Tour Types
Revolution & Reflection: Art, History, and Ideas
90 minutes | Grades 2–12 | Up to 48 participants per timeslot
Step into history and explore how artists depicted American history and ideas on a tour through three iconic venues at Indiana University. Plus, enjoy a printmaking activity or demonstration during your tour!
Lilly Library: See one of the first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, created by John Dunlap on July 4, 1776.
Eskenazi Museum of Art: View Gilbert Stuart’s famous portrait of George Washington, painted around 1796.
IU Auditorium: Experience Thomas Hart Benton’s monumental murals, The Social and Industrial History of Indiana.
This tour addresses the following Indiana state standards for social studies:
Elementary: exploring how life in the past was different
Middle School: tracing the development of the Republic from its founding
High School: understanding the role of founding documents in U.S. history
Tour Availability
Tuesday–Friday, March 24–May 21
10:00–11:30 a.m. or noon–1:30 p.m.
Indoor lunch space available by reservation: 11:30 a.m.–noon.
We can host up to 48 students per timeslot. For larger groups, please submit one request for the total number of students and note additional dates and times in the comments.
Request your tour!
Learn more about planning your group tour.
Art Investigators
One hour | Grades 2–8 | 6-72 participants
About this tourImagine yourself on an epic adventure around the world! Complete up to six mini quests. Students work together in groups to interpret works of art through embodied movement, creative improvised storytelling, music, imagination, sketching, conversations, and/or arts-based wellness experiences.
This program is a research-based, trauma-informed experience designed for engagement. Ask us for more information about trauma-informed principles of teaching and learning.
This tour meets Indiana Academic Standards.
Maximum capacity is 6 pods with 12 students each.
Pre-visit resources will be provided.
Reservations must be made at least 3 weeks in advance. This program is offered from 10 – 11 a.m., Tuesdays through Fridays. For an on time start at 10 a.m., teachers must have students organized into pods (tour groups), ready at 9:55 a.m. Due to class schedules, this tour ends on time despite late arrivals. Late arrivals will skip one or more stops of the tour.
Teen Gallery Walk
One hour | Grades 9-12 | Up to 60 participants
About this tourThis is a semi-guided museum experience for high school students who are ready for structured independence. You know your students best. This tour offers choices and requires responsible behavior.
The Teen Gallery Walk empowers teens to take charge of their museum experience. It engages students by building trust, offering choices, and promoting opportunities for self-discovery and emotional self-regulation.
Unless the teacher has a specific assignment in mind for this visit, we will facilitate activities designed to offer a variety of modes of experiencing an art museum: as a place to explore one’s natural curiosity, a space to destress and pursue wellness, and as a place to come for a social outing with creative ways to experience art together with others.
The Gallery Walk typically visits three galleries. In each gallery, your guide will:
• introduce you to what’s on view, in a nutshell, and how the gallery is organized
• introduce one of the top reasons people choose to visit museums in their precious free time (e.g. to explore, to recharge, to socialize).
• provide time to follow your heart with a self-guided prompt, so you can spend a little time with what most interests you within that gallery
• remain available to chat and respond to questions as you look at what interests you
• circle up the group to find out which artworks you chose, what you discovered by looking carefully, what kinds of questions and observations came up, etc.
Teen Gallery Walk is a research-based, trauma-informed experience designed for engagement. Ask us for more information about trauma-informed principles of teaching and learning.
Maximum capacity is three pods with 20 students each.
Pre-visit resources will be provided.
Reservations must be made at least 3 weeks in advance. Reservations are available for a choice of times:
10 – 11 a.m.
12 – 1 p.m., with optional indoor lunch space reservation for 11:30 – noon.
For teachers who want to make the most of the campus visit by scheduling a combination of tours from multiple departments on campus in a single day, we can provide a list of some options with contact information.
New on View
One hour | 6–30 adult participants
About this tourDiscover what’s new. Tour one of our featured exhibitions or a combination. In your request, let us know which exhibition(s) you hope to see.
Before you request a tour, please review our current and upcoming exhibitions, including opening and closing dates. Be sure to check that your visit coincides with the exhibition dates.
Artwork from Around the World
One hour | 6–45 adult participants
About this tourExplore artworks from cultures around the world, spanning from ancient times to the present. This tour includes an introduction to the museum and its collections. Unless otherwise requested, this tour visits all three floors of the museum.
Global Modern and Contemporary Art
One hour | 6–24 participants
About this tourJoin a guide for an exploration of modern and contemporary artworks from around the world.
Unless otherwise requested, this tour visits all three floors of the museum to include a variety of art forms. Tour routes may vary as what’s on view changes. The tour may include site-specific installation, textiles, mixed media, painting, time-based media, sculpture, photography, ceramics, printmaking, and/or other media. Depending on what’s currently on view, this tour may visit Featured Exhibitions as well as collections.
