Adults
Explore More
We offer a variety of social and educational opportunities for adults. From informational to interactive experiences, our programs are tailored to different interests and skill levels that will inspire you.
Curator’s Tours
In our Curator’s Tours, President & CEO and Chief Curator Charles Shepard or other curators take you on a new gallery tour each month. From their specialized and personal points of view, curators offer a unique perspective for all exhibitions at the Museum.
Curator’s Tours are on the first Thursday of every month from 12:15 – 1pm. They are free with gallery admission.
Upcoming Curator's Tours
2nd Thursday at FWMoA
Second Thursdays are a chance for visitors to explore the museum and expand their imaginations through conversation and discovery. The evenings feature art and gallery activities led by Museum curators and artists. Join us every month year-round with free admission, cash bar, and light appetizers. Check our events calendar for upcoming programs.
Upcoming 2nd Thursdays
Art + About
The Fort Wayne Museum of Art offers a series of four-part continuing education programs for residential communities, care facilities, and other organizations that support well-being and healthy aging. A museum educator visits monthly to present a lecture with discussion on a range of art-related topics. Each program caters to diverse interests, reaching the non-art lover and providing new perspectives for the aficionado.
Details: These hour-long programs run August-November or March-June, available in the morning or afternoon Tuesday-Friday. Each series of four lectures is $300; an individual lecture is $100. The program requires access to a projector or TV screen to show images. Please contact Alyssa at [email protected] or 260.422.6467 with questions or to schedule.
Program Options
These lectures focus on American art history, from pre-Independence to the 20th century. Using artworks as primary documents, participants will examine the building of our visual history by artists like John Trumbull and Gilbert Stuart, the role of industrialization and westward expansion, and how the center of the art world moved from Paris to New York following the world wars.
Love Fort Wayne history? This series blends the city’s past and its arts community through looking at an array of historic newspaper photographs, examining an international art movement in a regional setting, following the development of the FMWoA from the Fort Wayne Art School, and showing current Indiana artists and their work through the museum’s Paradigm Gallery.
The Hoosier Five, or Hoosier Group, was the name given to five Indiana artists (William Forsyth, Richard Gruelle, John Ottis Adams, T.C. Steele, and Otto Stark) recognized for introducing plein air landscape painting to the Midwest. Impressionists, they rendered Indiana landscapes in thick, quick brushstrokes that captured the changing light and atmospheric conditions while fostering the flourishing arts community Indiana boasts today.
A metaphor applied to both untrained artists who pursue a career in the arts and those who gain recognition later in their life (or even long after they’ve lived), the artists in this series all qualify as “late bloomers.” Paired together, we’ll explore eight artists that made art their second (or third!) career, turned a hobby into a job, and why art history requires hindsight when understanding an artist’s legacy.
Artistic couples exist throughout history, igniting passionate relationships and creative collaborations. These couples, particularly the women, subjugated their own artistic pursuits to nurture and support the creative endeavors of the other. In this series, we’ll look at four artist couples whose partnerships resulted in a variety of relationships: muse, mentorship, manager, and murderer.
Explore the Fort Wayne Museum of Art’s growing collection of studio glass. Each lecture will highlight a group of artists who approach similar themes in vastly different ways, highlighting the range of creative possibilities within the medium of glass.
College and Adult Groups
Take advantage of our staff and docent-led tours with your friends, family or student groups! These 30–45 minute tours are available Tuesday through Friday, from 10am – 4pm. Contact us to schedule your tour, and we’ll learn more about your group’s interests related to the current exhibitions and will tailor your tour accordingly. A minimum of five people is required for a group tour. Please arrive at least ten minutes before your tour.
Please give at least ten business days’ notice for guided tours.
Not interested in a guided tour? No problem.
We encourage all groups to call us to plan a visit, even without a guided tour. You can come any time during gallery hours.
Admission
$10 general admission + $3 tour fee per adult 18–64
$8 general admission + $3 tour fee per senior 65+
$8 general admission + $2 tour fee per student
General admission is free to FWMoA Members; tour fees apply per Member
All group ticket sales are final.
Docent Program
Docents are museum volunteers and are essential to educating the public about the diverse exhibitions on display at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, using the art as a tool to expand the minds of all who listen and learn. Leading engaging tours is a unique opportunity to work with children, heighten your mental engagement and contribute to your community. All interested individuals will be asked to complete a background check before joining the docent team.