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Tours

The Peale is Baltimore’s Community Museum.

In-person Tours

The Peale, located in downtown Baltimore, is open Thursdays to Sundays for self-guided tours, but we also offer more guided experiences! Give us a shout if you’d like to take a guided tour with a staff member or expert! Please check out our Visit page for current hours of operation, COVID protocols, information about accessibility, parking, and more.

An old drawing of the Peale building in 1832.

Peale Building Tour

$5.00 per person (children under 13 free)

The Peale is America’s oldest purpose-built museum, built in 1814 by American artist and inventor Rembrandt Peale. Schedule a guided tour with historians, historic preservationists, and those who involved with the multi-year renovation. Perfect for a group or class! 

A close-up detail on an old map that shows the Peale and Male and Female Colored School No. 1.

Self-guided Architecture + History Tour

FREE Forever!

Take a walk through the halls and rooms of the storied Peale building. You can use your smartphone, and download the FREE Smartify app to take several tours of exhibition spaces and rooms. We will be adding more tours in the future! Suggested $5 donation per person. 

Self-guided Audio Tours

Download the Smartify app, and use your phone to listen to these full tours, whether you’re onsite at The Peale, or on the go! You can also listen on SoundCloud. The Peale’s Soundcloud channel contains  1,300 stories–about everything from local art to stories about food to short documentaries created by students!

A black and white drawing of an abstract shape and lines.

Lee Boot: Abstracts & Artifacts

Media artist Lee Boot muses, “what if it were normal for artists to have careers working side-by-side, on equal footing, with the other researchers and policymakers who determine how we improve education, or public health, or how we catalyze economic development in our communities?” His abstract exploration is a marriage of art, science, and technology. Includes conversations with the artist.

Vintage photo of the Peale building around 1877.

Education Will Be Our Pride

From 1878 to 1889, the Peale building was part of a new public school system being developed in Baltimore to provide free education to African Americans in the city. Known as “Male and Female Colored School No. 1,” the building was the site of one of the first grammar schools in Baltimore’s Colored School system, and the first High School available to students of color in the State of Maryland.

Quilted Connections: Sisterhood in Cloth

Three members of the African American Quilters of Baltimore, Sandra Smith, Rosalind Robinson, and Glenda Richardson, have created quilts to thank and honor all those who supported the Peale’s renovations and reopening this year. This exhibition presents more of their work at the Peale from December 3-March 19, 2023. This exhibition was featured on WYPR radio!

An artwork that features rows and rows of grocery stores receipts hanging down in strips.

A Feast in the Desert: Food Insecurity in Baltimore

“A Feast In The Desert, ” curated by Alexis Tyson, shares the voices of four artists whose work reflects on the role food plays in strengthening our bonds and educating our community on food disparity in Baltimore. An intimate exhibition that showcases 4 artists across Baltimore – each offering a story of how food affects them. On view from November 8-January 29, 2023. 

A group of people hold small black and white portraits of themselves in a market space.

Peale Faces by Lauren Muney + Stories

Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created hundreds of custom silhouettes (profile portraits) of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. Each sitter has a story. Hear some of those stories about life in Baltimore–both past and present–in this storytelling snapshot.

Virtual Tours

Kim Rice: Inheritance

Inheritance confronts racism head on. A compelling example of activism through art and a perspective rarely seen–a white artist specifically interrogating her privilege as a white person and the opportunities it’s afforded.

The Amazing Black Man

By utilizing the format of the comic book, Kumasi J. Barnett’s highly acclaimed 2022 exhibition revolves around the concept of good and evil, asking the viewer to always question, consider and adapt our understanding of right and wrong.

Single Carrot Theater

Check out the set of this popular Single Carrot theater production at the Peale. Set against the opulent background of 16th-century Versailles, Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes delves deep into the history of race and revolution.

Hostile Terrain (HT94)

Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) is a participatory art project organized by the Undocumented Migration Project . The exhibition includes 3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert.

Novus: A MICA Exhibition

NOVUS featured emerging multidisciplinary artists who are defining the future of art. Included installations, wearable art, and digital/virtual works. These artists urge the use of new strategies for creative interventions in daily life.

A man gestures as he stands in front of a white and teal colored wall with an exhibition title in the background.

Spaces of the Un-entitled

Devin Allen’s Spaces of the Un-Entitled  examines the remnants of lives uprooted or left behind. Allen contemplates the simple possessions that make a home as well as the forgotten and missed pieces of a life. 

A person with a hat bends down and paints art on a concrete road surface.

Adam Stab: Street, Life, Art

Adam Stab’s work is bold, gritty, and filled with exuberant color. Riding his skateboard, he was drawn to the streets and urban canyons at a young age. It  opened infinite possibilities for a kid searching for himself in a concrete jungle. 

Very historical museum. Events are always changing, and they’re open to featuring new talent.

- Adrian Sharon

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