Field Trips
Engage, explore, and connect with artworks on educator-guided or self-guided tours.
Bring your school group to The Phillips Collection for a free 75-minute guided field trip.
All youth groups with 10 or more people must request a guided field trip. Field trips can accommodate up to 50 students.
Please make your field trip request at least six weeks in advance.
Explore Our PK-12 Field Trips
Making Friends
Grades: PreK-2
Students will look closely at artworks to identify characters, places, and activities friends can do together. Through conversation and hands-on activities, they will explore how artists express the values of friendship in art.
Awakening the Senses
Grades: PreK-2
Awaken your students’ senses through activities that incorporate movement, sketching, writing, and conversation. Students will focus on the senses of sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell as pathways to make connections to art.
Art & Storytelling
Grades: K-3
Every work of art tells a story. Through sketching, performance, or writing, students will consider setting, character(s), and mood and use their imaginations to create stories in response to the artwork.
Color, Line & Shape
Grades: K-8
Explore how color, line, and shape create compositions in art. Through critical thinking and creative expression, students will learn that there is no right way, no wrong way, and no limits to making art.
Nature in Art
Grades: 3-6
Look closely and engage with art inspired by the natural world. Students will consider humanity’s impact on the environment and create art that expresses their own connections to the natural world.
Exploring Places: Real, Imagined, Close By, Far Away
Grades: 3-7
Students engage critically with artwork representing places, from identifiable to imaginative. They will connect to their own experiences of belonging in particular places. This tour can be customized to include DC-born and -based artists.
The Power of Art: Visual Storytelling with Jacob Lawrence
Grade level: 3-12
Limited to 25 students
This tour focuses on The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence. Students make personal connections to The Migration Series, forming a foundation to explore historical context, storytelling through art, and Lawrence’s artistic process. Connections to other artists are included. To provide an in-depth experience, this tour has a maximum capacity of 25 students.
Making Meaning: Why Museums Matter
Grades: 6-12
What goes on behind-the-scenes of a museum? Students will learn how collections are created, preserved, and interpreted. Students are encouraged to think about making museums relevant and meaningful as well as how their own talents and interests may apply to museum work.
Taking a Stand, Making a Change
Grades: 7-12
Students will explore identity through artists’ expression of the elements of art (color, line, shape, form, and texture) and depiction of historical events and personal narratives. Students will consider how art can be a powerful platform for advocacy and activism.
Shifting Perspectives & Seeing Differently
Grades: 9-12
Students will explore their own unique perspective and discover the importance of seeing the world through different lenses. They will engage with a range of artworks through their personal experiences and by listening to their classmates’ varied perspectives.
Write About It
Grades: 9-12
How can looking at art spark creativity? Students will respond to art and express their voices through a variety of creative writing prompts. Explore the power of the written word through published texts, such as song lyrics and poetry.
Meet the Phillips Educators
What makes a Phillips field trip so special?
The Phillips Collection is highly invested in the quality of our teaching and learning programs. All guided field trips are led by Phillips Educators. These paid educators are part of our part-time staff; they are not volunteers.
Phillips Educators come from a range of backgrounds including classroom teachers, museum educators, art teachers, practicing artists, and art historians. The Phillips Educator program includes an initial training intensive and ongoing monthly trainings to ensure Educators have the tools and expertise to lead highly engaging, inquiry-based, student-centered arts experiences.
Field Trip Guidelines
Field trips are available Tuesdays-Fridays from 9:45-11am.
All of our field trips are 75-minutes.
Your field trip will be led by a trained Phillips Educator. Expect a highly interactive experience including 3 artwork stops, hands-on activities, and conversation.
Yes. Chaperone requirements are based on grade level.
- PK: 1 chaperone for every 4 students.
- K-5: 1 chaperone for every 8 students
- 6-12: 1 chaperone for every 10 students
- The maximum number of chaperones for all groups is 1 for every 4 students.
No. The museum does not have adequate space for student groups to eat. Tours are scheduled early so that schools may depart in time for lunch.
Field trip requests must be submitted at least one month in advance. In the event you need to cancel, two weeks' notice is requested so we may offer your slot to groups on the waitlist.
In the event of a last-minute cancellation or multiple repeat cancellations, we reserve the right to refuse future bookings for your school or group.
High school groups with 10 students or less may self-guide. Any school group with more than 10 students must schedule a guided tour.
Schools may choose to explore the galleries in small chaperone-supervised groups after the tour. We strongly recommend scheduling more than the required number of chaperones to allow for smaller groups and ensure an adult is always present with students.
If you have any questions, please contact tours@phillipscollection.org. We value your support and look forward to welcoming you for a tour!