Tours at the Currier Museum of Art
Adult Groups
The Currier Museum of Art believes in fostering a relationship between the visitor and the works of art in the museum's collection. Docents and museum educators work to actively engage visitors of all ages during their museum experience, encouraging them to describe what they see and think about their reactions, drawing on each visitor's unique personality and experience. Assistive listening systems are available for all public and private tours.
The Currier works closely with K-12 students and their teachers to create an active learning environment at the museum to engage students in meaningful, personal experiences with works of art, while also drawing on their schools’ curriculum and classroom focus.
School Groups
School tours at the Currier involve the student with dialogue-driven and hands-on learning. The questioning strategies and activities used by museum docents enable students to build on their own knowledge base, feel comfortable making connections with art, and use important critical thinking skills that relate back to the classroom.
Students are encouraged to contemplate and articulate their reactions to works of art in the collection, incorporating visual, analytical, and verbal skills from areas of the school curriculum. Activities in the galleries, along with post-tour opportunities in the museum’s studios, can include problem-solving skills, vocabulary and writing exercises, and visual analysis.
Educators may choose from a variety of options for their class’s experience with the Currier:
- 45 minute-1 hour docent-led tour of the museum (permanent collection and/or special exhibitions)
- Docent-led pre-tour program in the classroom before museum tour, to familiarize students with the museum, works of art they will see, and to prepare the class for their visit
- Docent-led post-tour activities including a post-tour classroom visit or art/writing activity in the museum’s studios
School tours at the Currier and in the classroom incorporate multidisciplinary approaches to the works of art in the collection. These tours are also suitable for home-school audiences visiting the museum. Teachers may choose from themed tour approaches and then tailor their tours and activities to meet their classroom’s needs.
Zimmerman House Tours
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House is the only residence in New England designed by the architect open to the public.
Wright designed the Zimmerman House in his classic Usonian style in 1950, planning its gardens, its built-in and freestanding furniture, its textiles, and even the mailbox. The Zimmerman House offers a glimpse into the 1950s - 1960s, and the private lives of Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman, who lived in the home for 36 years.
The Currier offers a variety of public walk-on tours for visitors of the house and its gardens from April through December each year, and private group tours are also available by reservation. Tours of the Zimmerman House depart from and return to the museum by shuttle van, and are limited to 12 visitors. Children under the age of 7 are not permitted. Tours of the Zimmerman House are always free for Currier members.
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