2026–2027 School Programs
The Long Island Museum invites you to connect with us through our wide variety of programming this 2026-2027 school year. Our field trips offer students and teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in our renowned history and art collections through inquiry-based learning and hands-on activities. The LIM has programs to suit your students from pre-K through high school which are aligned with national and NYS learning standards, as well as the NYSED Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) Education Framework.
We look forward to working with you and helping to spark your students’ curiosity and creativity during this new school year!
School Programs Overview
We are pleased to welcome students and teachers onto our campus to experience our historic buildings, artifacts, and artworks. The following pages detail the in-person programs we offer.
Program content includes:
- 1 to 2.5 hour interactive, in-person visit to the museum
- Resources for a post-visit lesson
Please note, we do not have an indoor eating area. No exceptions can be made. You are welcome to eat outdoors, weather permitting.
Virtual Visits with LIM!
Bring the museum to your classroom with a virtual version of our most popular in-person programs. Each program features several modules that allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning. You’ll receive a curriculum, activity materials, recorded videos, and a live virtual interactive learning session with museum educators using the platform of your choice. Please contact the education department for more details.
Access Programs
Access Programs
Explore LIM is designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities, special education classes, life skills classes, and non-traditional learning groups. Working with museum educators, participants connect with the past and the present through guided discussion and gallery-inspired activities.
Explore LIM: Carriage Collection
Explore the Carriage Museum to understand the amazing ways horse-drawn vehicles shaped the lives of those living long ago.
Explore LIM: Art Collection
Using the Museum’s extensive art collection, students will discover how artists tell stories through a variety of media, including painting, drawing, and photography.
Explore LIM: Firefighting
Students will explore how firefighting changed in New York by exploring artifacts and several firefighting vehicles in our collection.
Time: One 1-hour visit
Pricing is per program, per class:
Up to 10 students $50
Up to 15 students $75
Up to 20 students $100
Programs for Pre-K–Grade 1
Time: One 1 to 1.5-hour visit
Pricing is per program, per class:
- 15 students, single class: $100
- 30 students, single class: $150
Meet the Museum: A World Before Cars
What is transportation and why is it important to us? How do people and things travel from one place to another, and how was this accomplished in the past? Students will learn about some of the exciting vehicles in the museum’s world-renowned collection and begin to understand why they were built and how they worked.
Meet the Museum: Firefighting in 19th Century America
Fire safety is an important topic that students learn about each year. How did fire safety differ long ago, and how did communities work together to keep people and homes safe? Students will explore our historic firefighting vehicles and think about how they would keep their community safe, finishing the program by designing their own fire buckets.
Meet the Museum: Through An Artist’s Eyes
What kinds of art does the museum collect and where can we go to see these objects? Students use color as a lens to explore artworks in the Long Island Museum collection. How do artists create with color, and how can young students begin to understand color theory? The program will culminate with a color wheel mixing project.
Time: One 2- to 2.5-hour visit
Pricing is per program, per class:
- Up to 25 students per class: $250 per program.
A World Before Cars
Explore the important role carriages and wagons played in the lives of Long Islanders during the 19th-century. We’ll explore the technology (and horses!) that enabled the wagons to move, the aesthetics that made many of the carriages like moving works of art, and their important functions. Students will have the chance to climb aboard an historic streetcar. Program length: 2 hours 15 mins.
Long Island Long Ago (Available Spring 2027 Only)
Travel back to Long Island in the 19th century to learn about farm life. Students will practice chores using historic tools, see a farm wagon, study paintings in the exhibition A New Look at William Sidney Mount for clues about everyday life, and learn a 19th-century dance. Program length: 2 hours 15 mins.
School Days
Become a student in our authentic one-room schoolhouse! Students will practice Spencerian script, solve arithmetic problems on slate boards, recite from McGuffey’s Reader, and play 19th-century games. Explore aspects of farm life and local communities through primary sources and object-based inquiry. Program length: 2 hours 45 mins.
Early to Rise
Follow in the footsteps of a Long Island farm child during the 1850s. Students will have the opportunity to discover what school was like for a child in the mid-19th century in our historic one-room schoolhouse. The day will also include a chance to practice chores using historic tools and even learn a 19th-century dance. All students will visit the schoolhouse, studio, and barn. Please note: Carriage Museum may be substituted for barn in inclement weather. Program length: 2 hours 30 mins.
Programs for Grades 5–8
Time: One 2.5-hour visit
Pricing is per program, per class:
- Up to 25 students per class: $250 per program
Vehicles for Change: Elizabeth Jennings and The Fight for Equality on NYC’s Streetcars
How do we change unjust systems? Through the newly reimagined exhibition Riding Towards Justice, students will learn about Elizabeth Jennings and her fight for equal access on public transportation in New York City in the mid-1800s. Students will explore museum artifacts, look at historic documents, and examine the museum’s 1885 streetcar to understand the importance of transportation within communities, as well as the role it has played in social justice movements. Students will have the chance to climb aboard an historic streetcar.
