Docent-led Tours: Guided Art Experiences
Introduction to the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block
Designed for the first time visitor and museum-goer, this is an overview of the permanent collections and five historic houses, including one of Tucson’s oldest houses, Casa Cordova. Experienced docents will provide interactive tours of a selection of highlights from the collections and temporary exhibitions highlighting key themes found in the work on view, the tour can be customized to relate to in-school lessons. Learn what a museum is, and discover the different artists and works you can find in it. All ages. 60 minutes.
Focus on a Current Exhibition
Spend your visit focused on the issues and works explored in the temporary exhibitions. Museum staff and docents can design this tour around thematic links to your curriculum. All ages. 60 minutes.
Thinking Visually
Works of art are complex visual objects that invite multiple interpretations. Students become the participant and learn how to look at art recognizing elements of art, principles of design, and discovering how artworks are made learning about process and materials. This engaging tour starts students on a journey about their own thinking processes as they consider meanings from visual information. Grades 9-12. Requires 90 minutes.
Docent-led Tours with Art Making Option
Sense-Sational Self-Portraits
Discover portraiture and understand the elements of art such as shapes, colors, and lines. We will discuss parts of the face while learning about the related five senses and the techniques artists use to tell the viewer about the character of their subject. In the Education Center students will use hand-held mirrors to study facial features and create a self-portrait. Kindergarten–Grade 2. Requires 90 minutes.
Animal Art
Many artists like to include animals in their work and represent them in many different ways. Students will explore how works in the permanent collection illustrate animals in paintings, drawings, and sculptures. In related art-making activities, students create a take-home work of art of a real or imaginary animal friend. Pre- Kindergarten – Grade 2.
Learning to Look
Students will identify colors, lines, shapes, texture and patterns throughout the museum and will learn to investigate art objects through observation and discussion-based tours. Objects from the museum’s study collection, which can be touched, are available for these tours. Students then have the option to create their own works based on what they have seen on the docent-led tour. Pre-Kindergarten – 5. Requires 2 hours.
Arizona History: Selections from the Historic Block and Art of the American West Collection
During the 19th century artists traveled a great deal to capture the American frontier, its people and ways of life. The result of their travels, paintings, drawings and sculptures provide the viewer with a glimpse of a special time in American history. During the interactive tour, students will learn about the geography of the United States, cowboy history, and what life was like between 1830 and 1875. We’ll walk back in time exploring the historic Casa Cordova and discover paintings by Nicolai Fechin, Ofaf Wieghorst, and Charles M. Russell. Following the tour, students will make an original painting in the Education Center. Grades 2 - 5. Requires 2 hours. Pre-visit materials available upon request.
Latin American Journey
Examine a variety of objects made by the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America from ancient times to the present. Students examine pre-Columbian art, Mexican folk art, and enjoy gallery lessons highlighting Latin American culture. Students will make their own clay figurine after an interactive tour of the Palice Pavilion of Art of the Americas. K- 5. Requires 2 hours.
Other Options
Custom and Self-Guided Tours
The Museum wants to meet your classroom’s unique interests. Please contact the education department at Education(at)TucsonMuseumofArt.org about extending your classroom learning with special tours. All tours of the Museum’s special exhibitions and permanent collections can be tailored to complement curriculum topics in the fine arts, social studies, language arts, and the sciences.
