School Tours

The Museum is excited to continue our School Tours Scholarship Fund to help more students connect with art, each other, and the world. The scholarship is designed to support K-12 City of Milwaukee schools facing financial barriers in bringing their students to the Museum.

Eligibility and requirements

• K–12 Schools located in the City of Milwaukee with an economically disadvantaged rating of 60% or higher on WI DPI Report Card are eligible to apply.
• Scholarships are distributed on a first come, first served basis and are credited to the school group’s tour reservation, with a scholarship award credit of up to $280 for smaller groups of students or up to $560 for groups of 70 or more students.
• Scholarship awards will be applied as a credit to the school group’s tour reservation fee at the Museum.
• Scholarship award credits cannot exceed the school group’s tour reservation fee nor carry over to future reservations. The school is responsible for any remaining reservation fee balance.
• Schools must be approved for the scholarship before the tour request is fulfilled by the Museum. Schools that do not request a tour within 30 days of scholarship approval may need to resubmit an application.
• This scholarship does not apply to the Junior Docent School Program.

The School Tours Scholarship Fund is supported by generous gifts from the Milwaukee Art Museum Board of Trustees and is intended to offset the costs of bus transportation to the Museum. Scholarship award credits have been set to reflect that intention. If your school meets the eligibility criteria, we encourage you to apply early to secure your funding.

MAM docents engage students in active looking and discussions by focusing on select works of art related to your tour theme. All tours include art from across the Museum’s collection, including diverse artists and cultures. All tours are one hour long unless noted otherwise.

Grades K–3

A is for Art
Explore the correlations between art and literacy. Inspired by A Is for Art by Marjorie Nelson Moon, this tour invites young learners to look closely, make connections, and build language by exploring art through the alphabet.

Animals in Art
Discover art that depicts animals both large and small. Young learners look closely, share ideas, and imagine the stories told by friendly animals and fantastic beasts.

Exploring Art through the Senses
Engage the senses through art. Students explore how works of art can suggest sound, movement, texture, scent, and taste.

Line, Shape, Color
Discover how artists use line, shape, and color to create purpose, movement, and feeling in works across the Museum’s collection.

Storytelling in Art
Investigate art beyond a first look. Students look closely, listen to one another, and use visual clues in the artwork to reveal their compelling stories.

Grades 4–12

American Stories
Discover how art shapes, as well as reflects, American life and culture. Explore paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts that reveal stories, places, and people from diverse perspectives across the United States.

Art by Artists of the African Diaspora
Spend time with paintings and sculptures by artists of the African Diaspora in the Museum’s collection. Students explore connections across Africa, Europe, North America, and beyond through close looking and conversation.

Art from Many Places + Times
Examine how art connects us to different places and moments in time. View highlights from the Museum’s collection across cultures, locations, and eras. Students look closely, wonder together, and share ideas about art and the world.

Communities + Traditions
Explore how art reflects diverse communities, traditions, and ways of life. Students consider how art helps people share who they are and connect with others across the globe.

Modern + Contemporary Art
Encounter artwork from the mid-1860s to today and discover what it reveals about changing ideas and culture. See how artists challenge, reimagine, and transform the way we understand the world through various art movements.

Art + Social Perspectives
Explore artworks that offer perspectives sometimes overlooked or underrepresented in the history of art. By taking time to notice artists’ creative choices, students investigate ideas about broader community histories. Students consider art as a mirror and a window, reflecting and expanding our individual and collective understanding. Students are invited to look at artists as historians and changemakers and ask questions about the ways art interprets and shapes the world around us.

Writing + Art
How does looking at art spark new ideas for creative expression? Explore the Museum’s galleries through writing with Look. Write. See: Activities for Teaching Writing and Looking at Art. Students look closely, write creatively, and reflect on how connecting with art enhances the writing process and vice versa. Participants receive a sketchbook for this 90-minute experience ($12 per student).