Talks and Tours
Highlights Tour
This one-hour tour is perfect for first-time visitors. Explore highlights of the collection and learn the history of the Barnes.
Private Collection Tour
Explore highlights of the collection and learn the history of the Barnes. This tour is a private one-hour experience for you and up to nine guests.
Private Collection Tour: Favorite Artists
Choose your favorite artists in the collection for a private one-hour experience for up to ten guests.
Daily Gallery Talks
Every day, our gallery specialists offer talks about the Barnes collection. Learn more about our history, founder, and collection.
Exhibition Tour: Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America
Explore iconic works by Japanese American artists and designers working in the aftermath of World War II and incarceration.
Private Tour: Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America
This docent-led tour of Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America is a private one-hour experience for you and up to nine guests.
October Spotlight Tour: Firestorm! Outrage! Dr. Barnes’s Scandalous 1923 Philadelphia Exhibition
Revisit the critically panned show that pitted Dr. Barnes against Philadelphia’s elite, and see which works remain in the collection.
Lecture: Eiffel Tower Confidential
Learn the Eiffel Tower’s hidden history, including its connections to the French Empire and surveillance, with art historian Hollis Clayson.
Book Talk: Philadelphia in Color: 1950–1990 with Hidden City Philadelphia
Join us for a conversation with the editors of Hidden City’s newest book, a dynamic photographic history of Philadelphia.
November Spotlight Tour: Decoding the Barnes Ensembles
Learn about how and why Dr. Barnes arranged his collection in such a unique way in this illuminating collection tour.
Lecture: Duchamp’s Fountain: A Second Opinion
Explore the controversial work and its impact on American modernism in 1920 letters between William Carlos Williams and Albert Barnes.
Barnes Cinema: Powwow People by Sky Hopinka
This screening of Hopinka’s vérité-style documentary is followed by a discussion and audience Q&A with the filmmaker.
ARTZ @ The Museum
This program provides free access to the Barnes for people living with dementia and their care partners.
On Practice: Pew Fellows in Conversation
Join us for an intimate look at how the artists shaping Philadelphia’s cultural scene experiment, discover, and create.
Deep Dive: “Thomas Paine on the value of freedom” Ad by S. Neil Fujita
An in-depth discussion about Fujita’s design for the “Great Ideas of Western Man” advertising campaign. Free with admission; Roberts Gallery
In Conversation: Brandon Shimoda and Rea Tajiri
Poet Brandon Shimoda and filmmaker Rea Tajiri reflect on Japanese American incarceration, memory, and creative practice.
December Spotlight Tour: Decoding the Barnes Ensembles
Learn about how and why Dr. Barnes arranged his collection in such a unique way in this illuminating collection tour.
Deep Dive: Ogawa II by Kay Sekimachi
An in-depth discussion about Sekimachi’s intricate monofilament hanging. Free with admission; Roberts Gallery
Barnes Cinema: Camp and the Japanese American Artistic Psyche in Film
Short films explore the impact of WWII incarceration on Japanese American artists and filmmakers across generations.
Barnes Cinema: Strawberry Fields by Rea Tajiri
Explore the legacy of Japanese American incarceration on families in this coming-of-age film, followed by a discussion with director Rea Tajiri.