing tour theme, or create a tour that closely connects to your curriculum. Please provide as much detail as possible on the Tour Request Form. Please note that tour content focuses on the Gallery’s permanent collection only. However, self-guided print and online resources for children related to some temporary exhibitions are also available.
Teachers are welcome to guide their students through the museum independently. Please complete the self-guiding group form at least four weeks prior to your visit. This assists museum staff in preventing overcrowding in the galleries. Be sure to indicate whether you would like to receive information describing teaching resources at the Gallery.
Before Your Visit
Thousands of images, art information, and tour planning tools can be accessed on the Gallery's Web site. Learn about the collection, search the collection, take online tours, see what exhibitions will be on view, explore floor plans, read visitor information, check the calendar of events, browse online educational materials, and borrow free-loan teaching resources.
Preview the museum in person or online, identify learning goals, and plot your tour route. Be sure to relate the visit to classroom curriculum and your students' personal experiences. Remember that exploring a few works of art in depth can be more rewarding than quickly surveying many works. Also, please be aware that works of art may be moved or removed from view before the Web site can be updated.
Students learn more on a museum visit when the novelty of the setting has been reduced. Prepare your students with a virtual tour of the museum and pre-visit activities. Reviewing key vocabulary terms and introducing an artist or theme from the tour can help students come to the museum ready to explore.
During Your Visit: Suggested Strategies for Exploring Art
Pick up a museum map or get help finding your way at an information desk (located near each entrance). As you explore the museum, give students time for quiet and careful observation. Try the thirty-second looking activity: Have students look silently at a work of art for thirty seconds, turn away from it and tell you everything they remember, and then look at it again to see what else they can find.
Engage students in dialogue about art. Encourage them to tell you what they see, ask questions, and debate opinions. Ask open-ended questions to encourage participation and help focus student observation and discussion. Have students support their answers and opinions with evidence from the work of art. Paraphrase and summarize student responses.
Sample looking questions include:
- What is going on in this work of art?
- What are the clues that tell you this?
- Who sees something else?
- What questions do you have about this work of art?
- If you could ask the artist one question, what would it be?
In a single gallery, you might ask: "Why do you suppose these works are hung together in the same room? How are they similar; how are they different?" Or, "If, together, these works told a story, what would it be? What title would you give this room?" After exploring a work of art, ask students to finish the sentence, "I still wonder . . ."
Create opportunities during your visit for students to make choices about what they see or do:
- Have students choose the work of art they find most intriguing (or most confusing, most beautiful, etc.) and explain why.
- Discuss a particular theme or idea, such as innovations in subject matter, materials, or methods in modern art. Ask students to choose an object that seems the most innovative and explain why.
- Students may also help sequence parts of the visit. For example, in the East Building Alexander Calder Gallery, ask: "Should we begin with a sculpture that is still or one that is moving?"
Use wall labels, brochures, and this Web site to help answer student questions and find additional information.
During Your Visit: Museum Policies
Adequately supervise your students. Groups must have one adult chaperone for every ten students. Chaperones are responsible for monitoring and accompanying students at all times during the visit.
Please share the rules with your students and chaperones both before and during your visit.
- Do not touch works of art. A helpful guideline is to remain at least twelve inches away from any work of art.
- Do not lean drawing or note-taking materials on walls, display cases, or pedestals.
- Do not block doorways or aisles.
- Self-guiding groups may be asked to yield to tours guided by school docents or staff; only one group may be in a gallery at a time.
After Your Visit
- Continue the museum experience back in the classroom using online or free loan materials.
- Send us student pictures or letters describing your visit, and ideas on how we can further support you.
Resources and Tips for Planning
Audio Tours
The Director's Tour and Adventures
in Art: A Family Audio Tour of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings
(appropriate for children ages 7 to 12) are
available for rental at the West Building Mall entrance. Exhibition-related
audio tours are available for rental at the entrances to many exhibitions.
For group reservations for audio tours (ten or more), call (202) 842-6592.
NGA Classroom
Access NGA Classroom, our online compendium of electronic teaching resources. Here you'll find dynamic in-depth studies on individual works, artists, and periods as well as printable worksheets and classroom lesson plans. Teachers may search by artist, topic, or curricular theme to find information on subjects ranging from ancient Chinese art and archaeology to Dada, the World War I-era art movement.
NGA Loan Materials
View a searchable library of 120+ teaching packets, videos, and DVDs on various periods, artists, and the art of specific cultures available on loan, free of charge, to educators, institutions, community organization, and individuals. Teaching packet titles include Picturing France: 1830–1900 and Islamic Art and Culture. Packets may include in-depth, illustrated booklets; large color reproductions, suitable for posting in the classroom; slides and/or image CDs; and timelines. Submit requests for loan materials online. Please allow one month for delivery of loan materials.
