Learning Through Play 

Students will participate in activities that provide joyful, actively engaging, and socially interactive experiences with the works on display. Learning strategies may include role-play, storytelling, movement, drawing, and other various age-appropriate activities.

K–3 Track - Creative Explorers
This introductory tour welcomes students to explore what a museum is and what you can see and learn while on a visit. Students will interact with a variety of works of art and learn how to make the Buffalo AKG their own through conversation, movement, stories, and hands-on group activities.

3–12 Track - Mindfulness & Creativity 
This experience supports young people’s social and emotional development by exploring themes of empathy, awareness, and personal wellness through engagement with art.

Identity & Social Consciousness

This tour explores how artists express themselves and engage with social movements using their artwork to give voice to and provide dialogue about critical issues. Students will explore what this art means to them through their own ideas and identities. 

Grades 6–12

Learning to Look

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) tours ask students to slow down and carefully investigate and interpret works of art, encouraging critical thinking and visual literacy skills that can be applied to subjects across the school curriculum. Please note that this tour does not deliver art historical information but rather requires the students to make meaning on their own terms.  

Grades K–12  

Mondays: 9:45 am, 11:15 am
Thursdays: 9:45 am, 11:15 am
Fridays: 9:45 am, 11:15 am

We can accommodate tours that begin after 12:30 pm during the museum’s open hours. 

• A minimum of 10 students are required to be scheduled through the Art’scool program. 
• The maximum number of students is 80 for a guided visit, with up to 100 students for a self-guided visit.
• All K–12 groups are required to have a minimum of one adult chaperone per sixteen students. 
  • There is no limit to the number of teachers and staff accompanying a school visit.
  • However, we ask that no more than 1 non-school chaperone per sixteen students join the tour. Extra parents must pay the full admission price. Younger siblings are not permitted on guided school tours. 
• We ask that you review our Guidelines for Tour Chaperones for K–12 visits and share this information with your chaperones and students before your visit.
• To make your students’ experience feel more inclusive and personal, we ask that students wear name tags during guided experiences.
   

To request a tour, please submit our School Group Tour Request Form.

This form must be filled out before your tour can be confirmed. Please read our K–12 School Group Tour Guidelines and K–12 School Group Tour Terms of Agreement before submitting your request.

Please also have the following information available when you fill out the tour request form:
• School name, address, district, and contact information
• Several potential visit dates and times
• Grade level of students
• Number of students and chaperones attending
• Any special needs your group may have

For more information, please contact Manager of School & Teacher Programs Lindsay Kranz at 716 270 8276 or lkranz@buffaloakg.org. Communication by email will facilitate a timely response.

A flat rate of $200 per bus is available. Please make sure to complete the information on the request form and invoice the museum directly near the date of your visit to receive payment.

If $200 does not cover the cost of your bus and is preventing you from visiting the museum, please contact Lindsay Kranz, Manager of School & Teacher Programs, at lkranz@buffaloakg.org or 716 270 8276.

School buses should drop off students at the Elmwood Entrance to the Seymour H. Knox Building. Limited bus parking is available along Lincoln Parkway and around the museum’s fountain.

Directions & Parking

Upon scheduling a tour, you will receive an email confirmation. Please note that your tour is NOT SCHEDULED until you send the confirmation form included with the confirmation email.

After your visit, we welcome you and your students to complete our Art'scool Feedback Form. Providing high-quality experiences is a part of our department’s priorities, and hearing from you will give us valuable feedback and insight regarding our school tour program.

If you have further questions or concerns, please contact Lindsay Kranz, Manager of School & Teacher Programs, at lkranz@buffaloakg.org.