Tacoma Art Museum - Plan a School Tour

School Tours

Guided and self-guided school tours can accommodate up to 60 students per visit (groups larger than 30 will be split in half).
Partial scholarships are available to school-wide Title I schools.
Registration is required at least three weeks in advance. Register early in order to best secure your desired date and time.
Review the school tour guidelines for complete details about fees, chaperones, parking, and more.
Cancellations made less than two weeks in advance are billed 50 percent of the original invoice; no-shows are billed the full cost of the tour.

Register now or learn more below.

Guided School Tours
Cost: $5 per student, $3 per student scholarship rate; $60 minimum

Thematic guided school tours provide students with an in-depth exploration of a specific current exhibition and relevant, accompanying art concepts.
Each thematic guided tour is two hours in length (or one and a half hours for grades one and younger) and includes an interactive gallery visit as well as a hands-on art lesson.
Pre- and post-visit curriculum guides containing images, lesson plans, and background information help teachers prepare students for the museum visit and integrate the museum experience into the classroom curriculum. Download curriculum guides for free below.
To download curriculum guides from past school tours, visit the curriculum guide archive.

2010-2011 Guided School Tour Themes and Curriculum Guides

Pictures of the Floating World: Japanese Woodblock Prints
Tours September 8, 2010–February 11, 2011
Curriculum Connections: Art, Literacy and Social Studies
What can we learn about a culture from its vision of an ideal world? Focusing on a stunning exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints from the museum’s collection, students will explore printmaking as a way of creating and reproducing these idyllic representations of daily life. In the floating world, life is carefree and calm. What would your floating world look like?
Schedule your school tour

Día de los Muertos
Tours October 27–November 5, 2010
Curriculum Connections: Art and Social Studies
One of our most popular seasonal exhibitions returns to Tacoma Art Museum for two weeks this fall. Students will learn about the arts and cultural traditions of Day of the Dead as they view community altars and a tapete (sand painting), and engage in their own art-making influenced by the traditional symbolism and ideas behind this celebration of the cycle of life.
Download the curriculum guide (PDF)
Download the PowerPoint presentation (PDF)
Schedule your school tour

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell
Tours March 2–May 27, 2011
Curriculum Connections: Art, Literacy and Social Studies
Norman Rockwell told the stories of America through paintings depicting freedom, tolerance, and decency, but also human shortcomings, sorrow, and pain. Don’t miss this special opportunity to peer through a window into history with 395 works, including 323 Saturday Evening Post covers, by an American icon on this traveling exhibition’s only visit to the Northwest.

Download the curriculum guide or the family guide, both courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum (PDF)
Schedule your school tour

The Shape of Things
Available throughout the school year
Curriculum Connections: Art, Math, and Social Studies
How does geometry reveal itself through art? Using artwork from Tacoma Art Museum's seasonal exhibitions, students examine mathematical concepts such as shape, form, pattern, repetition, and symmetry. Two tour options are available, one geared toward an early childhood audience and the other for grades three and up.

Download the curriculum guide (PDF)
Schedule your school tour

Glass: Art in Nature
Available throughout the school year
Curriculum Connections: Art and Science
Where do ideas come from? Students investigate this question while exploring the inspirations behind Dale Chihuly’s glass art and learning about his artistic process. Inspired by marine life of the Pacific Northwest, Navaho blankets, and the material of glass itself, Chihuly has created diverse forms that evoke the patterns and movement of natural and man-made objects. This tour includes Tacoma Art Museum’s permanent Chihuly collection, a walk to the nearby Bridge of Glass, and a studio art lesson.

