SCHOOL TOURS
Bowers Museum offers one hour docent-led tours and two-and-a-half hour Morning at the Museum tours for grades 3-12. Cultural Art classes allow students to create a keepsake art piece related to their museum field trip; all art classes relate to current exhibits.

One hour Activity Tours for grades K-3 are provided Tuesday through Friday trained facilitators at the Kidseum. Designed to engage students through a hands-on approach, the activities include stories, games, songs, musical instruments and costumes connected to the exhibits at the museum. For pre-school tours, please contact the Kidseum at 714.480.1520.

We recommend that you book your tour as early as possible, but no later than six weeks in advance.

All tours align with all of the state of California Content Standards and Frameworks.

Limited scholarship opportunities are available on a first come, first serve basis.

To contact the Tour Office, please call 714.567.3680 or email schooltours@bowers.org.

Permanent Collection Tours and Art Classes (1 Hour)

Grades K-3

We Are One Activity Tours
Our thematic areas are filled with multicultural treasures that can be touched and played, including musical instruments, costumes, toys, games, and masks. The Activity Tours are ideal for younger school-aged children but can span up to 3rd or 4th grade. Teachers and chaperones are encouraged and expected to participate in group activities and help the children gently explore everything in our environment. For an even more in-depth exploration consider extending your stay with one of our art classes!

Grades 3 & 4

The First Californians
Our extensive collection of Native Californian art and artifacts demonstrates the culture and history of the California Indians. Explore the ways that Indians of the region used materials found in their natural environment to survive, to make a living, to fashion art, and to shape their various cultural identities.

     Art Classes: Clay Pinch Pots, Kachina Headdresses and Masks, Sand Painting.

Missions and Ranchos
The Missions and Ranchos Gallery illustrates the rich, diverse, and colorful history of the people who settled the West Coast and Orange County. It begins with the colonizing of California during the Spanish Mission period (1768-1822) and carries through to the Mexican Rancho period (1832-1848).

     Art Classes: California Indian Sand Painting, Cattle Brands, Orange Crate Labels

California, the Golden Years
Study California history and geography through the museum's spectacular collection of Plein Air and Impressionist paintings. Over fifty landscapes, portraits and still lifes created by California artists between 1875 and 1955 highlight familiar views from the seashore to the San Gabriel Mountains.

     Art Classes: California Impressionist Painting in Watercolor or Acrylic

Vision of the Shaman, Song of the Priest
Pre-Columbian art from Mexico and Central America displayed in a series of galleries communicates the power and sophistication of the mysterious cultures that rose and fell in ancient America. Emphasis is placed on the ceramic and stone arts of West Mexico, Costa Rica and Panamá. A gallery devoted to the famous "Limestone Tomb of Lord Pacal" includes a life-size reproduction of the elaborately decorated and highly symbolic limestone sarcophagus excavated at the pyramid in the Mayan City of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. Other works of art from the ancient Mayan civilization complete the exhibit.

     Art Classes: Face Pots, Jaguar Masks, Tooled Mythical Beasts

Acorns to Artists! (Morning at the Museum)
An exciting new tour introducing 3rd and 4th graders to the grand sweep of California history from a sophisticated native culture through rancho days of vast herds of cattle and the hide trade to 20th Century masters of color and light who painted the beauty of the California landscape. Hands-on, interactive and fun!

Grades 5 and Up

China: Kingdom of the Dragon (Morning at the Museum)
Students will explore the wonders of ancient Chinese culture in our gallery of treasures and then meet in groups, where they will find out what makes Chinese music sound the way it does, acquire the skill of eating with chopsticks, learn how to use the original hand calculator (an abacus), explore how to predict the future with an oracle bone, and much more. We finish with a Chinese dragon myth, complete with dragon!

Land of Jade and Jaguars: Exploring the Maya Culture of Middle America (Morning at the Museum)
This is a hands-on interactive tour of the Classic Maya culture of Mexico. The students rotate through seven stations where they learn about the Mayan calendar, do Mayan math, visit Lord Pacal’s tomb, talk about the ancient ball game, “meet” some shamans, and discover that our favorite foods today were also the favorite foods of these ancient people. The grand finale is a readers’ theater production of a Mayan creation myth, complete with heroes, villains, masks and plenty of booing and cheering from the audience.

