Visiting with Kids

Everything you need to plan your art adventure.

Essential tips

  • Entrances and checkrooms

    Bringing a stroller? Use the ramps at the West Building's 6th Street entrance and the East Building's 4th Street entrance. All visitors pass through a security checkpoint. Once inside, you can check your stroller and small bags in our free checkrooms or borrow a stroller for your visit.

  • Strollers and carriers

    You’re welcome to use strollers or front-worn baby carriers anywhere on our campus. You can also borrow strollers at each entrance. Please don’t carry children on your shoulders or back. 

  • Restrooms and lactation room

    Most restrooms include changing stations. Family restrooms are on the East Building Mezzanine, by the Cascade Café on the Concourse, and the West Building Main Floor by the men's restroom. A lactation room is on the East Building Concourse by the Auditorium.  

  • Food and drink

    While all cafés have kid-friendly options, you’ll find the most variety in the Cascade Café on the Concourse. Please enjoy all food and drinks in our cafés; they’re not permitted in the galleries. 

  • Make it an adventure

    Pick up a kids guide at one of our information desks. Don't miss our Paint 'n' Play stations in the East Building Atrium and the West Building's East Garden Court.

  • Look but don't touch

    Keep at least an arm’s distance from artworks. Explain to your kids that touching the art even lightly can damage it. If your child is under five years old, we recommend holding their hand in the galleries. 

Preparing for your visit

Food and Drink

Browse our five cafés and their kid-friendly options.

Getting Here

Figure out how to arrive via public transit and the nearest entrance.

While you're here

Audio Tours :  Kids West Building Tour

Not sure where to start? Bring your phone and listen along as you check out some of our most famous artworks.

Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.”

Self-Guided Tour :  Must-Sees at the National Gallery

Visiting for the first time? Only have an hour? That's enough time to check out our must-see artworks.

Interactive :  Paint 'n' Play

Paint a digital canvas in the West Building's East Garden Court and East Building Atrium. 

At-home activities

Laptop with program running

Interactive :  Paint 'n' Play

Create your own work of art using brushes and palettes from artists in our collection.

Videos :  How-to Projects Inspired by Art

Watch and learn how to make "do it yourself" crafts inspired by brilliant artists and some of their boldest works.

A pale turquoise footbridge arching over a pond lined with tall grasses and filled with petal-pink and butter-yellow waterlilies spans this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with touches of vibrant color. In the top third of the composition, the shallowly arched bridge nearly touches the top edge of the canvas, and it extends off each side. The shadows on the bridge are painted with eggplant purple. Bands of waterlilies gently zigzag into the distance on the surface of the water. The spring and emerald-green grasses growing along the banks fill the space around and over the pond, and they blend into a screen of trees beyond that enclose the scene. The green of the grasses and trees is reflected in the surface of the water, as is the underside of the bridge. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet 99.”

Educational Resources :  Teaching Resources

Available by grade level or subject.

Color Catch National Gallery of Art

Game :  Roblox

Professor Monochrome is on a mission to erase color from the world...and he’s sending his Color Catchers into the National Gallery of Art to drain color from the paintings.

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School Field Trips

Spark your students’ curiosity with free in-person or virtual field trips. Through close looking and conversation, students will be encouraged to share ideas and connect to works of art.