Tours
Guided Exhibition Tours
Guided tours of MMoCA provide students with an opportunity to experience one of Wisconsin’s premiere settings for viewing modern and contemporary art. MMoCA’s exhibition galleries are designed to accommodate a wide range of visual art—from intimate drawings, prints, and photographs to large-scale sculptures, paintings, and installations.
Guided tours may be requested by completing the tour request form. Please allow three weeks advance notice for guided tours.
For more information and frequently asked questions please reference this PDF.
- One hour school tours are available during the Museum’s normal operating hours for groups of 10 to 45 students. Larger or smaller groups may be accommodated by contacting education@mmoca.org.
- Please check the Plan Your Visit page for Museum hours.
- General admission to MMoCA is free.
Self-Guided Exhibition Tours
To explore at your own pace, consider a self-guided tour. Spend time with the works that engage your curiosity and creativity. Utilize in-gallery components and learning guides to dive deeper into our exhibitions.
School groups may schedule a self-guided tour of MMoCA—provided that the chaperone-to-student ratio is met—during the museum’s public hours: Wednesday, Friday, Sunday Sunday 12 PM – 6 PM; Thursday 12 PM – 9 PM; and Saturday 10 AM – 6 PM.
Self-guided tour groups may schedule a 10-15 minute introduction and orientation to the museum, including an overview of what’s on display, suggestions for exploring, and wayfinding information. Please email education@mmoca.org to inform the museum of your visit.
Teaching Pages
Teaching pages introduce your students to works of modern and contemporary art at MMoCA. Teaching pages for art on view in current exhibitions and works of art in the Museum’s permanent collection are available for orienting your students before a museum visit or as ongoing classroom resources.
Teaching pages provide visual analysis and background on the works of art, biographical information on featured artists, discussion questions, and links to additional learning resources.
Curricular Connections
The art on view at MMoCA presents an array of topics for exploration. Students on a guided tour may encounter art that investigates current events and global trends, culture and society, enduring aspects of human experience, and the essential processes of seeing and perceiving. The creative decision-making that artists undertake to make their work is a central theme of guided tours.
Tours are led by experienced and enthusiastic docents who provide information and build upon student observations through group interaction. The goal of a tour is to encourage students to observe, question, think, respond, and reflect as they look at and analyze visual art.
Guided tours meet Wisconsin Model Academic Standards for visual art and the Common Core State Standards for student literacy, including Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Vocabulary Acquisition. By experiencing the in-depth “noticing” that is encouraged on a tour, students become more aware of the power of details to communicate an idea. By analyzing a work of art, they begin to see the different parts and how they relate to the whole. And by traveling to different contexts through the art in the museum, students acquire a range of vocabulary basic to visual art and its varied content. Tours may also be tailored to address social studies standards as well as teachers’ specific learning goals.