The Palm Springs Art Museum is a center for the enjoyment, discovery, and exploration of the visual and performing arts. We are dedicated to the enrichment of the entire community through expanding collections, dynamic exhibitions, and diverse programs.
School Tours
The Palm Springs Art Museum offers a variety of meaningful experiences in an open, friendly learning environment. Museum docents provide lively interactive tours geared to specific age levels and curricula. Tours are designed to expand students’ understanding of art and allow them to experience it using their own powers of imagination and observation.
All student school tours are free and require advance reservation. Tours are given by prior reservation on Tuesdays through Fridays at 10:00 a.m. (unless otherwise noted). Choose your tour from the choices below:
General Tours:
These tours are 50 minutes long and include visits to changing exhibitions and permanent collection art galleries. Please see the Exhibition Schedule for a full description of these areas.
Themed Tours:
Teachers may select an emphasis for their tours from Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Native American Art, American Art, and Western Expansion for these 50-minute tours.
Eyes On / Hands On:
(Funded in part by Gannett Foundation/The Desert Sun)
This is a 2-hour experience in the Museum's galleries and art studios which offers students the opportunity to investigate works of art on their own terms. Explorations of meaning, technique, and personal expression take place during conversations about the works in the galleries with specially trained docents and during creative sessions in the studios with experienced art instructors.
Eyes On/Hands On is available at 10 a.m. and each tour can accommodate approximately 60 students with a teacher and chaperone (1 adult per 15 students). We receive many requests and the number we can accommodate is limited, so please make your reservation early.
Self Guided Tours:
School groups of one class with one teacher and another adult may reserve a self-guided tour. Reservations must be made with the Education Department so that docent-led tours are not disrupted. Please remember that groups led by Museum docents always have priority in the galleries.
Writing in the Museum:
Is a tour of specific artworks that students explore with their specially trained docent/facilitator. Using directed questions to encourage visual literacy and moving through three modes of writing (descriptive, reflective, and analytical); students are given the opportunity to express themselves in words about the art and their responses to it. The Museum provides clipboards, pencils and paper for this 2-hour experience in the galleries.
When scheduling your visit, please alert us to any special needs, including limited English or physical or learning disabilities, that we can prepare appropriately.
PROCEDURE FOR SCHOOL TOURS
Tour Goals:
THE MUSEUM IS A PLACE OF DISCOVERY! Tours are planned to enhance the students' experiences as well as to stimulate new ways of thinking. We hope to encourage each student to consider new ideas as well as offer new things to see.
Length of Tour:
Since the Museum schedules school tours at hourly intervals, each group is given a 50-minute gallery tour unless otherwise noted. When the tour is completed, we request that the group depart the Museum, unless prior arrangements have been made.
Reserve:
Tours are given by prior reservation on Tuesdays through Fridays at 10:00 a.m. (unless otherwise noted). Call Glenn Wilhite, Education Coordinator at 325-7186, ext. 117 or request a reservation
on-line here. All tours must be reserved at least two weeks in advance.
Arrival:
The buses will park in front of the Museum and your group will enter through the north Annenberg Theater entrance. Students must leave their lunches or backpacks on the bus and the bus driver should stay with the bus to make sure it remains secure. The docents will greet you and help divide large groups into groups of approximately 15. Please notify the Museum as soon as possible if your group will be late or needs to cancel. If your group arrives 20 minutes late without notification, a guided tour is not guaranteed.
Docents:
Docents are dedicated volunteers who have undergone extensive and continuing training to guide groups of all ages through the Museum. When making your reservation, be sure to mention any particular focus you would like. Docents are eager to tailor your students' tour so they may have the best experience possible.
Teacher's Role: Please bring at least one teacher or adult for each group of 15. We ask for one adult per 10 to 15 students, if more adults want to accompany the tour they will have to pay admission price. Accompanying adults should understand that they are responsible for the conduct of the students. Chaperones should stay with their group at all times and supervise the students in their group. Chaperones should not bring other children in strollers or otherwise; they need to stay focused on the students in their group.
Prepare: Please have each student wear a nametag. This will enable the Docent to have more interaction with the students.
We look forward to working with you and welcome your suggestions for improving future programs.
The Palm Springs Art Museum was founded as a one-room facility in 1938 and has grown to the current 125,000 square-foot facility. It was designed in 1974 by noted architect E. Stewart Williams and the top floor was added in 1995.
