Docent Tours

Museum Tours

 

MIAC GUIDELINES FOR MUSEUM BEHAVIOR

MIAC welcomes groups who wish to visit its exhibits. For the best experience, it is important for students as well as teachers, group leaders, and chaperones to know what to expect and what is expected of them. These guidelines will help ensure a safe, enjoyable and productive learning experience for all.

GROUP LEADERS, CHAPERONES and TEACHERS

  • Please be responsible for your group. It is vital that you know who is in your group, including knowing the number of students and number of adults. Always accompany your group and do not wander off to other areas.
  • Help your students learn. On guided, docent-led tours, docents will be posing age/grade - appropriate questions with the students? needs in mind. Please allow the students to answer the questions and refrain from answering yourself. Though we appreciate your enthusiasm, please help make the quality of the students? experience our shared priority.
  • We encourage teachers to visit the Museum prior to your visit so that you can prepare in advance. Teachers typically create a student worksheet tailored to the Museum?s exhibitions.
  • Please review Museum Manners (below) so that everyone?s Museum experience will help make for a smooth and enjoyable visit.

MUSEUM MANNERS

  • Please do NOT bring backpacks, beverages or food.
  • Always stay with your group.
  • Please silence your cell phones, and refrain from having conversations during a guided tour.
  • Always walk (never run) in the Museum, Milner Plaza and anywhere in front of the Museum.
  • Please do not lean on exhibit displays.
  • Indoor voices are the best. Remember, there will likely be other people coming to visit and enjoy the Museum just like you.
  • Please do not touch objects or press buttons in the galleries unless instructed by the docent to do so. (We do use many hands-on objects and props.)
  • Remember to ask questions!

Tours of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture are an excellent introduction to the complexity and diversity of the Native American cultures of the Southwest.

FREE walk-in docent-led tours of the museum's exhibitions are offered daily:  usually at 10:30am, 1pm, and 3pm. Sometimes we don't have a volunteer docent available, so please call 505-476-1269 during museum hours to confirm the walk-in tours offered each day, or 505-476-1250 after hours for recorded general museum information.

Group Tours

Tour groups can also benefit from interaction with the museum's energetic and knowledgeable docents, who are trained to offer challenging, interactive tours of Here, Now & Always, The Buchsbaum Gallery of Southwestern Pottery, and the museum's regularly changing exhibits. Free docent-led tours are available to pre-registered groups of any age or interest.

  • To schedule an adult group (including college group) visit to the museum, please call 505/476-1271 or e-mail andrew.albertson@state.nm.us.

Pre-registered school groups are admitted free to the museum and both docent-led and self-guided tours of our exhibitions provide opportunities for discussion, discovery, and inspiration. All schools participating in the free Living Traditions Education Program receive a guided tour along with their hands-on session in the museum's classroom. 

  • To schedule a school group visit to the museum, please contact the school tours line at 505/ 476-1271 or e-mail andrew.albertson@state.nm.us.

Volunteer Opportunities

Interested in becoming a Docent or museum volunteer? Find out about our volunteer opportunities.