School Tour Topics
Join us for guided tours on the following topics. Guides invite students (and chaperones) to look closely at artworks and engage with them through a variety of participatory strategies that encourage curiosity, reflection, and conversation. Tours are adapted to reflect grade-level learning goals and developmental needs.
Are you a school currently enrolled in Art Adventure looking to book your tour? If so, be sure to select the Art Adventure tour option on the Tour Request Form. Not enrolled, but want to learn more? Visit our Art Adventure page!
Amazing Animals in Art
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
Explore the reasons why artists from around the world create images of animals through a broad range of media. The artworks included on this tour invite students to examine the qualities of animals that have engaged artists’ imaginations and techniques throughout history.
Recommended grade level: K–5
American Stories
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
Explore artwork that tells nearly 200 years of stories about the United States. From the Native peoples who’ve lived on this land for millennia to the people who’ve migrated here, both by choice and through forced displacement and enslavement, many communities have greatly shaped the country. Students will explore artworks made in America to learn about the history, traditions, and experiences that reflect our diverse nation.
Recommended grade level: K–12
Artists’ Inspirations
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
What inspires an artist to create a work of art? Discover the sources of inspiration for artists from a variety of cultures and examine how their original ideas were shaped and transformed in the creative process.
Recommended grade level: K–12
Art and Activism
Discover how art focuses on issues, communicates multiple perspectives, and asks challenging questions. Learn how artists use their voices and imagery to inspire activism and bring about social change. Examine how artists invoke empathy, which involves looking beyond ourselves and identifying with others’ experiences.
Recommended grade level: 3–12
Art and Human Connections
On this Social and Emotional Learning–inspired tour, experience diverse ways in which art can help learners develop self- and social-awareness skills. On this tour, the artworks invite student engagement centered on identifying feelings; respecting self and others; empathy; perspective-taking; collaboration; and valuing diverse cultures, communities, and relationships.
Recommended grade level: K–8
Art and Identity
Gain insights into the expression and impact of identity through sharing diverse perspectives while examining art. Consider how art reveals varied stories, life experiences, and memories.
Recommended grade level: 3–12
Cultural Reflections
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
Students will become anthropologists during this tour, using their eyes as tools of discovery to look for clues about various cultures. Artworks are often created for contexts other than museums, so their meaning is better understood when we learn the context in which they were made. Each artwork included on this tour is a product of a specific place and time, and reflects the culture that produced it.
Recommended grade level: K–5
Dressed for the Occasion
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
Clothing is a vehicle for creativity and expressing identity, and can provide insights into a culture. On this tour, students explore the important role of clothing throughout history across a broad range of media in both two and three dimensions.
Recommended grade level: K–8
Family, Friends, and Communities
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
Explore how artists have represented a broad range of human interaction across history and place. Students will discover how art can heighten our awareness of the bonds that connect human beings beyond time, gender, race, or nationality.
Recommended grade level: K–12
How People Lived
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
The earliest historical records made by humans were not written but painted or carved on the walls of caves tens of thousands of years ago. On this tour, students explore how people lived at different times in various parts of the world.
Recommended grade level: 2–12
Let’s Celebrate Life
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
On this tour, students discover the similarities and differences in how and why humans celebrate. From holidays to rituals to personal milestones, the artworks from around the world and across a variety of media invite students to explore what celebration can mean.
Recommended grade level: K–5
People and Their Environments
Coming soon in the 2026–27 school year!
People react to the world around them in everything they do. During this tour, guides and students explore artworks that reveal an aspect of their creator’s relationship with the natural and constructed environment. Discover Mia’s collection with an environmental focus, from the immersive rock garden to photographic cityscapes.
Recommended grade level: 2–8
Highlights of Mia’s Collection
Highlights tours are focused on specific collections. Please choose a topic from below.
Recommended grade level: K–12
Introduction to Mia
Experience splendid art from around the world and throughout time in Mia’s collection, sampling memorable highlights from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe as students explore the museum and learn through observation and discussion. Use our Tour Request Form to identify a specific collection area or time period you’d like to tour.
Black American Arts and Artists
Using various media, artists have documented and celebrated the African American experience. Discover artworks created across time that highlight the creativity and contributions of Black American artists.
Native American Arts and Artists
Celebrate the rich culture and heritage of Native Americans as expressed in superb works of art. Experience the role of tradition and innovation in works from historic to contemporary times.