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Plan Your Family Visit

The Art Institute offers many ways to make your family visit as enriching and enjoyable as possible. See the sections below for more information about the materials we have available.

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Prepare a Museum Activity Bag

  • Bring a small notebook for children to use for sketching, writing stories, and recording questions. A favorite toy can help occupy younger children.
  • Create a series of activity cards based on your children’s interests. Punch a hole in each card and connect them with a metal ring. Draw alphabet letters on cards, write numbers, or make swatches of colors. Use the cards to help guide your museum visit.
  • Collect postcards from the museum's shops to add to your family museum bag each time you visit.

Practical Matters

  • Please be aware that backpack-style baby carriers are not permitted in the galleries.
  • A limited number of strollers are available free of charge at both the Michigan Avenue and Modern Wing entrances. There are ramps for easy entry.
  • Restrooms are equipped with changing tables. There is a family restroom on the first level near the Modern Wing entrance. Drinking fountains are available near every restroom.
  • While there are no restrictions prohibiting breastfeeding or bottle-fedding infants in the museum, there are several areas in the museum that may provide a more comfortable environment for these activities. On the lower level near the base of the Grand Staircase, there is a curtained-off room labeled "Infant Care," adjacent to the women's restroom where mothers can nurse. The room has a changing table on the wall and is also equipped with a chair where a mother may sit and nurse or bottle feed. While not as private, the Family Room in the Ryan Education Center on the first level of the Modern Wing, is another space where a mother could comfortably nurse or bottle feed a young child. This space is a great place for families to take a break and relax as part of a museum visit, offering many activities including picture books, building blocks, art puzzles, and interactive computer stations. Dining areas, such as the Museum Café or Caffè Moderno, are also spots to consider for infant feeding.
  • The Museum Café offers soup, salads, sandwiches, pizza, and desserts. High chairs and booster chairs are available. Caffè Moderno offers scrumptious soups, salads, panini, drinks, and dessert in a convenient quick-order setting overlooking Griffin Court. Terzo Piano features contemporary Italian cuisine and alfresco dining during the summer.

No food or drink is allowed in the galleries.

For more ideas, check out the family guidebook Faces, Places, and Inner Spaces, which is packed with games, suggestions, and tips to help families have fun at the museum. It can be purchased online or at our Museum Shop. 

Watch How to Engage Your Child in Art for tips on how to cultivate a young visitor’s appreciation of art. Then review the suggestions below.

The “No Touching” Rule

  • Stress to children that they cannot touch artworks. Explain that the museum needs to protect the art so that people can enjoy it in the future.
  • Encourage children to talk about the textures they feel when they "touch" it with their eyes.

Cultivate Curiosity

  • Allow your children to move at their own pace.
  • Tune in to what excites them and help them make discoveries.
  • Read the object label for information you can talk about.

Relate Art to the Familiar

  • Relate what you see to what your child already knows. For example, explain that a suit of armor served the same purpose as a catcher's mask, a bicycle helmet, or shin guards—it protected the body.
  • Remind them that art is something we live with every day. Most of the artworks in the museum were once owned and used by real people.

Visit in Child-Size Portions

  • Stay only as long as your child is engaged.
  • Young children usually learn best in sessions lasting ten to fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes to one hour in the galleries may be the limit.
  • Don't try to see everything in one visit—focused time with a few works of art is more valuable than a grand tour.
  • A family membership makes shorter, more frequent visits an attractive option for young families.

Sketch from the Original

Take a seat in front of your child's favorite artwork and let them hone their drawing skills by sketching from a master.

Write a Story

Find a realistic painting or sculpture with recognizable subjects and write a story together that answers the following questions: Who are the people? Where are they? What are they doing?

Become an Art Detective 

Buy some postcards at the Museum Shop and ask children to find the pictured items. Later, the cards can be arranged for a home exhibition.

Play "I Spy" 

Have children choose an object in a gallery and describe it to other family members so that each one can take turns guessing what the object is. For example, "I spy a work of art that is red and brown with sharp edges."

Seek and Find 

Ask your children to find paintings that have his or her favorite colors, shapes, or objects in them. This game teaches children to look closely at objects.

For more ideas, check out the family guidebook Faces, Places, and Inner Spaces, which is packed with games, suggestions, and tips to help families have fun at the museum. It can be purchased online or at our Museum Shop. 

Reinforce the things your children discovered with these suggestions.

Remember Your Visit

Encourage your children to draw, write, and talk about the things they saw at the museum. What was their favorite work of art? What didn't they like? Why?

Relate Art to the Familiar

Mention how everyday objects and things in your home are similar to things you observed in artworks at the museum.

Explore Picture Books Together 

Looking at picture books helps children become familiar and comfortable with developing a visual vocabulary even before they can read text. Find a picture book without words and take turns creating a narrative together. Or have your child close his or her eyes and imagine the illustrations as you read a story. Choose part of the story and let your child describe how their illustration fits with the text.

Start a Mini-Museum at Home 

Suggest that your children start a collection of their favorite objects and build their own mini-museum at home. Whether they collect trading cards, erasers, or stuffed toys, it can be the beginning of a more thorough appreciation of what museums have to offer.

The Curious Corner 

Did your child enjoy the Curious Corner at the museum? Play with and learn about art at home too!

For more ideas, check out the family guidebook Faces, Places, and Inner Spaces, which is packed with games, suggestions, and tips to help families have fun at the museum. It can be purchased online or at our Museum Shop. 

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