Experience Interactive, Inquiry-based Learning
Have a personal encounter with art! The Blanton provides engaging, interactive, and inquiry-based tours for students, allowing them to make connections between their lives and the world around them. Our tours reinforce classroom objectives in art, as well as social studies, language arts, mathematics, and science. All tours are designed to support TEKS objectives.
School Tours
- Look & Learn: Enhance visual literacy through discussion and examination of highlights from the museum's collection.
- Destination Europe: Meet ordinary and extraordinary people from Europe from the 1500s to 1700s and learn about the culture in which they lived.
- America/Americas: Investigate modern and contemporary works from North, South, and Central America.
- Story Time Tour: Discover the basics of art and the magic of children's literature by exploring well–loved stories in relationship to artwork in the Blanton's collection. Recommended for Pre–K to 2nd grade.
- Art Now: Learn why contemporary artists express ideas about the past as well as the world live in today. Recommended for 6th – 12th grade.
- Made to Order Tour: Create a one–of–a–kind tour in collaboration with Museum Education staff specifically aligned with your class curriculum and students' needs.
Special Exhibition Tours for Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum
Discover the People and Places of Nineteenth-Century Europe: Explore the people and places featured in Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum. Students will learn how to look at landscapes, portraits, and narrative paintings in this dynamic tour designed to introduce young viewers to the world of art in the nineteenth century. Recommended for 3rd – 6th grade students.
Modern Life, Modern World: Art in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Examine how changes in technology, work, and leisure time, and urban and rural life, are reflected in artists’ choice of subject and style. Works of art from exhibitions Turner to Monet and Repartee: Nineteenth-Century Prints and Drawings from The Blanton Collection will be featured on this tour. Recommended for 7th – 12th grade students.
Self-guided Tours
The Blanton offers self-guided resources to assist teachers to plan, develop, and lead their own group tour. A downloadable PDF of all self-guided materials can be found on our website under K-12 Programs.
Art & Relationships: Considers how interpersonal relationships, personal connections, and human interactions are expressed in a range of works of art from the museum’s collection. Recommended for 4th - 6th grade students.
Art & Identity: Investigates issues of identity and self-definition by having students closely observe and discuss objects from The Blanton collection. Recommended for 7th - 9th grade students.
Chase is the Presenting Corporate Sponsor for Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Support for education programs and outreach related to the exhibition is provided by Applied Materials, the Dell Foundation, mindPOP, and Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Inc.
Additional support for education programs at The Blanton is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. Education Endowment and the Burdine Johnson Foundation Education Endowment.
Preparing for Your Tour
- To schedule a guided or self-guided tour, contact The Blanton’s tour scheduler at least three weeks in advance.
- We can accommodate up to 75 students at one time. Groups larger than 75 people can be scheduled for back-to-back tours.
- Guided tours are 50 minutes in length and are available Tuesdays – Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM. K-12 groups must bring one adult chaperone for every eight students. Chaperones must stay with the group.
- School tours are $2 per student, including Thursdays. Required chaperones and teachers accompanying school groups are free. Additional adults pay regular admission price of $9.
- Though each tour is a little different, they are designed to support TEKS objectives in language arts, humanities, social studies, science, and the visual arts.
- Self-guided groups are required to schedule visits in advance. We can accommodate 35 self-guided students per half hour beginning at 10:30 AM.
K - 3rd graders are required to have a docent-led tour. - Box lunches for school groups can be ordered through the café a minimum of 4 business days in advance. Contact Chef Manager Eldon Hart at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to make an order.
- Review museum guidelines with students visiting the museum before your trip:
- Please do not touch works of art.
- Use only pencils.
- Walk slowly.
- Food, drink, gum, and large bags are not allowed.
- To schedule a tour, contact the Department of Academic and Public Programs at least three weeks in advance. Please click here to fill out our online form
Art Central Program
Art Central is a vibrant program that allows students in 4th and 5th grade to visit the museum four times during the school year. The program introduces students to the role and purpose of a museum through interaction with works of art. The program's four lessons are: The Artist’s Tools, Messages in Art, The Magic and Mystery of Museums, and Mastering the Museum. Pre- and post-visit lessons are taught by participating teachers to reinforce ideas explored during museum visits. Participating schools receive free transportation and admission, teacher training, and resources to implement the program. Space in the program is limited and by application only. For more information about Art Central, please contact Jennifer Garner at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (512) 471-3564.
Please click here to fill out our online Art Central form
Chase is the Presenting Corporate Sponsor for Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Support for education programs and outreach related to the exhibition is provided by Applied Materials, the Dell Foundation, and Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Inc.
Additional support for education programs at The Blanton is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. Education Endowment and the Burdine Johnson Foundation Education Endowment.
Educator Events and Resources
Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum and Reparteé Exhibition Preview for Teachers
Sunday, October 3 from 2-4 pm
Be inspired by art from nineteenth-century America, England, and France as you tour the fall exhibitions, receive teacher resources, and enjoy light refreshments. Bring your calendar to take advantage of on-site tour booking for our exhibitions. To register for this event, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
- Educator Membership: K-12 educators receive all the perks of membership plus these special offers:
- $10 Educator discount on any membership level
- 20% off teacher workshops
- 20% off teacher manuals and resources
- Educator Resources
Art + Online is a multimedia resource that offers educators and students dynamic connections between art and another discipline through lessons, images, and videos. The following resources can be found under the "Interact" section of our site: Art + History, Art+ Ancient History & Culture, Art + Mathematics, and Art + Poetry
Chase is the Presenting Corporate Sponsor for Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Support for education programs and outreach related to the exhibition is provided by Applied Materials, mindPOP, and Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Inc.
Additional support for education programs at The Blanton is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. Education Endowment and the Burdine Johnson Foundation Education Endowment.
Support for education programs at The Blanton is provided by the Dell Foundation. Additional funding is provided b The Brown Foundation, Inc. Education Endowment and the Burdine Johnson Foundation Education Endowment.
To join our teacher mailing list, contact Jennifer Garner, Manager of Interpretation and Academic Programs at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For tour questions, contact Annie Arnold, Museum Education Assistant, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (512) 471–5025.