Or, for free printed catalogue of loan materials, write:
E-mail: EdResources@nga.gov
Fax: (202) 842-6937
Mail: Education Resources
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
NGAkids
A hands-on treasure trove of interactive, "learning to look" online activities and projects based on works of art in the National Gallery of Art's collection and from temporary exhibitions, with links to other Gallery resources and program offerings for children and families. Tailored for preschool through grade 6 students, or children of any age. Take an animated tour through the sculpture garden or visit a Dutch dollhouse.
Online Tours
Explore an artist, specific work of art, or theme in depth. More than fifty features are available online. Romare Bearden, Alexander Calder, Paul Cézanne, and Julia Margaret Cameron are among the featured artists.
Student Lunches
Sack lunches may be stored in the checkrooms. Groups may not eat sack lunches in the cafeteria as there are no special lunch facilities for school groups. Groups may purchase their lunches from the full-service cafeteria. Group meal plans can be arranged by submitting an order form or by calling (202) 712-7454 seventy-two hours in advance. View group meal plan menus and ordering information.
Cameras and Backpacks
Handheld cameras, pencils, and pads are allowed in the permanent collection areas but not in special exhibitions. Students may not wear backpacks in the galleries. Backpacks must be checked at a checkroom. We recommend that students leave all backpacks at school or on the bus to prevent entry delays. Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the Gallery.
The use of tripods, easels, and ink and chalk drawing materials is prohibited without special advance permission. See also museum policies.
Location and Hours
The National Gallery of Art, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. See also area
map, public transportation, parking.
Floor Plans: West Building | East Building
The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, located on the National Mall at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, is bounded by Constitution Avenue and Madison Drive and by 7th and 9th Streets NW.
Accessibility
The 6th Street entrance to the West Building at Constitution Avenue and the 4th Street entrance to the East Building each have ramps to accommodate visitors in wheelchairs. Please inform the tour scheduler and docents of any special needs before your tour. A Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) is available at (202) 842-6176. A TDD for use by visitors is located at the public telephone adjacent to the stamp machine near the Concourse Level Sales Shop. This TDD is situated to accommodate wheelchair users.
Parking
Metered street parking for cars and vans is available along the Mall. Buses
may let students off at the entrance noted on your confirmation sheet. Parking
for buses is usually allowed only on Independence Avenue near the Washington
Monument.
Public Transportation
The nearest Metro stops are Judiciary Square on the Red
Line, Archives on the Yellow/Green Lines, and
Smithsonian on the Blue/Orange Lines. Metro bus stops
are located on 4th Street and 7th Street NW. DC Circulator bus stops
are located at 4th Street and Madison Drive and at 7th Street
and Constitution Avenue NW.
Further information about Metrobus and Metrorail routes and schedules is available at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Web site. The WMATA RideGuide Web site provides a fast and easy way to plan your visit to the Gallery.
Security
Visitors will be asked to present all bags and parcels for inspection. All backpacks,
luggage, oversized bags, parcels, and umbrellas must be left in the checkrooms.
These items will be subject to x-ray screening prior to acceptance. We regret
that we are unable to accommodate any items larger than 17 x 26 inches (43
x 66 cm) into the Gallery or its checkrooms. Checkrooms located at the entrances to both the East Building and the West Building are provided free of charge.
We recommend that students leave their backpacks at school or on the bus to
prevent entry delays. See further information about cameras, art supplies, and backpacks.
Museum Shops
Reproductions, exhibition catalogues, and books on the collections are available to educators
at a 20 percent discount by mail order only. For more information, call
(202) 842-6002 or (800) 697-9350.
Calendars of Events
Find out what's happening this month at
the National Gallery of Art. The current bimonthly Calendar of Events is available in PDF format (PDF 1.1 MB) (Download Acrobat Reader)
To obtain a free bimonthly calendar of events by mail, call (202) 842-6662, or contact us by e-mail at calendar@nga.gov.
To receive a free quarterly film calendar by mail, contact us by e-mail at film-department@nga.gov. Please include your mailing address.
Subscribe to Our Free E-mail Newsletters
Stay up to date with the National Gallery of Art by subscribing to our free e-mail newsletters: Web, educators, family programs, fellowships/internships, films, gallery talks/lectures, music programs, and teen programs. Select as many updates as you wish to receive. To edit your subscriber information, please go to our subscription
management page.
Has your class or organization taken a National Gallery of Art school tour? Please take a moment to share your experience and comments with us by completing our online feedback form.