Field Trips

BOOK VIRTUAL OR IN-PERSON  SCHOOL TOUR

Hill-Stead sees hundreds of school groups each year. Art experiences are essential to student success and growth. Through field trips, art activities, virtual tours, and professional development opportunities, Hill-Stead opens its doors to kindergarten through college-age students, teachers, and professors. A virtual or in-person field trip to Hill-Stead Museum can make lessons on art, history, language arts, women’s history, agriculture, and farming come alive!

Our student tours are designed to make meaningful connections to the Connecticut Curriculum Content Standards through inquiry-based, active learning. Trained professional museum guides engage students in observation and discussion, helping to develop analytical and critical-thinking skills in students of all ages, from preschool to college and beyond. Book today, and receive pre- and post-visit materials!

Our virtual programs include activities and can be customized to meet each teacher’s specific curriculum goals. See Scheduling, Pricing & Logistics for Educators. For more information. contact the Education Department (860-677-4787 ext. 136 or education@hillstead.org).


Themed student tour options

Hill-Stead can be viewed through lenses of art, architecture, and family history. Our tours are created to focus on those different facets of Hill-Stead. If you have a particular focus you would like to include, we can work with you to customize your tour.

Please note
  • School tours at Hill-Stead run an average of 60 minutes.
  • We advise arriving 15 minutes before your tour is scheduled to begin.  
  • No bags, backpacks, food, or drink are allowed into the museum. Personal items can either be stored on the bus or in Hill-Stead’s security office.
Hill-Stead Museum presented our students with a wide-ranging docent-lead tour and art-making experience that incorporated aesthetics, art history, and conversations evaluating artwork that met National Core Arts Standards. This experience made a powerful and lasting impression on our students and helped to expand their perception of art.Joseph Vernali, Bowers Elementary, Manchester


HILL-STEAD HIGHLIGHTS

Book this Tour

  • One-hour tour recommended for Pre-K through Grade 12 and beyond
  • Hill-Stead Highlights will transport you and your students to an era of horses and carriages, gas lamps, and the Impressionists.
Description & Lesson Plan
Engage your students in the exploration of history, art, and architecture as they tour the 1901 Colonial Revival home of the Pope and Riddle families. Learn about the family as industrialists, world travelers, art collectors, and philanthropists. Hear the stories of their late-1880s Grand Tour of Europe. Discover the Pope family’s collection of art treasures, most notably the works of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, the bronze sculptures of Antoine-Louis Barye, and the many decorative arts that grace this expansive home. Theodate Pope Riddle was one of America’s pioneering women architects; this tour presents a memorable look at one of her greatest accomplishments – her family home.

This tour is designed to align with a range of national learning standards including the Common Core State Standards and the National Core Arts Standards.


 AT HOME WITH THE IMPRESSIONISTS

Book this Tour

  • One-hour tour recommended for Pre-K through Grade 12 and beyond
  • Meet Monet and friends at Hill-Stead.

Description & Lesson Plan
Take a close, critical, and unhurried look at some of the most significant paintings in the history of art: works by Impressionist masters. See the art as the family that traveled the world to find them did. Discover Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and the works of American artist James McNeill Whistler, all collected by Alfred Atmore Pope for the enjoyment of his family, friends, and guests—like you! Study the Popes’ collection of 18th- to 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints. Learn from family correspondence about the friendships the Pope family made with the leading artists of the day, including Monet, Whistler, and Cassatt. Tour the home, and consider how life in a genteel drawing room of the early 20th century compares to today’s world.

This tour is designed to align with a range of national learning standards including the Common Core State Standards and the National Core Arts Standards.


BIENVENUE AU MUSÉE HILL-STEAD

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  • 1-hour tour recommended for Grades 6 through Grade 12 and beyond
  • Les Peintures! Les Sculptures! Les Estampes! Students will find France in Farmington!
  • Give your students even more of France with a 15-minute trip to Hill-Stead’s archive to view rarely seen artifacts from our archival collection.

Description & Lesson Plan
Hear the stories of the Popes’ travels in France, during their 1888-89 Grand Tour, and their fervent collecting of objects from France that followed. View Monet’s en plein air paintings of the Giverny countryside, Degas’ jockeys and ballerinas, Manet’s scenes from bohemian life and Eugène Carrière’s woman with a red flower. Tour Hill-Stead, the Pope family’s 1901 Farmington home, the lavish showcase for their extraordinary collection.

