K-12 Programs
The Nasher Museum offers FREE guided gallery tours for K-12 students that address various learning styles through purposeful looking, collaborative investigation, engaging conversation and thoughtfully planned gallery interactions. Students are encouraged to use visual evidence to construct their own interpretations about objects of art and develop critical thinking and communication skills. Tours and activities are designed to reinforce classroom objectives and promote arts integration across the curriculum.
Guided tours are available Tuesday through Friday throughout the school year. Schools may bring up to 60 students to the museum at a time. We also offer limited substitute and bus reimbursement. For groups larger than 60, our staff will work with you to schedule multiple visits. Guided tours last 90 minutes for 3rd-12th grades and 60 minutes for PreK-2nd grade. Students will engage in discussion and critical thinking while viewing five to seven artworks.
Guided tours in 2025 will take place in our current exhibitions.
Self-guided groups or teacher-led tours are welcome in all of our galleries. Teachers should preview exhibitions to assure the content in each gallery is age appropriate. Self-guided tours must be scheduled in advance.
Tours Available Fall 2025
MY FIRST MUSEUM VISIT
Grades: Pre-K
Tour Overview:
Introduce the museum to your little ones! Explore the museum and discover the many forms that art takes: paintings, sculpture, murals and even buildings. Hands-on play and artmaking are included to excite and enrich early learning.
SEE WHAT I SEE
Grades: K-5
Tour Overview:
This tour invites students to explore how artists use their eyes—and their hearts—to tell stories through art. Whether capturing a quiet moment, imagining a magical world, or showing strength through color and shape, each artist helps us see the world in a new way. Using elements of art, this NC standards-aligned tour will have students practice close looking, storytelling, and empathy as they explore photography and contemporary art from the Nasher’s collection. Through guided discussion and a creative activity, students will discover how art can help us understand others—and ourselves.
FRAGMENTS AND FUTURES
Grades: 6-12
Tour Overview:
This tour explores how artists use fragments of memory, history, and culture to imagine new futures. Through photography, sculpture, and painting, students will examine how artists reflect on identity, displacement, and transformation. Using principles of art, this NC standards-aligned tour encourages students to think critically about how the past informs the present, and how art can help us envision what comes next.
ART OF OBSERVATION
Recommended Grades: 6-12; Maximum of 30 participants.
Tour Overview:
Using art from current exhibitions, this tour allows students to work individually and in small groups to examine and evaluate their observation and communication skills. The group discusses external factors that impact observations. Students will consider how skills for looking at art is a transferrable skill to multiple disciplines, including writing and science!
Free Bus Transportation
Free bus transportation and substitute teacher funding is available upon request while funds last.
Schedule a K-12 Tour
Before requesting a tour, please check the calendar below for availability. Tour times listed on the calendar are currently available for the number of students listed in parenthesis.
This calendar will be updated as often as possible, but it does not reflect a “real-time” schedule of K-12 tour reservations.
Self-Guided Tours
Self-guided groups or teacher led tours are welcome in all of our galleries. Teachers should preview exhibitions to assure the content in each gallery is age appropriate. Self-guided tours must be scheduled in advance.
Complete this form to schedule your self-guided visit or call 919-684-1169.