Tacoma Art Museum offers a variety of tours, workshops, and other resources for teachers and students. Explore the links below or in the navigation bar at left to learn more.
Download the 2009 – 2010 School Tours and Teacher Programs Brochure (1.9 MG)
Download the Spring 2010 School and Teacher Program card (674 KB)
View available school tour options
Schedule a school tour
The school tour program focuses on developing competency in visual, verbal, and written literacy. Through detailed observation, discussion, writing, and art making, students examine how ideas are expressed through art and language. Guided tours are developed by a certified teacher, correspond with the Washington State EALRs, explore current exhibitions, and are developmentally appropriate. Curriculum guides are available to prepare students for the visit. The museum also offers special rates for self-guided school tours.
View upcoming educator workshops
Register for a workshop
Professional development workshops allow educators to earn clock hours while interpreting artwork, taking part in hands-on studio art lessons, learning how to integrate the arts into other subject areas, and taking home samples and lesson plans for the classroom.
In addition to programs specifically for educators, the museum offers programs to the general public, such as the Know More Art lecture series. Public programs occur throughout the year and are often available for clock hours. Visit www.TacomaArtMuseum.org/Programs to learn about upcoming opportunities.
The Teacher Resources section of Tacoma Art Museum’s Art Resource Center is a free lending library exclusively for educators, providing a variety of resources that allow you to incorporate art into your classroom teaching. After registering in the Art Resource Center, educators may check out materials including books, curricula, CDs, DVDs, and slides free of charge for up to three weeks.
Visual Thinking Strategies, or VTS, is a student-centered, research-based curriculum that uses art to foster students' capacities to observe, think, listen, and communicate. Tacoma Art Museum's school tour program incorporates VTS-based strategies, and the museum regularly partners with the developers of VTS to offer training opportunities for teachers. Learn more about VTS at www.vue.org.
Tacoma Art Museum partners with Arts Impact, an organization that provides in-depth professional development in the arts to area teachers through a two-year training and mentoring program. To learn more, visit www.arts-impact.org.
This intensive month-long internship program, run in partnership with Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA), invites a small group of high school students to work as full-time museum educators at Tacoma Art Museum each January. The students develop their own school tour curricula, including pre- and post-visit activities, and provide an engaging, free art experience for classes of elementary students from several Tacoma-area public schools.
Art in Action: Pre-K through 12 Educator Membership
$30 annually
Educator members enjoy
• Discounts on education programs, lectures, and professional development workshops
• A 10 percent discount at the Museum Store
• Invitations to exhibition openings and other special events
• A 50 percent discount on regular admission at Museum of Glass and Washington State History Museum every Wednesday.
Become a member now or call 253.272.4258 x3042 for more information.
T: 253.272.4258 x3038
F: 253.627.1898
Teacher@TacomaArtMuseum.org
Support for School Tours and Teacher Programs is provided by The Tacoma Art Museum Gala proceeds, the William W. Kilworth Foundation, Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation, and Wheeler Charitable Trust.
Support also provided by 