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Close Encounters

Developed by the BMA, Close Encounters is a free six-session program for fourth graders in Baltimore City Public Schools. Students will explore three topics: Portraits & Personalities, Stories in Art, and Moods & Feelings. After each tour, students will participate in facilitated Make & Share activities designed to promote social and emotional learning. Students strengthen their curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and self-reflection through close observations of art, discussion, writing, and making.

Tour entirely from your classroom! Three thematic tours and three Make & Share sessions are virtual, or you may choose a hybrid program of three in-person Museum tours and three virtual Make & Share sessions.  Busing to and from school is free of charge.

Begun in 1982, Close Encounters supports Baltimore City Public Schools’ fourth-grade visual art curriculum.
Schedule Your Sessions
Tell us more about your classroom and sign up for the Close Encounters program.

Learn more about the Close Encounters tour program
Sponsored By

Close Encounters is supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Maryland State Department of Education, Wilmington Trust, The Goldsmith Family Foundation, and The Howard C. and Marguerite E. Muller Charitable Foundation.