Above: Every year MPS students learn about art and the Museum by meeting with a variety of staff from different departments, such as Brad Echols, preparator in Curatorial.
Curriculum-Based Tours
The Museum offers curriculum-based tour experiences that make connections between art and the Alabama Course of Study Standards. These tours can be adjusted for different grade levels.
Kindergarteners and fifth-graders from the Montgomery Public School System visit the Museum every year for system-wide field trips, scheduled by the school district. Outside of these systematically scheduled tours, schools, homeschool groups, and other organizations can contact the Museum’s tour coordinator for more information about scheduling and fees.
Away We Go!
Designed for Pre-Kindergarten
Away We Go! is all about transportation and how we get from one place to another. Students will hear a story in the galleries and discuss the various types of transportation depicted in an artwork. They will dance and move during activities that will test their listening and balancing skills and in the studio, they hone fine motor skills while working with colors and shapes and leave with transportation inspired work of art they get to take home.
Visual Thinking Strategies
Designed for Kindergarten+
VTS facilitates student-driven discussion of works of art and promotes careful looking and critical thinking skills. An open-ended, student-centered studio lesson is also available.
American Scene
Designed for Grades 1+
The American Scene introduces American visual culture through portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, and sculptures created in a variety of historical eras. Students enjoy related theatrical and musical experiences in ArtWorks and create mixed-media sculptural works in the studios.
Becoming Alabama
Designed for Grades 4+
Becoming Alabama, marking the bicentennial of the state, examines themes related to the Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, agriculture, industry, and more. The studio lesson is inspired by Stars Falling on Alabama, and the ArtWorks component relates to Native American culture.
Math Tour
Designed for Grades 5+
Math tours include calculations related to the building, an exploration of the Fibonacci sequence represented in ArtWorks, and mathematics connections in works of art. A studio lesson based on the Fibonacci sequence is also available.
Narrate & Create: The Story Art Tells
Designed for Grades 5+
Pulling from State educational content standards, this tour focuses on responding, creating, and presenting art while focusing on the elements of a story (plot, character, and setting). Students will discuss how art can be used as a tool to create a narrative story. Students will also develop a story derived from a work of art and use the materials provided to create a short story with an accompanying illustration.
Other Tours
ArtWorks Group Visits
Because of the volume of visitors and other tours to this interactive gallery, groups of 10 or more to ArtWorks must be arranged in advance. The booking fee is $15 per 25 participants.
MMFA Highlights
The Museum provides highlights and custom tours of the permanent collection, featuring American paintings, regional art, works on paper, decorative arts, select arts of Africa, the sculpture garden, and more.
Please note that not all collections are on view at all times.
Special Exhibitions
Guided tours of MMFA temporary special exhibitions are offered on request.
Contact
For additional information and questions, please contact the Tour Coordinator at tours@mmfa.org or call 334.625.4362.
