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About Tours
Public Tours are FREE!
Join a scheduled public tour (no reservations required)
Book a private tour for groups of 10 or more
Bring your class for a school group tour (book online!)
NEW! Bring your 3- to 5-year-olds for a preschool tour (pdf)
Take a book tour (jpg) 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.
Public Tours
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.
Experiential Tour
A Feast for the Eyes, Highlights of the MIA’s World Class Collection
Nourish your creativity, spirit, and imagination at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). Tempt your artistic taste buds with visual delights from throughout time and around the globe. Learn the fascinating stories of these objects, the artists, and the emotions they evoke.
The MIA, home to one of the finest encyclopedic art collections in the country, houses more than 80,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history. Let us create the tasting menu. We’ll serve up experiences you’ve never had in an art museum—and make you hungry for more!
For more information and to reserve this experience, call the MIA tour office: (612) 870-3140.
For printable information about this tour: Experiential Tour (pdf)
Art Carts
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.
Self-Guided Tours
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)
School Tours
Give your students an artful experience. Bring your class to the MIA!
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. Reservations are required for all school groups. Tour times fill up quickly, so please plan in advance.
Request a school tour online »
You may also request a tour by printing and mailing in a PDF request form:
- Permanent Collection: K-12 / Preschool
- Registered Art Adventure schools may book tours using the Art Adventure Tour Request form (PDF).
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 2013–2014 school year. To be considered for funding, please complete the application (PDF) and submit it no later than Tuesday, October 1, 2013. Questions? Contact Friends of the Institute for more information at (612) 870-3045 or friends@artsmia.org.
Private Guided Tours
Request a tour for a group of 10 or more. Pick from one of our most popular topics or together we can create a tour topic of your own. To get started, call (612) 870-3140.
A tour of 15 people maximum per guide will be charged a fee of $125. Special Exhibition admission may also apply.
Discover Your Story Tours
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:
ASL Interpreted Tours
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.
Quick Stops Audio Tours
Tune in to Quick Stops Audio Tours. They are fast, fun and friendly. Audio stops about hundreds of your favorite artworks allow you to get more out of your museum experience – all at your own pace. We also have kid-friendly Family Stops and Extended Stops for those who want more detail.