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Tours of the Permanent Collection
October 1, 2008–May 28, 2010
Guided tours at LACMA present the richness of the visual arts, increase students’ powers of perception, analysis, and judgment, and stimulate interest in a vital part of our multicultural heritage. School tours are led by docents, volunteer educators who receive training in art history (with an emphasis on LACMA’s collection) and in working with students. Docents engage students in active viewing and in a discussion of ideas and observations by focusing on a select number of works (on average, approximately ten works of art during the tour). Tours are aligned with state content standards for history/social science and language arts.
In addition to tours of the permanent collection, tours of selected special exhibitions are offered (see below). This year, tours of American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 will begin in March 2010.
Black-out dates: winter break (November 26, 2009–January 8, 2010); Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 18, 2010); Presidents’ Day (February 15, 2010); and spring break (March 29–April 9, 2010).
| Regular Tours |
Friday
10 & 11 am
50 minutes |
Welcome to Your Museum!
Grades 1–3
This introductory tour helps the younger members of our community develop their visual skills as they learn to look at art, discovering colors, textures, patterns, and shapes. The themes presented—such as children in art, home and family, and animals—are designed to captivate students' imaginations and show how art relates to their own world.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 2 and 3.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Thursday
10 & 11 am
50 minutes |
People and Places in Art
Grades 1–5
This introductory tour explores how artists use line, color, shape, light, and shadow to depict the commonality and uniqueness of people around the world. Students sharpen their observation and critical-thinking skills as they discover what art can tell us about people and places from ancient times through present day.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 2 and 3.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Tuesday
10 & 11 am
50 minutes |
Art Tells a Tale
Grades 2–5
Students discover how art can tell stories about different people, times, and places. They learn to read stories in paintings, sculptures, and other objects through a discussion about how the basic elements of art create a visual language. Art Tells a Tale encourages observation skills while enhancing vocabulary and oral-presentation skills.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 2 and 3 and language arts for grades 2 through 5.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Monday
10 & 11:15
60 minutes |
Art of America
Grades 4–12
Art of America surveys the development of the United States from colonial times to the present day. Students compare and contrast the unique characteristics of art from different periods in American history, including the works of California artists and contemporary American artists. This tour may include art from Central and South America from ancient times to the present day.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 4, 5, 8, and 11.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Friday
10:30 am
90 minutes
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Art and Creative Writing
Grades 5–12
This tour is limited to 80 students.
Art is a powerful stimulus for literary response, and this tour explores the connection between art, imagination, and the written word. By using such devices as metaphors, sensory descriptions, and imaginary dialogues, students gain a fuller understanding of the works on display as well as enhance their creative writing skills. Writing pads, pencils, and stools are provided.
This tour meets state content standards for language arts for all grades.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Tuesday
10 & 11:15
60 minutes |
Heroes, Legends, Gods and Myths
Grades 5–10
All cultures revere their heroes, who live on in the myths and legends passed down from generation to generation. Heroes, Legends, Gods and Myths uses paintings, sculpture, and other objects from various cultures around the world as the means of exploring such stories.
This tour relates to content included in history/social science standards for grades 6 and 7.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Monday
10 am
2 hours |
Splendors of Japan
Grades 6–12
This program is limited to 60 students.
Students gain a deeper understanding of Japanese culture by exploring the paintings, sculpture, netsuke, ceramics, and prints in LACMA’s Pavilion for Japanese Art. The Splendors of Japan tour is accompanied by a workshop in which students create ink paintings.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grade 7.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Thursday
10 and 11:15
65 minutes |
Art of Many Cultures
Grades 6–12
Students discover and compare the characteristics of art from many different cultures (both Western and non-Western), from ancient times to modern, identifying the unique qualities that relate a work of art to the time and place of its origin. Students also learn how culture and art influence each other.
This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 6, 7, and 10.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Tuesday 10:30 am
90 minutes
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Drawing Is Seeing
Grades 4–12
This program is limited to 80 students.
Drawing exercises that sharpen students’ powers of observation are used to demonstrate that drawing really is seeing. Students examine artworks in LACMA’s permanent collection from an artist’s point of view, considering such elements as negative space, gesture and movement, geometric shapes, and inverted composition. Drawing ability is not necessary. Drawing pads, pencils, and stools are provided.
This tour meets state content standards for visual arts for all grades.
Pre-Visit Materials
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Monday
10:30 am
75 minutes |
Modern and Contemporary Art
Grades 7–12
Artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have questioned and built on the traditions of the past. They have analyzed the underlying structures of visual art, experimented with new materials, created new styles, and explored different subjects from those of earlier generations. Docents guide students in discovering common themes and individual approaches used by artists to grapple with contemporary life and the question "What is art?"
The tour meets state content standards for visual arts for grades 5 and 9 through 12 and for history/social science for grades 10 and 11.
Pre-Visit Materials
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| Tours of Special Exhibitions |
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Tuesday and Friday
10 and 11:15
60 minutes
March 2–May 18, 2010
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American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915
Grades 6–12
This tour is limited to 60 students per hour.
The narrative paintings in this exhibition tell the story of everyday life in America. Beginning before the American Revolution, artists sought to celebrate and document the emerging nation and its people. The sweep of American life is reppresented—early colonists, Native Americans, factory workers, freed slaves, immigrants, farmers, children, families, soldiers—at work and at play. This exhibition includes some of the most enduring images in American art by the country's greatest artists: John Singleton Copley, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent. The tour emphasizes the stories that artists tell and the means by which they tell them, and meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 8, 10 and 11.
Pre-visit guide coming January 2010
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Banner Image:
Photo © Brant Brogan
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Docent Council
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323 857-6108
schooltours@lacma.org
1st-12th grade School Tour Request Form
(PDF: 44 Kb)
Self-Guided and Special Request Visit Form (PDF: 20Kb)
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