SCHOOL TOURS
Self-guided Visits
Self-guided visits enable you to design and lead your own school tour of NOMA. Art, language arts, history, science and math can be explored using NOMA’s extensive permanent collection, compelling temporary exhibitions, and outdoor Sculpture Garden. Use the Teacher’s Guide to the Collection to find information on many works of art, maps of the museum, and suggestions for gallery discussions and activities during your visit. The Teacher’s Guide to the Collection is free to any teacher planning a visit to NOMA.
Guided Visits
Spark your students’ imaginations with a guided visit to NOMA. Knowledgeable docents engage students in grade-appropriate discussions, encouraging creative and critical thinking while addressing a variety of learning styles. Tours are interactive and conversational, and are aligned with state and national educational standards and benchmarks in the visual arts, language arts and social studies.
Select Your Tour Topic
School visits at NOMA are categorized by subject and introduce students to a variety of highlights from NOMA’s permanent collection of 40,000 objects. You can customize the experience for your class. Choose from a selection of tours that approach art from a visual art, language arts, or social studies perspective, or select a tour of our featured temporary exhibition.
TOUR TOPICS
Art Approach
Elements of Art What are the ABCs of art? Introduce students to the elements of art: line, color, shape, form, texture, space, and value. This tour explores how artists engage these basic elements to create a boundless visual language.
Methods & Materials How did the artist make that? Explore the relationship between an artist’s ideas and techniques. This tour will compare and contrast at least three different media, such as painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking or textiles.
Language Arts Approach
What’s the Story? Construct the elements of a story in this English Language Arts-based tour of NOMA’s permanent collection. Characters, setting, and plot will be identified throughout the galleries as students determine the story in each artwork.
Describe it! A picture may be worth a thousand words, but how can we describe what we see? This tour focuses on developing descriptive language as students are encouraged to use descriptive words, synonyms and adjectives to describe the artwork in front of them.
Social Studies Approach
History Detectives Follow the clues as you sleuth through the ages exploring art objects from NOMA’s permanent collection. The history detectives will discover what it was like to live in a different era by exploring the costumes, objects, and backgrounds in works of art.
My Country, My State Explore the development of the United States and Louisiana. Our rich artistic heritage will be highlighted as students learn how artists represent place by examining artwork from different eras of our nation’s history.
FEATURED EXHIBITION TOURS
Portrait of Faith: John Paul II in Life and Art
Available March 8 – June 16, 2013
Tour reservations can be made for groups of 10 or more people for this exhibition.
Admission:
- $13 for adults
- $5 for students and chaperones on school tours
School Tours:
- Wednesdays and Fridays, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
- Tuesday-Sunday, beginning at 11:15 a.m.
To schedule a tour or for more information, please contact (866) 608-4799 or portraitoffaithtours@noma.org.
Meet Me at the World’s Fair
Available April 16 – May 24, 2013
This tour is in conjunction with the exhibition Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs 1851 – 1939. Discover innovation in design and the application of new technologies on a tour of spectacular objects first displayed at World’s Fairs. Before the invention of TV and the internet, visitors from all over the globe flocked to World’s Fairs to see the latest and greatest creations. They came to “See the future!”
Bus Reimbursement
Schools located in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes qualify for busing reimbursement, generously underwritten by the GPOA Foundation. Download the Bus Reimbursement Application for conditions and instructions.
Admission
Admission to NOMA is FREE for scheduled school groups, including students, teachers, and one adult per 10 students.
Making Your Reservation
School group visits to NOMA are available Tuesday – Friday. Contact the Department of Interpretation & Audience Engagement at education@noma.org or (504) 658-4100 to schedule your Guided or Self-guided Visit. Please have the following information ready:
- Group leader’s cell phone number
- Group leader’s email address
- School’s name, address, and phone number
- Number of students
- Grade level of students
- Preferred date and time
- Tour topic
ADULT TOURS
Self-Guided Tours
Self-Guided group tours are available during regular museum hours:
Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Fridays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
To schedule your visit, please call the Department of Interpretation and Audience Engagement at (504) 658-4128 or email education@noma.org.
Discounted rates for adult groups of 10 people or more with advance reservations are as follows:
Adults: $8
Seniors (65 and older): $6
Students and faculty with college ID: $6
Active Military with ID: $6
Children (ages 7-17): $4
Children (6 and under): FREE
Docent-Guided Adult Tours
Docent-Guided tours are available during regular museum hours for groups of 10 or more visitors. Tours must be requested with at least 2 weeks advance notice, but availability is not guaranteed.
Please contact the Department of Interpretation and Audience Engagement at (504) 658-4128 or email education@noma.org for more information.
Special Exhibitions:
Portrait of Faith: John Paul II in Life and Art
Tour reservations can be made for groups of 10 or more people for this exhibition.