     Art Classes: Jaguar Masks; Tooled Mythical Beasts; Face Pots

Ancient Arts of China: A 5000 Year Legacy
Spanning centuries and dynasties, this tour provides a rich cultural context for the many dynamic archaeological and art objects of China. From ancient bronze bells and vessels to exquisite jade carvings, pottery and painted scrolls, these artifacts showcase the amazing technology of China and the ingenuity of a culture.

     Art Classes: Water Color Scroll Painting; Signature Seal Prints; Chinese Clay Pots

Masters of Adornment: The Miao People of China
This important collection of exquisite textiles and silver jewelry on loan to and from the Bowers Museum's permanent collection highlights the beauty and wealth of the Miao peoples of southwest China. Over 50 examples of ornately designed and created silver bracelets, necklaces and decorative ornaments compliment and complete the exhibition of late 19th and 20th century Miao regalia.

     Art Classes: Water Color Scroll Painting; Signature Seal Prints; Chinese Clay Pots

Secrets of the Silk Road (March 27 – July 25, 2010)
Strikingly well-preserved mummies tall in stature and fair in complexion have lain in the parched Tarim Basin of western China for 3,800 years. Wearing Western-influenced textiles and possessing surprising technologies and customs, just who these extraordinary people were is a mystery! This historic exhibition of 150 objects drawn from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum and the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology in Urumqi, China reveals surprising details about the people who lived along the ancient Silk Road. For the first time ever, three of the more than 100 Caucasian mummies found and preserved in the western China’s inhospitable desert sands are being presented in the United States. An impressive array of objects are included in the exhibition to represent the full extent of the Silk Road, where lavish goods, technologies and ideas between East and West were adopted and exchanged.

     Art Classes: Scroll Painting, Opera Masks, Hmong Story Cloths, Embossed Foil Dragon

Quilts: Two Centuries of American Tradition and Technique (July 3, 2010 - March 28, 2011)
Guest curated by Julia D. Zgliniec, Quilts: Two Centuries of American Tradition and Technique presents the patterns, stitches, fabrics and other construction techniques of the Bowers’ most popular quilts, and many that have never before been exhibited. To satisfy our curious and creative visitors, the top and bottom sides of several quilts will be visible. The exhibition features a variety of 19th and early 20th century patterns, a “Whole Cloth” or “Linsey-Woolsey” quilt dating to 1776, a 1930s “Utility” quilt made of men’s suiting samples, and an unfinished variation of a “Crazy” quilt from c. 1850. Made using paper templates of old receipts, bills, letters and other documents, this particular quilt is every bit as interesting as a historical item as it is a textile.

     Art Classes: Crazy Quilts

Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World (December 18, 2010 - March 13, 2011)
Featuring seventy-five rare and important artifacts from Franklin’s life, this exhibition is an immersive, interactive visitor experience for all ages. The exhibition presents the stories of Franklin’s life through his personal belongings used during his early years in Boston as a rebellious teenager, during his life as a printer and during his years of service to the American colonies and the newly formed United States. A scientist, inventor, diplomat, humorist, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Franklin’s dynamism comes to life further through hands-on and interactive activities and animations geared toward a school-aged audience.

     Art Classes: ‘Join or Die’ printed cartoon

Scheduling Your Visit
Reservations are required for docent-guided tours. Please reserve no later than 4-6 weeks in advance.
To reserve a tour or check availability, please contact the Tour Office at 714.567.3680 or email at schooltours@bowers.org.

Tour Hours
One hour Museum Tours are offered Tuesday- Friday at 9:30 am, 11:00 am and 12:30 pm.

One hour Cultural Art classes are available Tuesday- Friday at 9:30 am and 11:00 am.

Two and a half hour Morning at the Museum tours are offered Tuesday- Friday from 9:30 am - 12:00 pm.

Pricing Schedule