Build excitement and familiarity by pointing out art that you see around you in your everyday lives. Introduce the museum as a giant home for artwork from around the world. Ask your child what kind of art, colors, textures, and sizes they might see in the museum. Begin conversations about why the way we interact with art in a museum is different than how we interact with art in our homes.

• Ask the Visitor and Museum Services team at the admission desk about kids and family centered activities!
• Take breaks and ask the museum’s Gallery Associates questions as you move through the museum—when your child sees you asking questions, it will encourage them to ask questions, too.
• Take pictures of your kids with artwork! Photography (without a tripod) is permitted. For more information, check out our photo policy.

• Connect what you see in Carnegie Museum of Natural History to the art museum! For example: Dinosaurs are displayed in different landscapes. What kind of landscapes do you see in one of the art museum’s paintings, and what kind of dinosaurs do you imagine might live there?
• Take a quick look around each gallery. The museum’s curators organized the artwork in each space—what do you think about the artworks that are next to each other? What do you see that is similar or different about them? If you had to give the gallery a name or theme, what would it be?
• Ask your children open-ended questions like, “What’s going on in this picture?” Prompt them to support their opinions with observations by asking, “What do you see that makes you say that?”
• Take turns telling a story about a work of art. Grown-ups say one sentence, children say the next sentence, and so on.
• Bring paper and a pencil and encourage your child to draw from observation (sorry—pens, markers, and crayons are not permitted in the galleries).
• Play “I Spy” by describing an artwork in the room and asking your family to guess which one you are describing.
• Ask your child, “How do you think they made that?” and let your child speculate about an artist’s process, technique, and materials.

• Strollers are permitted in the galleries but not on the stairs (feel free to use the elevators to get around with ease). Use your own stroller or pick one up for free in the museum’s coat and locker areas on a limited-availability basis. You may store your stroller in our coat and locker areas.
• Please keep backpacks, umbrellas, and large parcels out of the galleries. We offer lockers for you to store these items while you visit.
• Café Carnegie and Fossil Fuels Café  are great places for you and your family to enjoy lunch, a snack, or a special museum visit treat! Food and drinks are not permitted in the galleries.
• Accessible restrooms with baby changing stations are available throughout the building.
• Speak a language other than English? Please enjoy our museum guides offered in an array of different languages available for download.

It’s important for all of us to keep art and each other safe. With that in mind, please follow these guidelines during your visit:

• All visitors must stay two feet away from the art.
• Even though it looks so appealing, we can’t touch the art—even very clean hands have natural oils that can damage artwork!
• Please don’t wear a backpack or anything on your back—we don’t want the art to bump into you!
• The galleries are for walking and taking a good look at the objects on view, so no running, please. However, feel free to enjoy yourself in front of artwork or talk with your group and enjoy what everyone has to say about the art.
• Gallery Associates help protect you and the art. Please respect their requests.