Welcome to Your Museum!
Grades 1–3

This 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.

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.

Tours List

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.

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Latin  America: Then and Now
Grades 4–12


This tour explores how the great cultures of ancient Mexico, Central America, and South America are reflected in their visual arts. The forms and subjects of these early civilizations have profoundly influenced contemporary Latin American art, as have modern European and North American art. Students discuss the intersection of these various strands, and compare the styles and subject matter of ancient and modern Latin America.

This tour meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 6 and 10.

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Art of America
Grades 4–12

By exploring artworks, 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 meets state content standards for history/social science for grades 4, 5, 8, and 11.

Tours List

Friday
10:30 am
90 minutes

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.

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Heroes, Gods, Myths, and Legends
Grades 5–10

All cultures revere their heroes, who live on in the myths and legends passed down from generation to generation. This tour uses paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from Eastern and Western cultures (including those of Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, and China) as the means of exploring such stories.

This tour relates to content included in history/social science standards for grades 6 and 7.

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Splendors of Japan
Grades 6–12

This program is limited to 65 students. Students gain a deeper understanding of Japanese culture by exploring the paintings, sculpture, 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.

Tours List

Art of Many Cultures
Grades 6–12

Students discover and compare the characteristics of art from many different cultures (both ancient and 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.

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Drawing Is Seeing
Grades 6–12

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.

Tours List

Art of the Modern World
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.

Tours List

Tuesday and Friday
10 and 11:15 
60 minutes

May 5–June 19, 2009

Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples
Grades 6–12

This tour is limited to 60 students per hour.
From the second century B.C. onward, prominent Romans retreated to their villas around the Bay of Naples, a popular vacation spot. The approximately 120 objects in the exhibition will include sculpture, painting, mosaics, and luxury arts from villas and houses in the region of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The exhibition will tie together two related themes: the influence of classical Greece on Roman art and culture around the Bay of Naples, and the impact of the rediscovery of these Roman sites on the art and culture of the modern world.

Tours List