Student Groups & ArtLabs - Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

Student Groups and ArtLabs

The KIA is happy to welcome educators and students for a guided tour of the galleries. Our volunteer docents will help students explore art through careful looking and active discussion while allowing them to express their own points of view.

Student Group Details

Pre-K-12 tours are free.
Please arrive 5-10 minutes before your scheduled tour.
Tours are one hour long. If you elect to include an onsite ArtLab (see description below) as part of your experience, your visit to the KIA will be two hours long. ArtLabs can be scheduled based on KIA studio availability.
School tours can be scheduled Wednesday through Friday, 10:00 am-3:30 pm.
We can accommodate up to 60 students in the galleries at a time. If you would like to bring more than 60 students, please contact the Museum Education Department ().
One chaperone is required per every ten students. Teachers are considered chaperones. Chaperones must be 18 years of age or older.
Tours must be scheduled at least four weeks in advance of your preferred tour date.
Qualifying Kalamazoo County K-8 school groups pay only $25 for bussing costs. Find information here about KRESA/EFA’s offer.

A docent stands in front of a seated group of schoolchildren, giving a tour of an art gallery.

Tour Themes

Building Blocks of Art

Recommended for Pre-K-1st grade.

This experience will include a story as well as a docent-led tour. Students will explore the galleries and learn more about the elements of art by searching for shapes, lines, colors, and patterns in artworks from the KIA’s permanent collection or special exhibition.

Storytelling Through Art

Recommended for all grade levels.

Artists tell stories and communicate ideas through their art. On this docent-led tour, students will view several works across the KIA’s galleries and discuss the stories being told in order to explore the works in greater depth. This experience is tailored to be grade-level appropriate.

Art and Society

Recommended for 6th-12th grades.

Artists often use their work to comment on what is going on in the world around them. On this docent-led tour, students will view several works and discuss them in relation to the social contexts in which they were created. Students will explore issues facing society today and in the past.

Self-Guided Group Visits

We understand that some teachers want to bring their students and follow a specific plan. You are absolutely welcome to do this.

Self-Guided Group Details:

Pre-K-12 groups are free.
Visits can be scheduled during open hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 am- 5:00 pm and Sunday from Noon-4:00 pm. Please use this form to request a self-guided group visit.
ArtLabs cannot be added to self-guided group visits.
One chaperone is required per every ten students. Teachers are considered chaperones.
Chaperones must be 18 years of age or older.
Self-guided visits must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance.

ArtLabs

Add an ArtLab to any guided tour to extend your students’ museum experience, while at the KIA or back at school.

Students will spend an hour in a KIA studio or in your classroom making art with professional artist-educators who will cultivate their personal, unique vision to create original artwork. Young artists will exercise their creative, critical thinking, and analytical skills to increase their visual literacy using the language of art.

If you choose to have a teaching artist come to your classroom for an ArtLab after the day of your tour, someone from Museum Education will contact you to schedule.

Other ArtLab details:

ArtLab are $5 per student. Currently, students in grades 3, 4, and 5 can participate in ArtLabs for free.
Due to staffing and supply requirements, there is a $50 fee to cancel an ArtLab.

ArtLabs are sponsored by PNC Bank.

A student smiles at the camera while displaying her glass art as a table of students surrounded by painting tools focus on their work.