Admission:
- $13 for adults
- $5 for students and chaperones on school tours
Adult Tours
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning at 10:15 a.m.
- Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturday-Sunday, beginning at 11:15 a.m.
To schedule a tour or for more information, please contact (866) 608-4799 or portraitoffaithtours@noma.org.
Public Tours
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Meet at the front desk in the Great Hall for these docent-guided tours. No preregistration is necessary but please call ahead to make sure the tour is still available.
Audio-Guided Tours
The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features a cell-phone audio guided tour available to all visitors. Please inquire at the entrance to the Sculpture Garden for more information and an itinerary.
MUSEUM GUIDELINES
Chaperones
Each group must have one chaperone per ten students. Chaperones must remain with student groups at all times. Chaperones must be 18 years or older. Any group without proper number of chaperones will not be admitted to the museum.
Unexpected Delays
Students should be dropped off at the main Museum entrance and buses should proceed down Lelong Avenue to park. Buses should be ready to pick up their students approximately 90 minutes after the scheduled arrival time; this estimate includes time for the tour and a visit to the museum Gift Shop. Cell phone contact between teachers and bus drivers is highly recommended.
Dining Facilities
Currently, there are no facilities for eating school lunches in the museum. However, beautiful and historic City Park is a great place for picnic lunches.
Additionally, Cafe NOMA is open during regular museum hours for lunch. Please visit Cafe NOMA’s website for more information.
Cancellations
Prompt notification of your cancellation enables other groups to schedule a visit. If you need to cancel your reservation, please contact the Department of Interpretation and Audience Engagement immediately at (504) 658-4128.
Photography
Cameras without tripods or flashes are permitted in the permanent collection galleries. Video cameras are not permitted. No objects in special exhibition galleries or on loan may be photographed. Please ask the Front Desk for details.
Museum Manners
Paying attention to these simple rules will help ensure that everyone’s visit to NOMA is a pleasant and enriching one:
- Works of art are fragile, so the oils, salts, and acids of our skin can damage the art. As our preservation partners, do not touch the art, walls, or cases.
- To prevent accidents, please walk in the museum and keep a safe distance of 3 feet between you and the art and display cases.
- Many people will be sharing the galleries with your group. To make sure everyone has a positive experience, please silence cell phones and keep voices low.
- Please leave the following prohibited items on the bus: lunch bags, book bags, large purses, food, drink, gum, pens, and markers.
Sculpture Garden Guidelines
Visiting the Sculpture Garden
School group visits to the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden should be arranged in advance. Contact the Department of Interpretation and Audience Engagement at education@noma.org or 504-658-4128. Admission to the Sculpture Garden is free for students and chaperones.
Chaperones
Each group must have one chaperone per ten students. Chaperones must actively supervise student groups at all times. Chaperones must be 18 years or older. Unruly groups may be asked to leave.
Drop-Off and Pick-Up
Students should be dropped off at the front Sculpture Garden entrance on Dueling Oaks Drive and buses should proceed down Lelong Avenue to park. Buses should be ready to pick up their students approximately 60 minutes after the scheduled arrival time. Cell phone contact between teachers and bus drivers is highly recommended.
Late Arrivals
Please notify the Department of Interpretation and Audience Engagement at 504-658-4128 if your group will be delayed unexpectedly. We will do our best to accommodate your group.
Garden Guidelines
- Stay with your group and chaperone. The Sculpture Garden and Museum are very large and it is easy to become separated.
- Stay on the pathways and mowed lawns for your safety as well as the safety of the sculptures and plants.
- Sculptures may be damaged by touching. Please refrain from touching all works except Travelin’ Light.
- Running, climbing, and horseplay are not allowed in the Sculpture Garden. It should be treated as an outdoor museum.
- Many varieties of plants, wildlife, and insects make their homes in the Sculpture Garden. Please do not disturb these valuable members of our ecosystem.
- Speak in a normal “inside” voice. Other visitors could be disturbed by shouting.
- Dispose of trash in proper receptacles.
- Leave backpacks, large purses, and other bulky objects at school or on the bus. These items could bump works of art and damage them.
- Food and drink may be enjoyed at one of City Park’s many dining locations. Picnicking is not allowed in the Sculpture Garden.
- Service dogs are welcomed, but pets are not allowed.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Museum Hours
Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-5 pm
Friday, 10 am-9 pm
Closed on Mondays
Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Sunday-Saturday, 10 am-4:45 pm
Friday, 10 am-8:45 pm
Accessibility
Reserved parking and a ramp entrance are located on the right side of the building at the Courtyard entrance. Accessible restrooms are located on the first floor near the Museum Shop. A limited number of wheelchairs are available upon request at the Front Desk.
Contact Us
1 Collins Diboll Circle, City Park
New Orleans, LA 70124 (View map)
Phone: (504) 658-4100
Fax: (504) 658-4199
