Bring your class to The Ringling for a field trip! On-site visits to the museum are FREE for all students and 2 teachers/chaperones for every 10 students. All visits include access to the Museum of Art, Circus Museum, and the Bayfront Gardens. Depending on your group size, you may choose a guided tour led by one of our specially trained volunteers or to lead your students on your own.
Guided Visits
Guided tours, which can accommodate up to 50 participants, are an engaging way to visit The Ringling. Trained guides will lead your students on a 45-55 minute tour involving 2-6 artworks. School tour guides are trained in interacting with students, tying the tour to Florida state curriculum, and leading engaging discussions and activities around works of art.
Guided tours are offered for all grade levels in the Museum of Art. After your guided experience, your group will have access to explore the Circus Museum and Bayfront Gardens at your leisure. Each guided tour has an optional post-tour worksheet to accompany the lessons in the tours. Post-tour worksheets, along with other tour worksheets and planning information, are available for download on our Teacher Resource page.
Choose from these engaging tour themes for your students.
Meet The Ringling | Grades K-5
Meet The Ringling is an introductory tour for elementary-aged children. In this tour, students will define what art is and what museums do. Students will explore The Ringling galleries and learn about the collection. Then, students will analyze and interpret 3-5 works of art from The Ringling collection. This tour is an opportunity to explore all the Museum of Art has to experience! This tour practices visual arts standards, English language arts, and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.
The sister tour for “Meet The Ringling” is “Elements to Art,” which is offered for secondary students.
Elements of Art | Grades 6-12
Elements of Art is the sister tour for Meet The Ringling. This tour explores The Ringling and then focuses on a deeper, formal analysis of artworks in the collection. Here, students will use the elements of art as a lens to analyze paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures from The Ringling collection. Students will discuss the building blocks of art including color, line, shape, form, and pattern. Secondary students will practice critiquing works of art and will analyze the composition and choices made by the artist. This tour practices visual arts standards and is ideal for students taking art or art history.
Myths and Legends | Grades 4-8
Discover thrilling tales from ancient cultures! After learning about various gods, goddesses, mythical creatures, and magical objects, students will explore artworks from The Ringling’s collections that depict scenes from the epic Greek poems and various legends. Students will analyze the works of art in the context of Homer’s poems, and will discuss how subsequent generations and cultures have interpreted The Iliad and The Odyssey. This tour practices English language arts and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, and is customizable to fit your curriculum.
Myths and Legends | Grades 9-12
Discover thrilling tales from ancient cultures! After learning about various gods, goddesses, mythical creatures, and magical objects, students will explore artworks from The Ringling’s collections that depict scenes from the epic Greek poems and various legends. Students will analyze the works of art in the context of Homer’s poems, and will discuss how subsequent generations and cultures have interpreted The Iliad and The Odyssey. This tour practices English language arts and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, and is customizable to fit your curriculum.
Portraits and Identity | Grades K-5
Portraits and Identity is an introductory tour for elementary-aged students. This tour focuses on conversation, interpretation, and exploring art through close looking. On this tour, the students will do most of the talking. The main objective of this tour is to teach the students how to look at portraits through the lens of the six elements of portraiture: focal point, facial expression, clothing, objects, gestures, and setting. Students will practice their looking and interpretation skills throughout the tour. This tour practices visual arts standards, English language arts, and social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.
New! Pilot Tours in New Venues
The Ringling is pleased to announce that we are piloting new guided school tours for the 2023-2024 school year. Initially, these guided tours will be limited to groups of 30 or less. Thank you for your patience and your participation as we continue to develop new offerings to best serve our teachers and students!
Special Exhibitions | Grades K-12
There is always something new to see at The Ringling! This 30- to 60-minute guided tour will visit one of the museum’s temporary exhibitions, highlighting new objects on view and giving students a behind-the-scenes look at how museums create and display exhibitions. This tour is subject to change based on available galleries and is limited to groups of 30 or less as part of our pilot tour program.
Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion | Grades 7-12
Explore the exciting medium of studio glass art in The Ringling’s Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion. The Ringling’s collection of glass showcases some of the most innovative glass artists working across the globe today. In this 30-minute tour, students will learn about glass as a complex medium and explore works from a range of techniques and practices. This tour is limited to groups of 30 or less as part of our pilot tour program.
Introduction to The Ringling Estate | Grades K-12
Did you know The Ringling is home to 66 acres of beautiful grounds and gardens? In this 60-minute outdoor tour, students will learn about the life cycle of plants, local pollinators, the Florida state tree, and more! After your time in the gardens, your guides will lead you to the entrance of the Tibbals Learning Center and provide a brief introduction to the Circus Museum collection before inviting your group to explore the venue independently. This tour requires one hour of walking outdoors without sitting down. There are water fountains and restrooms available throughout the tour. This tour is limited to groups of 30 or less as part of our pilot tour program.
Teacher-led Visits
Teacher-led visits can accommodate up to 300 participants.
Bring your students to visit The Ringling and use the museum as your classroom for the day! Teacher-led visits offer teachers the opportunity to take a FREE field trip to the various venues on campus including the Museum of Art, Circus Museum and Bayfront Gardens. Museum educators do not facilitate teacher-led visits, allowing teachers the flexibility to engage with The Ringling’s collections however you’d like.
Visit Ca’ d’Zan
A first-floor self-guided walkthrough of Ca’ d’Zan is available upon request for student groups up to 100 participants. You must arrive at The Ringling by 9:30 AM and enter Ca’ d’Zan at 10:00 AM.
Plan Your Visit
► Guided tours require 6 weeks’ advance notice and teacher-led visits require 2 weeks’ advance notice. You may request an on-site visit by submitting the online request form found below; please note that some dates may not be available. Visits are only confirmed when you receive an emailed confirmation from the education department.
► Complimentary Planning Visits: Educators may receive one complimentary ticket to The Ringling prior to bringing their class on a field trip. To reserve your complimentary ticket, email [email protected] with the preferred date of your planning visit.
► Teacher Resources: We have extensive resources and planning materials available to make your visit a success! Discover teacher and chaperone planning templates, teacher guides to the collection, student workbooks, post-visit worksheets, and additional resources. Learn more
Bus Scholarships
Teachers are encouraged to apply for scholarship funds to offset the cost of bus transportation to and from The Ringling. Funding is provided by The Frank Duckwall Foundation, Inc. Endowment.
Learn more