How to make the most of your visit to an exhibition

National Calendar of Art Exhibitions

with an emphasis on American representational art

at museums and other non-profit organizations

Make the most of your visit

If you are touring, you will find American art venues to visit Indexed by State within the United States. Call the venue in advance to see if you can:

join a docent tour to interpret the exhibition

make a reservation to have lunch in the museum cafe

Always verify dates directly with museums before visiting their exhibitions. Exhibit opening and closing dates in magazines and online calendars may be inaccurate. Sometimes exhibit closing dates are extended. Other times exhibits are canceled altogether.

Museums often have closed days. Mondays are common in the United States but sometimes there are other closed days or multiple closed days. It's a good idea to arrive early or late in the day when there are less crowds. Many museums have tours for school children in the morning, causing increased traffic. Some museums have evening hours and many offer free days throughout the year. Also, allow time to rest during your visit. Standing on hard floors for several hours isn't comfortable for most people.

When arriving you can get an idea of what the museum considers it's most cherished works by scanning the postcards in the museum gift shop. Or take a look through books that describe the museum's collection. Larger museums have kiosks, brochures, and even computer rooms for viewing the collection on a screen.

If you are touring, you will find many non-profit American art venues Indexed by State within the United States. These are venues covered in Resource Library articles and essays. There is an expanded list (see A-C D-G H-L M-Q R-S T-Z) in connection with the National Calendar of Exhibitions.

Use our Topics in American Art to learn more about many of the listed exhibitions. Exhibition inclusions usually appear a month or more after exhibit openings.

To enrich your museum visit read TFAO's Museums Explained. Also, to learn how museums put together exhibitions and tour them, please see our Planning, Organizing and Touring Art Exhibitions.

Bring your tablet or smartphone

Sophisticated museums know that at some exhibits with thick crowds it's hard to comfortably read wall panels and extended object labels. Increasingly, visitors are using mobile devices to solve this problem by either reading exhibition texts online that are physically distant from art objects while in the galleries, or before their visit. Use your device, where allowed, to take pictures of the art

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