Make the Gardner an unforgettable part of your students’ experience!
Guided visits to the Gardner Museum for grades 3–12 provide engaging opportunities for students to make personal connections to art while also supporting curriculum goals. Our discussion-based tours encourage close looking, critical inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, and student teamwork. Each hour-long visit provides a general introduction to Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Museum's history and focuses on approximately four works of art or galleries.
Tour Prices & Details
Guided tours must be reserved at least three weeks in advance.
Group Size: 2–45 people
A guided tour is required for groups of more than 30 visitors. Groups of 30 and fewer high school students may choose to visit the Museum on their own with general admission tickets. Groups of students in grade 8 or below must reserve a guided tour.
Pricing
$6 per student. Includes Museum admission. One chaperone is admitted free for every 10 students.
Tour Times
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 11:30 am, 12:45 pm, 2:15 pm, 3:30 pm, and select Thursday evenings upon request.
Accessibility
Virtual guided tours and tour accommodations, including, but not limited to, American Sign Language interpretation, touch tours for visitors who are blind or have low vision, and low sensory kits, are available with advance request. For more information, email tours@isgm.org.
Questions?
Email tours@isgm.org or call 617 278 5147, Monday–Friday, 9 am–5 pm. Tour options and pricing are subject to change.
Guided Tour Themes
INTRODUCTION TO THE GARDNER (Grades 3–12)
Introduce students to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and its namesake founder through discussion on four highlights of the Museum’s collection. Our educators can help you select highlights to meet your curricular needs.
STORY HUNTER (Grades 3–12)
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is full of stories. Students will explore the ways in which narratives from the classical past to the present—including ones students create on their own—can help us understand ourselves and the world.
QUESTIONING POWER (Grades 6–12)
Explore visual representations of power. Together, we’ll consider who has historically had access to power and how image-making conveys both secular and religious authority. Weaving in visual analysis with historical context, we will critique how power is expressed in the past and present.
ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING ON A LEGACY (Grades 6–12)
How do spaces and materials shape our experiences with art? Celebrate the architectural innovations of the Gardner Museum’s New Wing, designed by the acclaimed Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and its relationship to Isabella Stewart Gardner’s original Venetian-style Palace.
RENAISSANCE AT THE GARDNER(Grades 9–12)
Explore the significant cultural, artistic, and scientific achievements of the Renaissance in Europe (1300s–1600s), and reflect on how Isabella Stewart Gardner’s installations were inspired by this period.
SUMMER 2025 EXHIBITIONS
June 26, 2025–September 21, 2025
Explore how gardens can unlock memory and imagination across three unforgettable exhibitions featuring work from Isabella’s contemporaries, celebrated sculptor Ming Fay, and Artist-in-Residence Yu-Wen Wu. This tour will include Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden; Flowers for Isabella; and/or Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty on the building’s facade. All tours also include stops in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s historic collection and courtyard garden.
Scholarships for Guided Tours
We offer limited scholarship funding each year for groups that demonstrate financial need. If you are interested in applying for scholarship assistance, please review the guidelines below and apply here.
Plan for Your Guided Tour
Arrival
All visitors are admitted through the Museum entrance at 25 Evans Way.
Please arrive no earlier than 15 minutes ahead of your tour time. We request that all participants arrive together prior to the tour time. When the entire group has arrived you will be greeted by a Museum staff member who will provide a brief orientation.
If you are behind schedule, please call the Tour Coordinator at 617 278 5147 on weekdays, or the Box Office at 617 278 5156 on weekends. Late arrivals may receive a shortened tour; groups that are more than 30 minutes late may not receive a tour.
What to bring
If possible, leave bulky items at home or on the bus so you can comfortably enjoy your visit. All backpacks, packages, large purses, umbrellas, and coats must be checked in our lobby.
Please use only graphite pencils to write or sketch in the galleries.
Parking
A limited number of free and metered parking spots are available near the Gardner Museum. We also offer discounted parking at the Simmons School of Management Garage* next door and are walking distance from the lots at the Museum of Fine Arts. See Directions & Parking for more.
*Please note the Simmons Garage does not have bus parking. Buses may drop off and pick up passengers in front of the Evans Way entrance. The City of Boston has designated the north side of Huntington Avenue between Belvedere Street and Massachusetts Avenue for bus parking. See a map at Guidelines for Tour Buses in Boston.