Skip to content Skip to footer

School Programs

Come to the Barnes, or we’ll come to you. Our programs will nourish your students’ imaginations and serve your curricular goals.

Visit Us

There are many ways your students can interact with the Barnes. Partner programs bring our grade-level specialists to your classroom and include a visit to the Barnes. Field trips include a 75-minute guided tour and interactive gallery lesson with age-appropriate activities that meet curricular standards. Self-guiding  with your students (grades 8 and above) after or instead of a guided tour provides more scheduling flexibility. Email us for information on virtual programs, which we can tailor to your class or school.

Request a Program

Partner Programs

The Barnes provides free in-depth programming to grades pre-K, 3, 5, and 7 in select partner schools in the School District of Philadelphia and Catholic schools in the Delaware Valley. Eligible classrooms receive a field trip to the Barnes and two in-school lessons led by grade-level specialists. These programs are free and include materials, busing, and admission costs. Learn more.

Field Trips

Field trips with guided tours are available for all pre-K–12 students from October through June. During these visits, students will analyze the unique “ensemble” displays, which feature impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings alongside African sculptures, Native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and metalwork. Students learn about the history of the Barnes and its founder, Albert Barnes, who was raised in a working-class family in Philadelphia and held a fierce commitment to diversity and inclusivity.

Guided tours are 75 minutes and may include stops in our special exhibition space; they are offered Monday–Wednesday at 10 & 11:45 am. All field trips are free (including busing) for public and charter schools in the School Districts of Philadelphia and Camden, NJ. For all other school groups, tours are $5 per person.

Learn more about field trips.

Self-Guiding

Students in grades 8 and above may self-guide with their chaperones after or instead of a guided tour. These visits may take place during open hours, pending availability.

Self-guided visits take place Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and are free (including busing) for public and charter schools in the School Districts of Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, and $5 per person (or $10 per person for guided visits with additional self-guided access) for all other schools. Self-guided tickets provide general admission, and groups may need to wait in line with other visitors to enter galleries and special exhibition spaces.

Learn more about field trips and self-guiding.

School Program Donors

The Barnes gratefully acknowledges its donors for their generous support of pre-K–12 education programs in the Philadelphia region. This list reflects gifts made between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

The 1830 Family Foundation
Eugene and Joann Bissell
The CHG Charitable Trust
Robert Cohen and Deborah Peikes
Dr. Andrew F. Drake
James Fernberger and Mary Walto
Julia and David Fleischner
Nancy Gordon and Stew Bolno
Hamilton Family Charitable Trust
Dr. Herbert Kean and The Honorable Joyce Kean
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
The Christopher Ludwick Foundation
Samuel P. Mandell Foundation
Sam and Laurie Marshall
Louis Nayovitz Foundation
Caroline J. S. Sanders Trust 2
Jerome and Sandra Schwartz
Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Memorial Fund
Syde Hurdus Foundation
The Dean and Ann Witter Fund for Charitable Giving
Anonymous


The Barnes is grateful for the lead support of Puentes a las Artes / Bridges to the Arts provided by the William Penn Foundation.

The Barnes smART Fund for Education, established by GSK, is an endowment that provides substantial annual support for K–8 education programs in the School District of Philadelphia.

Thanks to a generous endowment gift, Puentes a las Artes / Bridges to the Arts and all of the Barnes’s community engagement programs are made possible, in part, by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation has provided essential endowment support for pre-K–12 education programs.

Subaru of America Foundation, Inc. critically supports education programs in Camden, NJ, and has generously donated a vehicle for Barnes educators to use for travel to Philadelphia and Camden schools.

Connelly Foundation provides important support for the Barnes’s education programs serving Catholic school students in Philadelphia and Camden.

Pre-K–12 education programs for School District of Philadelphia students are generously supported by gifts made through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program. The Barnes gratefully acknowledges the following donors for their support:

Elliott-Lewis
Philadelphia Insurance Companies