While the tour is conducted in English, it includes French vocabulary and introduces World Language students to important aspects of French culture.  French-speaking guides are available by request pending guide availability.

This tour is designed to align with a range of national learning standards including the Common Core State Standards, the National Core Arts Standards and the Connecticut World Language Curriculum Framework


TOUR ADD-ON OPTIONS

Create a Masterpiece en Plein Air

Students can create plein air sketches like the Impressionist painters.

Description & Lesson Plan

After a tour of Hill-Stead Museum, students will feel inspired to create a masterpiece of their very own. Museum teachers lead this activity outdoors, where students can create plein air sketches like the Impressionist painters. Afterward, students head to the Education Station to add watercolor paint and finishing touches. Teachers can follow-up with a classroom exhibition of the student work!

Lesson Plan: Add On Create a Masterpiece en Plein Air Project

Visit the Archives: Primary Resources

A custom-designed visit to the archives will introduce students to primary sources such as photographs, limited edition prints, mementos, and postcards not normally on display in the house.

Description & Lesson Plan

Hill-Stead’s archives are a rich repository of primary resource documents. Items stored here include letters, photographs, limited edition prints, mementos, and postcards not normally on display in the house. A custom-designed visit to the archives will greatly enhance the museum experience. An activity may be included to take back to the classroom or complete at Hill-Stead.

Art & Poetry (French or English)

Students will explore artistic creation in both the visual arts, by creating group collage projects, and the language arts, by composing Cinquain-styled poetry.

Description & Lesson Plan

After a tour of the museum, students will further explore artistic creation in both the visual arts, by creating group collage projects, and the language arts, by composing Cinquain-styled poetry. This activity is recommended for students in grades 6-12 and is particularly well-suited for French or English students with varying levels of artistic skill.

Lesson Plan: Art + Poetry Lesson

Outreach Project

Students work collaboratively to create art and/or poetry projects connected to painting and poems in the Hill-Stead collection.

Description & Lesson Plan

Following their tour of the Museum, students will further explore the idea of inspiration as they work collaboratively to create art and/or poetry projects connected to painting and poems in the Hill-Stead collection. Students work independently and contribute to a group project that is satisfying and rewarding to all artistic levels.

Lesson Plan: Grid Art Collaborative Project


Customized Tours

In addition to themed tours, our educators enjoy working with teachers to develop tours based on specific interests, or that connect to individual classroom curriculum or align with specific grade levels. To discuss these customized tours, please contact the Education Department 860-677-4787 ext. 136 or education@hillstead.org.


Virtual Tours and Programs

Hill-Stead has developed safe learning alternatives by bringing classrooms online and outdoors, taking advance of our gorgeous 152-acre campus. Hill-Stead offers brand-new virtual programs for all student levels–kindergarten through college, both pre-recorded slides and live via each school’s preferred platform. Programs include activities and can be customized to meet each teacher’s specific curriculum goals.

In 2020, the education team created new high-quality learning programs such as our virtual Grand Tour series, in-person nature & art initiatives, and zoom workshops for senior centers and schools. Our initiatives have resulted in increased academic achievement, including heightened problem-solving skills and creativity.

While our nimble team’s transition has been challenging, the good work continues, and we are all learning! We are immensely grateful to the teachers, parents, and other caregivers who help us better understand our students’ needs during the pandemic.

Please note
  • Virtual Tours & Programs require at least two advance weeks’ notice and should be scheduled Tuesday through Friday between 10 and 4.
  • Tours & Programs run from 20-60 minutes, depending on learning goals and time allotted for questions.
    Sample options: an in-depth study of one artwork with a museum educator (approximately 20 minutes) or a tour of the Impressionist paintings with a museum educator (30-45 minutes)
  • Synchronous/Live tours with museum staff are offered to all K-12 schools and homeschoolers. Please inquire for details and pricing.
  • Pre-recorded PowerPoint slides are available by request.
  • Pricing for Virtual Programs, such as workshop series, special lectures, and other customized programs, varies according to time and resources required.
  • To participate in a Virtual Tour, a broadband internet connection, webcam, microphone, and external speakers are required.  A digital projector and whiteboard will enhance the experience, by projecting the images on the big screen.

Questions? Please contact the  Education Department(860-677-4787 ext. 136 or education@hillstead.org). Our goal is to supplement and enhance your learning goals!