Middle school students and educator exploring stone sculptures in The Noguchi Museum garden in...

School Programs

School programs at The Noguchi Museum are available to students and youth groups in grades Pre-K through 12, and are:

  • Exploratory experiences that invite students to form personally meaningful connections to art.
  • Interactive visits designed to foster awareness of one’s inner self and build understanding in community with others.
  • Inquiry-based and center students’ cultures, values, and identities through culturally responsive sustaining education practices.

The Museum is scheduling school group requests through May 2024. Please schedule your visit at least 4 weeks in advance and note that we have extremely limited time slots left this school year. After you submit the School Programs Registration Form, a member of the Education department will contact you to share available dates or add your class to our waiting list.

Reservations are required for all groups. No programs are scheduled on Mondays or Tuesdays, when the Museum is closed. The maximum size for a school group is 30 students or one class. Up to five adults may accompany the group free of charge. Please email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 203 if you have any questions.

Register for a School Program

What to Expect

School Tours: What to Expect During Your Visit
Watch a video about what to expect during your visit.

To learn more about a class visit to The Noguchi Museum, view our social story (PDF).

Tours

Tours last approximately one hour (45 minutes for Pre-K and Kindergarten) and include stops at two to three works of art in the galleries, with discussion, writing, or drawing activities planned for each stop. Tours are designed to promote careful observation and critical thinking, and challenge students to share ideas and listen closely to others.

NYC Public Schools
Free

All Other Schools
$150 per class

Register


Tour and Workshops

A tour and workshop lasts approximately two hours (90 minutes for Pre-K and Kindergarten). The tour portion of the program includes stops at one to two works of art in the galleries followed by a related hands-on art making workshop in the studio. Workshops are designed to promote openness, play, and experimentation.

Scholarships for free school programs are available for Title 1 schools. To learn more, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 203.

Title 1 School
$30 per class

NYC Public Schools
$100 per class

All Other Schools
$250 per class

Register


Themes

When booking a school group visit, we ask that teachers select a theme as a starting point for connections between learning in the classroom and in the museum galleries. Your thematic selection guides educators in planning and facilitating a customized experience for your students.

Artists’ Choices (all grades)
Throughout his career, Isamu Noguchi created work in a variety of media. Noguchi designed gardens, furniture, and architecture, and sculpted in metal, wood, marble, and stone. Using artwork on view as a point of inspiration, students will practice creative decision making and experiment with artists’ choices in materials, process, and collaboration.

What is Sculpture? (all grades)
Isamu Noguchi pushed the possibilities of sculpture. He wrote, “It is my wish to make sculpture a living and vital part of man’s environment.” Students will view artwork in the galleries and consider how sculptures connect to personal experiences of time, space, movement, and everyday life. 

Mining Art: Basalt, Granite, Marble (all grades)
Explore Isamu Noguchi’s sculptures through close observation of the natural properties of stone, comparing the qualities of hard igneous rocks like granite and basalt to softer stones such as marble. Students will learn about Isamu Noguchi’s approach to composition and compare the differences between nature’s marks and the artist’s mark on stone.

Identity and Art (grades 5–12)
As a Japanese American artist, Isamu Noguchi struggled to negotiate his hybrid identity and said, “It’s only in art that it was ever possible for me to find any identity at all.” Through investigations of artwork and artists on view, students will learn about multicultural contexts, and reflect on how art making can connect to agency, belonging, and empowerment. 

Middle school student sketching in the museum garden with Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture 'Squares'
Photo: Katherine Abbott. ©INFGM / ARS

More School Programs

Self-Guided Visits

Self-guided visits are open to high school groups with students ages 14 and above. Upon arrival, school groups are greeted by a museum educator and receive a brief introduction to the Museum, including visit guidelines and expectations for students and chaperones.

Requests are scheduled upon availability and must be made with at least four weeks advance notice. The Noguchi Museum requires a minimum of one adult chaperone for every ten students, with a maximum of no more than 15 students per group. Students must be chaperoned during the entire length of the visit. Email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 203 to schedule a self-guided visit.

NYC Public Schools
Adults and Students: Free

All Other Schools
Adults: $12 / Students: $6

Classroom Visits

In addition to booking a tour, K–12 teachers are invited to schedule a classroom pre-visit to prepare students in advance of a visit to the Museum, or a classroom post-visit to extend learning and art making following a visit to the Museum. Pre- and post-visits are customized and planned in response to your students and classroom curriculum.

Classroom visits are scheduled upon availability and fees are priced per class. A number of subsidized programs are available for Title 1 schools. To learn more, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205.

One class: $150
Each additional class: $100

Virtual Tours

K–12 teachers are invited to schedule a virtual tour of The Noguchi Museum (using the teacher’s preferred video conferencing platform or the Museum’s Zoom account). Virtual tours are educator-led and last approximately one hour, highlighting three to five works of art. Students will be encouraged to engage with artworks through discussion prompts and interactive writing or drawing activities involving basic materials such as drawing tools and paper. 

Virtual visits are scheduled upon availability and fees are priced per class. Email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205 to schedule a virtual tour. 

NYC Public Schools
Free

All Other Schools
$150 per class

K–12 Students with Developmental and Learning Disabilities

School programs for students with developmental or learning disabilities within self-contained or integrated class structures are planned with the lead classroom teacher and designed to  cater to individual students’ needs and abilities. Educators differentiate instruction in the galleries with multimodal communication and by creating experiences with art using tools such as touch objects, movement activities, drawing, and more. In the studio, educators create a flexible and supportive environment for exploring art materials. 

To learn more, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205; and view our social story (PDF).

K–12 Students on the Autism Spectrum

School programs for students on the autism spectrum are planned with the lead classroom teacher and designed to cater to individual students and their specific needs. Educators aim to build upon students’ communication and social skills through conversation and sensory-friendly experiences with art in the galleries. Educators use techniques such as visual teaching tools, social stories, and touch objects to interact with students in the galleries. In the studio, students engage in a developmentally appropriate art-making workshop.

To learn more, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205; and view our social story (PDF).

School Partnerships

The Noguchi Museum is committed to working with local schools on programs for students, teachers, and families. The Museum offers a range of partnership programs, each developed in collaboration with partnering schools. 

If you are interested in discussing ways in which The Noguchi Museum might collaborate with your school, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205.

Community Youth Groups

The Noguchi Museum offers guided visits for community youth groups. Fees are priced per group, with a maximum group size of 30 students. A number of subsidized programs are available for youth groups. 

To book a customized visit for your community youth group, email education@noguchi.org or call 718.204.7088 ext 205.