• Public Tours are FREE!
• Join a scheduled public tour (no reservations required)
• Book your own custom tour for groups of ten or more
• Bring your class for a school group tour
  
• NEW! Bring your 3- to 5-year-olds for a preschool tour
• Take a book tour to participate in lively discussions of works of art related to popular books, facilitated by a museum guide. 

For more information, call the MIA tour office at (612) 870-3140.

 

	Discover the museum with the help of our trained tour guides. Free one-hour public tours are offered daily. Topics range from special exhibitions to treasures of the MIA’s permanent collection. Feel free to join the tours at any point, and stay as long as you like.
	current and upcoming Tours of the Month » schedule of Daily Public Tours »

A Spotlight tour invites you to focus on a single artwork in the museum’s collection during a 20-minute group discussion facilitated by a tour guide. You may also engage in half-hour or 45-minute group conversations about special exhibitions and featured MIA galleries.

schedule of upcoming Spotlights & Conversations »

Visit the MIA’s family-friendly, hands-on Art Carts, in the galleries during weekdays, Thursday evenings, and on weekends. Request a free passport to discover all the Art Carts, and collect a stamp for each one you visit.

schedule of Art Carts »

Discover fun, little-known facts about artworks in the galleries with free MIA self-guided tour brochures. Offering something for every taste, our themes include “Love and Scandal,” “Believe It or Not,” “People’s Choice,” and “Highlights of the Collection."

Download your self-guided tour brochures to prepare for your visit. Or pick them up at any Information Desk in the museum—and let your journey begin!

    Believe It Or Not » (571KB .pdf)
    Highlights of the Collection » (763KB .pdf)
    Love and Scandal » (1MB .pdf)
    People's Choice » (632KB .pdf)
    Scavenger Hunts » (2.19MB .pdf)

Give your students an artful experience. Bring your class to the MIA!

Reservations are required for all school groups. Tour times fill up quickly, so please plan in advance. To request a tour, simply download a tour request form, print it out, fill it out, and mail it in.

• Tour Request Form (K-12) »
• Tour Request Form (Preschool) »

For tour ideas of the museum’s permanent collection, view a selection of tour topics.

School groups may also take tours of special exhibitions FREE of admission charges. Use the special forms below:

   More Real? School Tour Request Form (K-12) »
   More Real? School Tour Request Form (University) »

Registered Art Adventure schools may book tours using the Art Adventure Tour Request form. We look forward to seeing you and your students at the MIA!



Friends Transportation Fund

The Friends Transportation Fund covers transportation costs for approximately 3,500 Twin Cities children each year, enabling them to visit the museum for educational tours. Twin Cities schools serving grades 1–8 can now apply for the 2011–2012 school year. To be considered for funding, please complete the application and submit it no later than Monday, October 1, 2012. Questions? Contact the Friends of the Institute for more information at (612) 870-3045 or friends@artsmia.org.

You may request a tour on almost any topic for a group of ten or more. Pick from one of our most popular topics or together we can create a custom tour topic of your own. To get started, call (612) 870-3140.

Touch tours, including detailed verbal descriptions and tactile diagrams of select works of art, are available for visitors who are blind or have low vision.

browse a list of tour topics »

The MIA is dedicated to providing equal access to its collections and programs. With the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota, the MIA’s Department of Museum Guide Programs has developed a tour program for people with memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. “Discover Your Story” tours engage individuals in the early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s, and their family, friends or care partners, in discussions focused on thematically related artworks in the museum’s galleries. Participants are encouraged to discover themselves while reminiscing about, reflecting upon or comparing their own life stories to the stories in works of art.

“Discover Your Story” tours are made available in two ways: groups can reserve a space in advance according to their needs, or a person with memory loss and a friend can register in advance for regularly scheduled tours on the second Friday and Saturday of each month by calling 612 870-3140. All tours are free; pre-registration is required.

“Discover Your Story” is a partnership program of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota.   

Schedule of “Discover Your Story” tours (PDF) »

Generous support provided by:

 

On the first Sunday of each month, at 1 p.m., public tours are interpreted for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Interpreted tours are also scheduled on other days throughout the year.