Virtual Tours for School Groups K–12

Virtual Tours are now available for school groups. In the interest of public health and safety due to COVID-19, in addition to in-person tours in the Museum, docents are available to provide FREE Virtual Tours online. Teachers can schedule a docent-led tour using the request form on this page. The tours can be hosted by the teacher on their school’s Zoom or hosted by the Museum if preferred. Programs can be planned to last approximately 30 to 50 minutes depending upon the teacher’s needs. The tours will consist of a docent-run PowerPoint presentation with live narration and interactive discussion with the students. Tours must be requested and confirmed online at least four weeks in advance.

Tour Topics

Tour topics currently available include the following:

  • Treasures of The San Diego Museum of Art (Collection Highlights)
    A survey of the highlights of the Museum’s permanent collection, featuring masterpieces from many time periods, cultures, and places around the world.
  • Art of Latin America
    Explore the rich artistic heritage of Latin America during this in-depth look at the work of some of the most important artists from this dynamic part of the world. This virtual tour will consider important innovations in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography produced by the inspiring artists of Mexico and other Latin American lands.
  • Art of the Renaissance
    The Museum’s renowned collection of European art of the Renaissance era is the focus of this inspiring tour, which will chronicle the development of new styles and techniques in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. It examines diverse artworks ranging from devotional subjects to portraiture, landscapes, and still lifes created in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany.
  • Christian Saints in Art
    Throughout the history of Christian art, images of the Saints have instructed and inspired the faithful. Explore various ways that artists from the Middle Ages to the present have depicted these extraordinary figures.
  • Faces and Places: Art of America
    From sea to shining sea, from indigenous to immigrant, experience the extraordinary breadth and diversity of the people and places of America through great works of art, from colonial times to the present.
  • My World, Our Planet: Environmental Art
    Take a journey through time and place and explore the relationship between humankind and the environment as seen in art. We will focus on how artists use art to express their ideas, concerns, and feelings about the world they live in and their place in it.
  • Where do Artists Get Ideas? Portrait, Landscape, Still Life, Abstract
    Explore four genres of painting—portraits, landscapes, still life, and abstract (non-representational)—to discover that inspiration is all around us. Appropriate for K–5.

Customized tours may also be arranged upon request with at least 30 days advance notice.

Tour Schedule

Tours are offered Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

Tours must be requested and confirmed online at least three weeks in advance.