This fall, the Learning Team is welcoming aboard Abbie Edens, our new head of Learning and Programming, a new school guide class, and a new class of Discovery Day volunteers! We look forward to having you all get to know Abbie and our new volunteers over the coming months. In addition to a full schedule of public and school tours this fall, we are grateful for our guides stationed in At the Moulin Rouge and with the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Stop and Chat, connecting to visitors and enriching their experience at Mia!

 

School Tours Wrap-Up

As summer waned, teachers were planning ahead
and booking their tours at Mia, so we look forward
to a busy late fall and spring touring season. We are grateful to Emily Ross, our Interim Tour and Programs Coordinator, who is adding those many requests to the scheduling system and assigning tours to keep us on track.

 

As mentioned above, we are launching a new school visit program, Discovery Days, where students will rotate between experiential learning stations (think
Art Carts) and gallery activities, all hosted by a new class of Discovery Day volunteers. Sheila McGuire, Senior Manager of Student and Teacher Learning,
and Bridget Gallagher-Larkin, Student and Teacher Programs Specialist, have scheduled the first official visit for November 13.

 

The Target entrance reopened to guided school tour groups on October 22. Earlier this month, we were pleased to welcome back Yoshitomo Nara’s Your Dog to the first floor Target Atrium! Your Dog will once again greet excited students as they walk through the doors.

 

Most of all, we are pleased to welcome a new class of school guides! We have 22 new guides who are eager to connect with our K-6 student groups. Training will last for 13 weeks, with new guides completing qualifying tours in February 2025. The new guides
will train on the four most popular Art Adventure
sets as well as our most popular Highlights tour, Introduction to Mia. We will be reaching out to all school guides for help in mentoring this new class
and welcoming them in shadowing school tours, as that is such an important part of learning to be a guide. In the meantime, if you see someone new in
the Guide Lounge, be sure to say hello!

 

Public Tours

November is Native American Heritage month. The one-hour public tour provides an opportunity to experience how tradition and innovation come alive
in historic and contemporary works of art. A self-guided tour flier will also be available at the visitor
and information desks in the lobby. This is a chance
to learn about works of Native art you may not have used on tours before. The contemporary Native artists on view express a multiplicity of perspectives, traditions, and visions of modern life.

 

The December one-hour tour, Celebrating the Season, has become an annual favorite for many visitors, as they enjoy conversations about winter celebrations around the world. Through our global collections we explore how diverse communities share common values of feasting, family, generosity, redemption,
and renewal.

 

In January, we repeat Oh, the Weather Outside!, which explores images of indoor and outdoor pastimes while contemplating Minnesotans’ obsession with the weather.

 

Be sure to see Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting, At the Moulin Rouge, on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. Guides are stationed in the Bell Court Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m.-noon. If you weren’t able to sign up for October through December, we will offer additional sign-ups for January 1 through March 9. After that, the painting will remain at Mia throughout the summer in a new location, probably G351.

 

Book Tours

November’s tour features The Country of the Blind:
A Memoir at the End of Sight. Andrew Leland experienced deteriorating eyesight midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that eventually leads to blindness. Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the physical experience of blindness as well as its language, politics, and customs. He’s determined not to merely survive this transition but to learn and grow from it.

 

For December’s tour, Jacqueline in Paris, by Ann Mah, offers a fictionalized account of Jackie Kennedy’s junior year abroad in postwar Paris, an intoxicating world
of champagne and châteaux, art and avant-garde theater, cafés and jazz clubs. She strikes up a romance with a talented young writer who shares her love of literature and culture—even though her mother would never approve. In the aftermath of World War II, Jackie witnesses the beginning of a political environment that will shape the rest of her life—and that of her future husband.

 

In January, we are touring Chenneville, a Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance by Paulette Jiles. This heartbreaking tale of historical fiction tracks former Union soldier John Chenneville as he travels the country seeking vengeance for the brutal murder of his sister and family. Chenneville single-mindedly travels through Reconstruction-era United States on
a relentless search for the killer. Along the way, he encounters a colorful cast of characters who either renew his faith in humanity or make him deeply question it.

 

Enjoy the crisp, colorful days of fall!