Download the curriculum guide (PDF)
Schedule your school tour

Tacoma Art Museum Overview
Cost: $4 per student, $3 per student scholarship rate; $60 minimum

Are you bringing an older group of students or a group that hasn’t been to the museum before? Do you have limited time, or do you wish to spend the entirety of your time in the galleries, without a hands-on art lesson?
This special format guided school tour allows your group to spend your first 45 minutes to an hour with an educator who will introduce you to the museum, go over the rules, and lead your students in a brief visit through each of our current exhibitions.
Following the guided portion of your tour, stay on as a self-guided group to return to galleries of interest, learn more in our Art Resource Center, or complete a self-led art project in the museum’s Open Art Studio.
Schedule your school tour

Self-Guided School Tours
Cost: $3 per student, $2 per student scholarship rate; $60 minimum

For the most freedom in visit length, activities, and galleries visited, lead your class in a self-guided tour. Customize a visit to Tacoma Art Museum according to your classroom curriculum and needs.
Complete the museum experience by leading your students in independent, exhibition-related, hands-on art activities in the museum's Open Art Studio.
To receive the school tour program rate, schools must schedule self-guided tours in advance.
Schedule your self-guided school tour

Evaluate your School Tour
Tacoma Art Museum continually strives to make our school programs as relevant, useful, and fun as possible for you and your students. If you have visited Tacoma Art Museum with your class, please provide us with feedback on your trip. Evaluate your tour

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

Image credits from top to bottom:
Utagawa Hiroshige, Suido Bridge and Surugadai (Suidobashi Surugadai) from the series One Hundred Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), 1857-58. Woodblock print, 13 3/8 x 8 15/16 inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. James W. Lyon, 1971.131.6 B, Photo by Richard Nicol.
Día de los Muertos tapete. Photo by Paul Wicks.
No Swimming, Norman Rockwell, 1921. Oil on canvas, 25 ¼ x 22 ¼ inches. Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, June 4, 1921 ©1921 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN. From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum.
Scott Fife, Leroy, the Big Pup, 2004. Archival cardboard, carpenter’s glue, and drywall screws. Tacoma Art Museum.

		Pictures of the Floating World: Japanese Woodblock Prints Tours September 8, 2010–February 11, 2011 Curriculum Connections: Art, Literacy and Social Studies What can we learn about a culture from its vision of an ideal world? Focusing on a stunning exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints from the museum’s collection, students will explore printmaking as a way of creating and reproducing these idyllic representations of daily life. In the floating world, life is carefree and calm. What would your floating world look like? Schedule your school tour

		Día de los Muertos Tours October 27–November 5, 2010 Curriculum Connections: Art and Social Studies One of our most popular seasonal exhibitions returns to Tacoma Art Museum for two weeks this fall. Students will learn about the arts and cultural traditions of Day of the Dead as they view community altars and a tapete (sand painting), and engage in their own art-making influenced by the traditional symbolism and ideas behind this celebration of the cycle of life. Download the curriculum guide (PDF) Download the PowerPoint presentation (PDF) Schedule your school tour

		American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell Tours March 2–May 27, 2011 Curriculum Connections: Art, Literacy and Social Studies Norman Rockwell told the stories of America through paintings depicting freedom, tolerance, and decency, but also human shortcomings, sorrow, and pain. Don’t miss this special opportunity to peer through a window into history with 395 works, including 323 Saturday Evening Post covers, by an American icon on this traveling exhibition’s only visit to the Northwest. Download the curriculum guide or the family guide, both courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum (PDF) Schedule your school tour

		The Shape of Things Available throughout the school year Curriculum Connections: Art, Math, and Social Studies How does geometry reveal itself through art? Using artwork from Tacoma Art Museum's seasonal exhibitions, students examine mathematical concepts such as shape, form, pattern, repetition, and symmetry. Two tour options are available, one geared toward an early childhood audience and the other for grades three and up. Download the curriculum guide (PDF) Schedule your school tour

		Glass: Art in Nature Available throughout the school year Curriculum Connections: Art and Science Where do ideas come from? Students investigate this question while exploring the inspirations behind Dale Chihuly’s glass art and learning about his artistic process. Inspired by marine life of the Pacific Northwest, Navaho blankets, and the material of glass itself, Chihuly has created diverse forms that evoke the patterns and movement of natural and man-made objects. This tour includes Tacoma Art Museum’s permanent Chihuly collection, a walk to the nearby Bridge of Glass, and a studio art lesson. Download the curriculum guide (PDF) Schedule your school tour