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K–12 Tours

Museum docents welcome student groups and encourage teacher participation in planning tours tailored to the school curriculum. Tours must be scheduled at least three weeks in advance. There is no charge for school groups, but they are limited to a maximum of forty-five students for each visit with at least one chaperone for every twelve students. For further information and to schedule school tours, please call the docent tour desk (609) 258-3043, Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

  1. What’s in the Museum?
    Preschool through Upper Elementary, with Age-Appropriate Art and Stories
    Look at sculptures of a Roman child, Chinese dragon, medieval knight, and western cowboys. See paintings by such artists as Albert Bierstadt, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens, and Frank Stella. Listen to a story or two. Learn about shapes, colors, textures, and materials used by the artists.


  2. Animals and Birds in the Galleries
    Preschool through Grade 2
    Search for real and imaginary creatures such as a green Egyptian cat, Jupiter’s splendid eagle, an African chimpanzee, an ancient Mexican toy jaguar, and a dolphin swimming in a windy sea. Hear tales about them, and discover how they were made.


  3. Myths and Stories in Art
    Preschool through Grade 3
    See how artists use color, line, and shape to tell stories. Listen to tales told by a docent as you look at paintings and sculpture from various cultures. Perhaps create your own story about a work of art.


  4. Classical Mythology in Art
    Upper Elementary through High School
    Visit the classical galleries and find such figures as Apollo, Athena, Dionysus, Herakles, Medusa, and Zeus (or their Roman counterparts). Also, explore the European galleries to trace uses of classical mythology in later Western art.


  5. World Cultures: Ancient Mediterranean, Pre-Columbian, Northwest Coast, African, and Asian Cultures
    Choose one or more of the above cultures, or include all in a highlights tour of the lower galleries
    Upper Elementary through High School
    Discover what art reveals about the life, traditions, and beliefs of earlier cultures. Find clues in such objects as an Egyptian mummy coffin, Roman marble portraits, an ancient Olmec shaman, a Northwest Coast totem pole, African ceremonial masks, and Chinese tomb figurines.


  6. Continuity and Change in Western Art and Culture
    Middle and High School
    Survey developments in the history of Western art and culture from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century, or focus on two or three of the following periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. American art can also be included.


  7. From Egg Tempera to Oil: Techniques of Painting
    (limited to 30 students or less)
    Upper Elementary through High School
    Gather at the Painting Cart in the Renaissance Gallery, and learn how early European artists used egg yolk on wood panel. Handle artists’ materials, tools, and brushes. Visit other European galleries to see how paintings changed as artists’ techniques developed.


  8. How Sculpture is Created
    (limited to 30 students or less)
    Upper Elementary through High School
    Learn about sculptors’ techniques: modeling, casting, carving, and construction. Handle materials such as marble, wood, clay, an armature, and tools on the Sculpture Cart. Look at sculpture in the galleries to discover how artists have used these techniques and materials.


  9. Outdoor Walking Tour: Twentieth-Century Sculpture in the John B. Putnam, Jr., Collection
    Elementary through High School
    Walk through the beautiful campus of Princeton University and see a variety of contemporary sculpture from Picasso to Henry Moore. Learn about materials and techniques, and explore elements of design and balance.

General Information

Tours of special exhibitions also are available if appropriate for school groups. No indoor facilities are available for meals. Restaurants are located nearby. Groups may wish to eat bag lunches on the campus lawns

Directions for School or Tour Buses: Buses should enter the campus from Faculty Road. Bus access to campus may sometimes be restricted. In that event, groups may either walk to the museum from the Faculty Road entrance or take the University shuttle.

Cancellations
The museum requires advance notification for canceled group appointments: telephone (609) 258-3043.
For emergency cancellations, call Museum Security (609) 258-2840.
 
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ 08544-1018
© 2002 Princeton University Art Museum

 
 
Chinese, Southern Song dynasty, 1127–1279
Guanyin Seated in Royal-ease Pose, (detail)
ca. 1250
Polychrome and stucco on wood, H. 110 cm.
Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbush, Jr., Memorial Collection
y1950-66