School Programs

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s School Programs provide exhibition tours and workshops designed for elementary and secondary school groups. These programs introduce tools to foster visual literacy and to promote critical thinking about the world around us through strategies of close looking and response. 

Led by the Gallery’s education staff, School Tours and Workshops are a great way to learn more about the cultural and social contexts of art. 

Fall/Winter 2025–26 School Programs will run from September 23, 2025, to February 12, 2026.

Registration for the Gallery’s School Programs opens on Saturday, August 25, 2025, at 9 AM. Space is limited, and sessions fill up quickly, so please book early to ensure your spot. Find out more »

A classroom of teenage students sit at tables creating art during a Vancouver Art Gallery School Programs Workshop.

School Tour and Workshop at the Gallery, December 2024, Photo: Vancouver Art Gallery

TOURS + WORKSHOPS

Grades: 2–12
Price: $250
Time: Offered Monday–Thursday at 9:30 AM and 12:15 PM
Duration: 2 hours

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TOUR ONLY

Grades: 2–12
Price: $125
Time: Offered Monday–Thursday at 10:45 AM and 1:30 PM
Duration: 1 hour

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VIRTUAL TOUR

Grades: 1–12
Price: $150 per class
Time: We will make every effort to accommodate your specific scheduling needs
Duration: 1 hour

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TEEN AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Two teens complete a drawing exercise.

Teens participate in a workshop as part of Teen Art Group, February 2025, Photo: Vancouver Art Gallery

TEEN ART GROUP

Ages: 15–18
Price: $495
Time: Thursdays, 4–7 PM | From October to February

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ART EXCHANGE

Ages: 13–15
Price: Full-Scholarship, application required
Time: Mondays, 4:30–7:30 PM | From October to June

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SELF-GUIDED VISITS

A group of students seen from the side looking at artwork on the wall.

Students looking at Firelei Báez during a visit to the Gallery, December 2024, Photo: Vancouver Art Gallery

Self-guided visits allow school groups to navigate any of the featured exhibitions in the Gallery on their own.

GRADE K-12

Price: Youth age 18 and under are free + $25 per chaperone for groups of 10 or more.

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TEACHER SUPPORT

To help you get ready for your tour and help your students get the most out of their experience, we offer study guides and teacher orientations for many of our exhibitions.

Professional Development

Join us on Friday, October 24 from 9 AM to 3 PM for a provincial Professional Development Day workshop at the Gallery. Discover new ways to engage students with art during this full-day professional development workshop, featuring guided tours and a hands-on session inspired by three dynamic exhibitions: Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head, Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection and Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama.

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Teachers’ Orientations

The Vancouver Art Gallery is pleased to offer complimentary tours of select exhibitions for teachers from across Metro Vancouver. Registration is required.

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Teacher Study Guide

Riopelle: Crossroads in Time (2025)

Firelei Báez (2024)

Black and White and Everything In Between: A Monochrome Journey (2024)

Emily Carr: A Room of Her Own and HORIZONS (2024)

Rooted Here: Woven from the Land (2023)

Denyse Thomasos: just beyond (2023)

Parviz Tanavoli: Poets, Locks, Cages (2023)

Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me & Hard-Edge (2023)

Guud san glans Robert Davidson: A Line That Bends But Does Not Break (2022)

Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment (2022)

Kids Take Over (2022)

GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono and The art of John and Yoko (2022)

Jan Wade: Soul Power (2021)

Sun Xun: Mythological Time and Stories that animate us (2021)

Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds and lineages and land bases (2020)

Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life: Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries (2020)

Cindy Sherman (2019)

Transits and Returns (2019)

Susan Point: Spindle Whorl (2017)

Preparing Your Students: How to Approach Nudes in Art

If you require a study guide from previous years not listed below, please contact learn@vanartgallery.bc.ca with your request.