Students will take away an appreciation of art and consider a selection works that can cover a range of subjects, styles, media and purposes. The works viewed will be a selection from our current exhibitions. Students are expected to discuss and question what they see. Tours can be tailored to all levels.

Bookings essential.

Download our Gallery Guidelines below.

Take a look at a range of sculptures and installations on display in the Gallery during a guided tour with your students. Students will think about how artists consider space and work in three-dimensions and the sorts of materials they use before heading to our education centre to take part in a sculpture challenge of their own! Classes can choose between a clay-based or mystery materials bag option for the practical part of this session.

Our lessons often book up fast but you are always welcome to bring your students on a self-guided tour of the Gallery. We have a wonderful resource for He Kapuka Oneone - A Hanful of Soil which you can use to guide your students through the spaces. Check out all of our current exhibitions here. 

Please ensure you go over the Gallery Guidelines with your students so that they are aware of expectations in the Gallery spaces.

Email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz and let us know when to expect you. so we are able manage any clashes with events and other tours. 

What happens when we widen our gaze beyond conventional art narratives, and what part does bravery play in making art? Zine making is one way to challenge some of the traditional ideas that we apply to art. Many artists who make zines take risks – either because their work is very personal, deals with contentious issues, or says things in a new way. Students will reimagine the narrative of one of the works in the Gallery and reinvent it in a zine to take away. 

Explore the Gallery with your students, discuss a range of artists’ work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. During the guided tour students will use signs and symbols to create a pictorial map of their own identity and journey through the Gallery which they will then complete using watercolour and pastel in our Education Centre. A great lesson for preschoolers and junior primary students!

Unutai e! Unutai e! harnesses the power of contemporary art to shed light on an urgent environmental crisis: the deteriorating state of fresh water across the Kāi Tahu takiwā. Explore Anne Noble's photographs with your class in a guided tour and discuss our role in protecting and restoring our rivers before creating painted awa in the Education Centre to take back to school. 

Exhibition toured by Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Explore the ways in which artists are inspired by the natural world on a guided tour of selected works in the Gallery with your class. Students will discuss the range of forms, colour, media and viewpoints in the works and think about why artists have chosen the spaces they have. Following the tour, students will create a multi-layered monoprint in our Education Centre to take back to school.

Bring your class into the Gallery for a guided tour of Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua, showcasing more than 65 works spanning the artist’s 50-year career. From traditional carving and tattoo, to the places where Captain James Cook came ashore and the locations where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, Mark Adams explores cross-cultural exchanges in Aotearoa and across the globe. As part of the tour students will take part in a group photography assignment which explores context, narrative and perspective.

Exhibition developed and toured by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Available 7 March - 26 July 2026

Take a guided tour with your class through Made in the Pacific. This exhibition of Pacific taoga from the Canterbury Museum in conversation with works by contemporary artists highlights the continued strength in culture and traditional art forms. The tour will be followed with a hands-on workshop in our Education Centre in which students will create an artwork to take back to school. 

Available 28 March - 4 October 2026

Take a guided tour through He Kapuka Oneone—A Handful of Soil, which explores the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. Students will think about identity, place, history and belonging in Aotearoa before creating an artwork inspired by their own name in the Education Centre.

Download our Ko wai tōu ikoa? pre-visit worksheet

Students will consider how artists use their making to reflect on what is happening in the world around them and as a voice for change during a guided tour of He Kapuka Oneone—A Handful of Soil. In the Education Centre students will create a flag which is their own call to action about something that is important to them.

Download our Art and Action! pre-visit worksheet

Come in and visit the exhibition Whāia te Taniwha, where artworks by Māori artists celebrate and honour the multiplicities of taniwha. Students will start with a guided tour of the exhibition before returning to the Education Centre where they will use themes from selected artworks to create an artwork that they can take back to school.

Available until 15 February 2026