SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Museum of Art has announced that they will begin offering virtual tours for students beginning Tuesday, Sept. 15.
SAMA said the tours are free for Texas schools and are designed to cover many areas of curriculum, including science, history, art and social studies among others.
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The programming is available online throughout the school year and is open to grades K-12.
SAMA said each virtual tour will last approximately 45-minutes and is available for one class per tour on a first-come, first-served basis. Each tour must be booked at least two weeks in advance.
The museum said the virtual tours are led by museum educators or docents and are designed for interaction. The tours use video footage, photography of featured objects, and are inquiry-based, encouraging students’ critical thinking and vocabulary skills, SAMA said.
One slot for each tour is available per day and are available for booking on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings by clicking here. Teachers may request to customize the tour based on individual needs.
Here is a list of the virtual school tours presently available:
- Animals in Art - Go on a worldwide adventure and explore the animal kingdom in the museum’s collection.
- Around the World in 50 Minutes - Discover 6,000 years of culture, world history, and art through the Museum’s diverse collections. From the Americas to Asia, from Oceania to Europe, explore the world without leaving San Antonio or wherever you may be.
- Asian Caravan - Travel through China, Japan, India and other Asian countries on this cultural expedition. On your way, you may see a colorful sand mandala, a suit of samurai armor, and rooms from Imperial China. This tour meets many social studies, fine art, and Asian Language Cultural and Linguistic 3-12 TEKS, and is ideal for all ages/grade levels.
- A Walk through Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome - Discover mummy cases, glass containers, painted vases, portraits, and dinnerware and find out how they were used in the ancient world. This tour meets many social studies, fine art, and Antiquities Linguistic and Cultural 3–12 TEKS and is ideal for 3rd-grade, middle-school and high-school curricula.
- Latin American Art Through the Ages - Explore the depth and breadth of Latin American cultures through the art and artifacts in the Ancient American, Spanish Colonial, Folk Art and Contemporary galleries. This tour meets many social studies, fine art and Spanish Cultural and Linguistic 3-12 TEKS, and is ideal for World Studies, 4th- and 7th-grade Texas History and Spanish 3-12 classes.
- Stories in Art - Legends from Ancient Mexico, stories of Ganesha’s sweet tooth, the labors of the hero Herakles, and tales of the Samurai spark students’ close examination of art. Students will explore a range of mythical and historical stories in art from around the world, learn new vocabulary, and they draw conclusions about the characters, setting, details, and main ideas in art and stories.
- The Parts of Art - How is a work of art created? This tour introduces younger students to the fundamental elements of art, including line, color and shape. Older students can discover the techniques that artists use to achieve perspective, illumination, texture, and a sense of motion.
The San Antonio Museum of Art contains nearly 30,000 works representing 5,000 years of history. Housed in the historic former Lone Star Brewery on the Museum Reach of San Antonio’s River Walk, the San Antonio Museum of Art hosts hundreds of events and public programs each year.