The Akron Art Museum provides quality educational programs and exciting learning opportunities for students and educators. As the only art museum in Akron, the museum is committed to supporting the educational success of local youth. School tours are FREE when organized by a teacher, instructor or school official and scheduled three or more weeks in advance. K-12 School tours are not limited to traditional schools and may include homeschool groups, scout organizations, and after-school programs and clubs. Due to security and safety issues, admission cannot be guaranteed for unscheduled tours. If unscheduled groups are admitted, regular admission fees will apply for each visitor in the group.
K-12 Tour Program
The tour program for K-12 students and teachers provides participants with firsthand experience of the many wonderful works of art that are part of the museum's collection and its temporary exhibitions. For descriptions of current K-12 tour offerings, click here.
Booking a School Tour
All requests must be made at least 3 weeks (15 business days) prior to the earliest requested date. All requests are subject to docent availability and schedules.
Visitors can request a tour by any of the following methods:
- E-MAIL: Download and complete the K - 12 Tour Request Form ( doc | pdf ) and submit the form by emailing the Tour Hotline.
- FAX: Print out a copy of the K - 12 Tour Request Form and fax the completed form to 330.376.1180, ATTN: TOURS.
- MAIL: Print out a copy of the K - 12 Tour Request Form and send the completed form to ATTN: TOURS, One South High, Akron, OH 44308.
- PHONE: Call the tour hotline (330.376.9186 x247) to speak with a museum representative. If no one is available to take your call, please leave a detailed message with the following information:
- Your name, the school or group's name, and a phone number and/or e-mail address where you can be reached
- The preferred date and time of tour
- The age and grade level of the students and what subject you teach
- The number of students and adults in the group
- Any additional information about the group or what you want them to see at the museum
After we have received your information by completed form or phone message, a museum representative will check the availability of the requested dates and times and will contact you within 2 business days of your request. Contact 330.376.9186 x229, if you have any questions regarding your tour.
You must receive written confirmation of your tour in order to be admitted. If written confirmation is not received within one week of your request, call Director of Education Missy Higgins at 330.376.9186 x229.
Bussing and Substitute Coverage Reimbursements
Special funds are available to help K-12 classroom teachers bring their students to the museum for educational field trips during the regular school year. The museum will reimburse school districts up to $150 per field trip for classes who are otherwise unable to visit the museum due to prohibitive transportation costs. The museum is also able to reimburse school districts for the cost of hiring substitutes for teachers who do not teach in self-contained classrooms (i.e., elementary art teachers and secondary teachers). Field trips to the museum— including travel time to and from the museum, an hour-long tour experience, and the option of eating lunch on-site— typically take up less than half of the school day. The museum will reimburse districts for substitute teacher pay rates up to $65 per field trip.
For more information contact the museum’s education department.
The 2007-2008 School Tour Program is made possible by generous gifts from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Lloyd L. & Louise K. Smith Foundation and The Haslinger Family Foundation.
Times
During the school year (September through May), K-12 tours can be scheduled starting at 9:30 am, Tuesday through Friday, with the last tour starting at 3:30 pm. Tours may be scheduled until 7:00 pm on Thursday evenings.
During the summer (June through August), K-12 tours can be scheduled on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting at 11:30 am with the last tour starting at 3:30 pm. No Thursday tours are available during the summer months.
Tour Size
The museum can accommodate tours of up to 60 students. Tour requests for more than 60 students must be divided into smaller groups across multiple dates.
Groups of 12 or more students will be divided into smaller tour groups, each led by separate docents.
K-12 tour groups must provide adult chaperones for their students in accordance with the following ratios:
- Pre-K and K- one adult must be present for every 4 students.
- 1st and 2nd grade- one adult must be present for every 6 students.
- 3rd through 12th grade- one adult must be present for every 10 students.
K-5 ArtSource Tours
ArtSource tours were designed for students in grades 1-5 and promote the strengthening of visual literacy skills and appreciation for the arts. During ArtSource tours, specially trained docents (museum guides) lead students through the museum's collection galleries and initiate focused discussions about specially selected groups of art objects and hands-on art activities. All ArtSource tours support the Ohio Academic Content Standards for the Visual Arts and other academic areas, such as science, language arts, and social studies. Programs are thematic and organized by grade level.
1st Grade - Making Faces: Exploring Portraits
(Visual Arts & Social Studies)
What is a portrait? Why do artists make pictures of people? What can we guess about a person by looking at his or her portrait? Raise questions about how children and families lived in the past, with emphasis on daily life, by studying, comparing and contrasting portraits from the museum's collection.
2nd Grade - Earth, Sea and Sky: Exploring Landscapes
(Visual Arts and Science)
What is a landscape? How many different kinds of "scapes" are there? What kinds of information do artists include in landscapes? Identify weather conditions, classify clouds and phases of the moon in landscape paintings and photographs from the Akron Art Museum's collection.
3rd Grade - Picturing the Story: Exploring Narrative Artworks
(Visual and Language Arts)
Is a picture worth a thousand words? Discover your inner storyteller by spinning tales inspired by artworks from the museum's collection that are rich with narrative possibilities. Have fun inventing stories about what is taking place in specific artworks and then illustrating what happens next.
4th Grade - In Our Own Backyard: Exploring Ohio Art & Artists
(Visual Arts and Social Studies focused)
There are famous artists from Ohio? Of course there are! Learn about artists who lived and worked in Ohio (and Akron!) throughout the past 150 years. What kinds of art did they make? What did they want to show other people about our great state? Could you be the next famous artist from Ohio?
5th Grade - Mod Squad I: Exploring Modern Painting
Mod Squad II: Exploring Modern Sculpture
(Visual Arts focused)
Are you puzzled when you look at works of modern art? Modern art CAN be a puzzle. Let our docents help you put the pieces together! Learn how an abstract artist "sees" his or her subject. What exactly do artists mean when they talk about abstraction? Explore works by artists who took painting in new directions by using line, shape, and color in new and exciting ways.
Middle School Tours
Middle school teachers are encouraged to bring their students to tour our special exhibitions. Please see the exhibition calendar for details about upcoming shows.
Middle school teachers may also request docent-led tours of the collection galleries that focus on works connected by a specific topic or media.
To book a Middle School Tour, click here.
High School Tours
High school teachers are encouraged to bring their students for docent-led tours of special exhibitions. High school teachers may also request docent-led tours of the collection galleries that focus on works connected by a specific topic or media. Docent-led tours are subject to docent availability. High school teachers may also choose to schedule self-led tours of the galleries for their students. Please note, self-guided tours must also be scheduled three weeks in advance so that the museum staff can check for other scheduled tours and prevent potentially overcrowded galleries.
To ensure that the viewing experience of other museum visitors is not compromised, large groups should divide into smaller tour groups of no more than 13 people (10 students plus three chaperones). Please see the exhibition calendar for details about upcoming shows.
To book a High School Tour, click here.
