Current School Tours

Special Exhibition Tours

Coming Soon:
Andy Warhol: Athletes
The Art of Sport: Highlights from the Collection of The Dayton Art Institute
On view June 22 - September 1
School group tickets: $5 per student; $9 per chaperone
Add a workshop: enhance your tour experience with a workshop: In the studio, create a lightpainting collage with colored acetate.
Workshop cost: $7 per student (minimum 10 students)

Click here to read more about the exhibitions

Schedule your tour now! Call 937-512-0152 or email meberle@daytonart.org for information and scheduling. Scholarships are available for schools with financial need.

Permanent Collection Tours

Preschool-Grade 1

The following tours are designed to engage younger children in fun and interactive learning activities in the galleries. $7 per participant. Tours are 45 minutes.

A Dragon's Tale

Listen to the story The Egg. Search for dragons in the Patterson-Kettering Wing of Asian Art and create an illustrated book about dragons.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Color, Shape and Line

Listen to the story Harold and the Purple Line and participate in a gallery hunt in the Contemporary Gallery. Create a stick puppet using shapes, colors and lines.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Looking For Goldilocks

Listen to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Look for clues about Goldilocks in the Dicke Wing of American Art and decorate your own porridge bowl.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Grades K-2

ARTventures from Far Away In the museum galleries, travel around the world to learn about the art and folktales of different cultures. The following interactive tours include an art-making activity in the gallery. $7 per participant. Tours are 45 minutes.

Asian Folk Tales

Listen to the folktale of Lon Po Po and find out how three sisters outsmarted the wolf. Go on a gallery hunt in the Asian Galleries and make an accordion book.

Ohio Academic Content Standards (coming soon)

Safari Art Adventures

Listen to the African folktale Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, then explore the African, Asian, Pre-Columbian and Oceanic galleries. Look for animals throughout the galleries and make an animal puppet.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Grades K-3

Experiencenter Tour

(45 minutes) Explore artworks in the Experiencenter and in near-by galleries with the use of hands-on materials and learning games.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Artful Creatures

See how artists have depicted animals in art, from the real to the imaginary, while learning about the elements of art (line, shape, color, space, texture, and pattern). Workshop: Create a collage of a real or imaginary animal.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Art Rangers

Use clues to find objects from diverse cultures used for daily life, ceremony, and adornment. Workshop: Use mixed media to create and embellish a special pouch to hold small reproductions of artwork from the tour.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Storytelling Adventures

From the narrative images in an artwork to the art-making techniques of an artist, learn the many different ways that art can tell a story. Workshop: In the workshop create a narrative “comic strip” that can be rolled into a scroll when complete.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Grades 2-3

NEW! Art Adds Up Tour: 60 minutes. Optional workshop: 60 minutes.

Art Adds Up

Art Adds Up focuses on geometry and spatial sense benchmarks aligned with second and third grade Ohio Academic Content Standards. During this tour students will have the opportunity to view art in the museum’s permanent collection and discover how math can be connected with art through fun hands-on activities. In the galleries, students will identify geometric shapes and lines of symmetry, experience graphing and measuring, and much more!

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Add a Workshop

Reinforce math concepts learned on the tour by adding a bilateral design workshop. Workshop fee: $7 per participant; Minimum: 10 or more participants For more information or to register, call 937-512–0152 or e-mail meberle@daytonart.org.

Grades 4-12

Experiencenter Tour

(60 minutes) Explore artworks in the Experiencenter and in near-by galleries with the use of hands-on materials and learning games.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Myths and Legends

Gain an understanding of myths and legends as they are depicted in works of art. Workshop: Create a collage depicting a myth or legend.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Sculpture Survey

Explore sculpture from around the world and learn about the natural materials used to create it. Workshop: Create a sculpture using found materials.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

World Tour

Tour the world while viewing art from diverse cultures. Workshop: Create a vessel representative of your culture.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Grades 7-12

It Looks Just Like You

Look at portraits from around the world, including contemporary images that explore the person beyond their physical appearance. Workshop: Create a mixed media portrait of a person either from history or popular culture.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

The Art of American History

Trace the history of the United States from colonial to modern times through works of art. Workshop: Create a landscape painting in the style of the Precisionists.

Ohio Academic Content Standards