A Grab-Bag of Fun: UMMA’s New Self-Guided Tour Inspires Curiosity

Fresh off the presses (literally because these keep flying off the shelves at UMMA) is a new self-guided tour to help level up your UMMA experience. Let’s Look & Learn, created by UMMA’s Isabel Engel and Grace VanderVilet, is a fun, easy-to-follow scavenger hunt that will have visitors learning interesting facts about selected artworks, and using prompts to think about art in a whole new way.

Isabel Engel, University Learning and Programs Specialist said, “We created it with all visitors in mind, families and students alike. We wanted people to learn another way to look at art, ask questions of themselves and their group, and get a chance to have some fun. It’s been out for a month and we have already gone through around 750 copies. We hope that people use this guide to further explore more art in the building that isn’t necessarily a part of this self-guided tour.”

The guide helps visitors explore the museum at their own pace and also doubles as a kind of “cheat sheet” for any visitors playing the Ann Arbor District Library Summer Game and looking for codes at UMMA.

Click to View & Download PDF

It also helps visitors get excited about sharing their experiences with others, as UMMA’s Navigators can attest: “It’s been really enjoyable seeing the younger kids come up to the UMMA check-in desk with the scavenger hunt paper filled out and hearing them excitedly tell me about their walk in through museum,” said UMMA Navigator Logan Youngs. “They’ll show me the paper and point out their favorite pieces, and it’s awesome seeing them so inspired!”

Grace VanderVliet, UMMA’s Curator of Teaching and Learning said this guide will help shape the future of self-guided experiences at the Museum. “We were expecting this self-guided model and prize to be popular,” she said. “But we’re excited to see it take off like this and gather data about how many visitors it reaches over the summer months.”

The guide can be found at the UMMA front desk when checking in or can be downloaded here. Don’t forget that UMMA is always free and open to all! So come on by and Learn & Look your way through the museum this summer!