Guided Field Trips for Students
If you’ve found this page, you already know how memorable a field trip to an art museum can be. Bringing your students to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum will help them to develop critical thinking skills and make connections to their own lives. Thank you for considering this experience for your students and encouraging new ways to look at the world.
School Field Trip Information
Groups: Recommended for students Pre-K (age 4) - 12th grade
Group Size: 12-55 students (*For groups of 55 or more, we are happy to divide your group across multiple time slots or days.)
Group Cost: $5 per student.
Dates Available for Guided Tours: Tuesday- Friday during the following weeks in 2024 (These six weeks have been carefully selected around exhibition changes and ongoing programs, so all galleries will be open for students):
February 20-23, 2024
March 19-22, 2024
April 23-26, 2024
May 21-24, 2024
October 22-25, 2024
November 19-22, 2024
Tour times available (Tuesday- Friday, during the dates above):
9:30am
11am
12:30pm
2pm
Tour Duration (Arriving 15 minutes before the tour start time is essential for a full tour):
45 minutes (Pre-K, K)
60 minutes (Grades 1-12).
Tour Takeaways: Students will receive an exhibition postcard and MMAM branded pencil.
Important Scheduling Information
School field trips must be booked a minimum of three weeks in advance.
Kindly note that field trips remain $5 per student on our Free Student Thursdays. Free Student Thursdays are not designed for school groups. The cost is not for admission, but for the support and materials provided on your field trip.
One teacher or adult chaperone is required for every group of 10 students; those adults receive free admission.
The Museum does not have lunch facilities. Please plan accordingly.
Confirm student attendance and final payment with the MMAM Programs Manager, Julie Heukeshoven (Jheukeshoven@mmam.org), 2 weeks before the tour.
Bus Information
If funds are available, MMAM will pay up to $150 per tour slot to help cover the cost of your bus (thanks to the Winona Foundation). Bus funds are reserved for K-12 school groups, with a minimum of 25 students per bus. You can let us know more about your group on the online scheduling form.
Customize Your Perfect Field Trip
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum boasts 6 galleries of great art inspired by water, and 6 acres of outdoor space for your class to explore. Upon arriving, your group will be met by MMAM education staff to welcome your group, separated into their pre-assigned groups with their tour leader, and prepared for a successful museum experience. During your field trip, students will develop a sense of belonging in a museum setting and engage in different activities to think creatively and make personal connections to works of art.
Students will participate in three guided activities (modules): one standard module and two selected by the teacher (See options below). The standard module is a seated “Longer Look” experience, customized for your grade level.
Art Investigators! (INCLUDED Standard Module) This 15 or 20 minute field trip module (depending on age) demonstrates the heart of what art museums offer students. Watch “Ah-ha!” moments happen as your students share the unified experience of focusing on one artwork, while comfortably seated in one of our galleries. Expect your students to practice observation, description, and simple comparing and contrasting skills to look for clues, discover artistic choices, and use their imaginations to explore works of art.
Module Options (Teachers Choose)
Pre-K and K groups (4 and 5 year old) please select an additional two of the following guided activities to build an age appropriate 45-minute field trip. Each module will provide 15 minutes of activity.
Grades 1-12, please select an additional two of the following guided activities to build your 60 minute field trip. Each module will provide 20 minutes of activity.
Sketching to See. Just like many artists before them, students will practice patience, revision, and close observation through an opportunity to sketch an artwork. Age appropriate sketching materials are provided.
Water, Water Everywhere! (Option for Pre-K Only) Let’s circle up and take a closer look at all of the different ways artists depict water in their artworks. We’ll use props, songs, and poems to explore the ways water supports life.
You Decide. Just because it’s in a museum, doesn’t mean everyone likes it! In this interactive personal choice activity, students will choose one or two artworks based on a prompt (ex. your most and least favorite artwork) and practice verbalizing how and why they react to certain artworks by considering how art reveals different perspectives, life experiences, and values.
Behind the Scenes. What is a museum? What do museum professionals do? Get a behind the scenes peek at some of the everyday tasks at the MMAM, and learn how an artwork gets from an artist’s studio onto a gallery wall.
Outdoor Stroll. Visit the Museum’s 7th gallery. What do you see outside that you would consider art? We’ll look at what’s happening on the river and in the gardens. In the case of inclement weather, education staff will choose an alternative indoor activity for your group.
Writing + Art. Discover how artworks can serve as inspiration for writing. Students will learn the term “ekphrastic writing,” and will create an acrostic poem, compose a “character letter,” or “free write” in response to an artwork of their choice.
Critique the Museum! (Grades 7-12 Only) What should be here? What’s missing? What would YOU do? How do the Museum’s decisions impact the art? Taking inspiration from The Monument Lab’s field trip guide, students will look at MMAM with a critical eye.
Human Connection to Water. Students will either explore the photographs in the exhibition Mustafah Abdulaziz: Water and consider new ways to think about our relationship to water by learning about how different people around the world connect to water, or explore the artworks in the exhibition Aabijijiwan / Ukeyat yanalleh, It Flows Continuously and consider new ways to think about our relationship to water by learning about how different native cultures connect with the Mississippi River. Which gallery is determined by group size and other modules selected. Please let us know if you have a preference.
Art & Activism. Explore the illustrations and stories behind the two books highlighted in MMAM’s literary exhibition Across a Wide Ocean: Remarkable Stories About the Origins of Identity. Learn how these authors and artists use their words and illustrations to inform and inspire social change.
This museum field experience will meet many of your state’s visual art standards in addition to standards for specific subject areas, depending on the activity and the exhibition you are exploring. Below are the strand and anchor standards from the Minnesota State Visual Arts Standards that we will teach.
Create: Create original artistic work.
Create: Generate and develop original artistic ideas.
Present: Make artistic choices in order to convey meaning through presentation.
Respond: Analyze and construct interpretations of artistic work.
Respond: Evaluate artistic work by applying criteria.
Connect: Integrate knowledge and personal experiences while responding to, creating, and presenting artistic work.
Connect: Demonstrate an understanding that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities.
“My student’s #1 complaint is that they couldn’t stay longer and keep sketching in the galleries.”
The Bus is on Us Program is thanks to the Winona Foundation.