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Docent-Led Tours
Docent-led tours are conducted by experienced gallery educators who interact with students to engage them in detailed looking, discussion, and critical thinking about works of art in the collection.
Tour Lengths
Most docent-led tours are one hour in length. Exceptions are noted under the tour descriptions below.
Tour Dates and Times
Docent-led tours are offered September 31, 2013–May 30, 2014. Tour times each weekday morning are 10:00, 10:30, 11:30, and 12:00 unless otherwise indicated. Please note that not all tours are available at all times.
Museum Introduction Tours
Museum Introduction tours have four thematic threads; each provides imaginative ideas through which to begin to explore the extensive and diverse nature of the museum’s collections.
Art from Many Places
An encyclopedic museum encompasses art from many geographic locations, historical eras, and varied cultures. Students will develop looking and critical thinking skills as they explore the differences and similarities among works of art throughout the museum.
Limit: 120 Students
Clues from the Past
Students will hone their investigational skills as they uncover the “clues” works of art may tell us about the interests, world views, and beliefs of peoples from former times.
Limit: 120 Students
Self, Family, and Community
Students will explore the ways artists depict individuals and their relationships with their families and the ways in which these groups form and interact with larger communities.
Limit: 120 Students
Stories in Art
Every picture tells a story! Some works of art might tell the whole story, others might just tell a part. Students will discover the ways artists tell stories visually and will discuss elements of storytelling including characters, setting, action, sequence, and narration.
Limit: 120 Students
All Museum Introduction tours are:
45 minutes for Grades 1–2
60 minutes for Grades 3–5
Specialized Tours (Grades 4–5 only)
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Students discover how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works of art reflected new attitudes toward nature and 19th-century life. They examine these artists’ stylistic innovations and note how their outlooks represented a radical change from the past as well as critical portents for the future.
Limit: 80 Students
American Art: Themes and Ideas
Students explore informing ideas of United States history and culture by engaging with works of art thematically from all historical periods.
Limit: 80 students
60 minutes for grades 4-5
Museum Introduction Tours
Art from Many Places
An encyclopedic museum encompasses art from many geographic locations, historical eras, and varied cultures. Students will develop looking and critical thinking skills as they explore the differences and similarities among works of art throughout the museum.
Limit: 120 Students
60 minutes for grades 6–12
Specialized Tours
American Art: Themes and Ideas
Students explore informing ideas of United States history and culture by engaging with works of art thematically from all American historical periods. Issues such as the formation of personal and national identity or the interplay between American art and its European precursors provide overarching themes for discovery and exploration.
Limit: 80 students
Art of Ancient Greece, Etruria, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire
Students explore the art and informing ideas of the ancient cultures of Greece, Etruria, Rome, and the early Byzantine Empire.
Limit 60 students
60 minutes for grades 6–12
Classical Mythology in Art
On this tour, students explore the mythology of the ancient Mediterranean world and trace its influence in later European and American art.
Limit 60 students
60 minutes for grades 6-12
Arts of Africa
The diverse cultural traditions and worldviews that objects from Africa embody are the focus of this tour. Students will explore a variety of objects in order to compare and contrast the ways in which they functioned originally and to consider how aesthetic properties communicate cultural values.
Limit 60 Students
60 minutes for grades 6–12
Asian Art
On this survey tour students will explore the aesthetics, related spiritual beliefs, and philosophical ideas of eastern and south Asian cultures through engagement with works of art from China, Japan, India, and Korea, and other Asian cultures. A variety of objects will be discussed including ceramics, cast metals, works on silk or paper, and textiles.
Limit: 60 Students
60 minutes for grades 6–12
European Art
Art of France
Through intensive investigation of subject matter, artistic styles, and techniques, students will discuss historical and cultural changes in France as exemplified by
French art.
Limit: 90 Students
90 minutes for grades 9-12
Art of Spain
Through intensive investigation of subject matter, artistic styles, and techniques, students will discuss historical and cultural changes in Spain as exemplified by
Spanish art.
Limit: 45 Students
90 minutes for grades 9-12
European Art (1300–1800)
This survey tour provides an overview of cultural changes in Europe from medieval times through the dawn of the 19th century. Students will discover the changing nature of European cultures and some of the overarching ideas of the times through their examination of subject matter and artistic, technical, and aesthetic perspectives in painting, sculpture and decorative arts.
Limit: 90 Students
60 minutes grades 6–8
90 minutes grades 9–12 (10:00 and 10:30 only)
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Students will discover how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works of art reflected new attitudes toward nature and 19th century life. They will examine the artists’ stylistic innovations and note how their outlooks represented a radical change from the past as well as critical portents for the future.
Limit: 80 Students
60 minutes for grades 6–12
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contemporary Art and Design
This tour explores work produced from 1950 to the present, including painting, sculpture, installation art, new-media work, design, and architecture.
Limit: 90 Students
60 minutes for grades 6-8
90 minutes for grades 9-12
Modern Art
The museum's galleries of Modern Art will be closed until mid-spring 2014 and we are unable to offer Modern Art tours.
Writing and Drawing Tours
Art and Creative Writing
Students engage with works of art not only to respond in a variety of writing modes, but also to understand elements of the writers' and artists' creative processes. Students apply this knowledge as they uncover their own creative process.
Limit: 30 Students
90 minutes for grades 6-12
Seeing through Drawing
Students hone their looking skills by exploring the composition and style of works of art through drawing as they experiment with a variety of techniques. No prior experience is necessary and all materials are provided.
Limit: 30 Students
90 minutes for grades 6–12
All tours meet Illinois Learning Standards in Language Arts, Social Sciences, and Fine Arts. See below for details.
Language Arts
Goal 1 Reading: All tours
Goal 2 Literature: All tours
Goal 3 Writing: Art and Creative Writing
Goal 4 Listening and Speaking: All tours
Social Sciences
Goal 16 History: All tours
Goal 18 Social Systems: All tours
Fine Arts
Goal 25 Language of the Arts: All tours
Goal 26 Creating and Performing: Seeing through Drawing; Really Big and Really Small; Me and My World; and Lines, Shapes, Colors
Goal 27 Arts and Civilization: All tours
Foreign Languages
Goal 29 Culture and Geography: Arts of France, Arts of Spain, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Introduction to Impressionism
Questions? Please e-mail the Student Tours office at studenttours@artic.edu.
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