Programs for Middle and High School Classes
Time and Pricing Options:
- One-hour gallery visit: $10 per student; 10-student minimum
- Two-hour program includes gallery visit and studio project: $250 up to 25 student
Customized Art & History Programs
The education department is happy to create a customized program that suits the needs of your students and your curriculum. All of the content listed for younger grade levels can be enhanced to offer a more robust and challenging experience for older school students. Classes can also explore one of the exhibitions listed below.
Permanent Exhibitions on View:
- The Carriage Museum: Exhibitions of over 100 horse-drawn vehicles tell the story of transportation before the automobile.
- Outdoor Sculpture: The Museum has a wide variety of sculpture on view across its nine-acre campus, including crocheted trees, contemporary pieces, and works from the 19th and 20th-centuries.
- Historic Buildings: Among the five historic structures on the museum grounds are a one-room schoolhouse and an 18th-century barn, which tell the story of Long Island’s past.
- Art Collection: The museum’s vast art collection, including works from William Sidney Mount and a variety of both style and media from the 19th century through the present, is always available for virtual exploration. Exhibition schedule can be found below.
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To discuss an option that fits your group’s needs, please call (631) 751-0066 ext. 212, email educators@longislandmuseum.org or complete the google form here.
Exhibitions
Permanent Exhibitions on View:
The Carriage Museum
Exhibitions of over 100 horse-drawn vehicles tell the story of transportation before the automobile.
Outdoor Sculpture
The Museum has a wide variety of sculpture on view across its nine-acre campus, including crocheted trees, contemporary pieces, and works from the 19th and 20th-centuries.
Historic Buildings
Among the five historic structures on the museum grounds are a one-room schoolhouse and an 18th-century barn, which tell the story of Long Island’s past.
Art Collection
The museum’s vast art collection, including works from William Sidney Mount and a variety of both style and media from the 19th century through the present, is always available for virtual exploration.
Changing Exhibitions on View:
The Seat of Action: Long Island in the American Revolution and Beyond (through October 18, 2026)
In commemoration of America 250, The Seat of Action spotlights the experiences of the Long Island region during the Revolutionary War, an area that was under martial law and British control longer than any other part of the American colonies.
Long Island in the 70s (through October 18, 2026)
A large-scale, nostalgic “decades” exhibition, this show brings together a wide range of art and artifacts—from clothing and paintings to photographs, music, and pop culture objects. Explore immersive displays, and a section on Long Island’s experiences during the end of the Vietnam War—offering a vivid look at a decade that continues to shape life today.
Enduring Heart: Native American Long Island (through December 20, 2026 )
A celebration of the First Peoples of Long Island. Our Native American communities and people are at the heart of this region’s history, its present, and its future. Regardless of their ancestry, the 2.9 million Long Islanders of all backgrounds have a stake and a vested interest in gaining a much better understanding and appreciation of the complicated, interwoven, and ongoing story of Native Long Island. This exhibition is the first at LIM to explore the historical contours and the present-day artistic legacies of this story, developed in collaboration with an advisory panel of Native American community members and scholarly experts.
Colors of Connection: Exhibition with the People’s Arc of Suffolk County (February 11 – April 11, 2027)
People’s Arc provides dynamic and innovative services where children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are thriving to their fullest potential, joined by their families, circles of support and a person-centered organization. Explore works made by 20 talented artists who participated in a summer workshop at the LIM.
A New Look at William Sidney Mount (February 18 – July 25, 2027)
This exhibition will be the largest William Sidney Mount exhibition on view at the LIM in decades. W.S. Mount, one of the most important American artists of the pre-Civil War years, is generally recognized by art historians as the first American-born artist to popularize genre painting, a field of art that celebrates scenes of everyday activity and people. This exhibition will feature some of the new interpretative conversations surrounding Mount’s work and the people he painted.
Arnold Hoffman Jr. and the Screen Print Workshop (February 18 – June 6, 2027)
Arnold Hoffmann Jr. was introduced to the art of silkscreen in 1970, and in 1973, he established the Screen Print Workshop in East Hampton. Traditionally, silkscreen was used for commercial reproduction, patterning fabrics and wallpaper in graphic designs. Hoffmann, however, exploited the medium for its painterly effects, distinguishing himself from the Pop artists who co-opted the industrial craft for its stark, hard edges. There are also prints from other artists who worked with him at the Screen Print Workshop, experimenting with the medium at Hoffmann’s encouragement.
How To Book Your Program
For more information about offerings, or questions about booking, please contact us:
Form: Fill out request form
Email: educators@longislandmuseum.org
Call: (631) 751-0066 ext. 212
We look forward to working with you to continue to enrich children’s lives with the art and history of Long Island.
We understand each school district may have a different plan for their students and are prepared to accommodate your scheduling needs as best as possible.
If you are visiting our museum for an in-person program, we do not have an indoor eating area. No exceptions can be made. You are welcome to eat outdoors, weather permitting.
Rides for Kids
LIM’s Rides for Kids is a fund that provides eligible schools with reduced program fees. LIM is a wonderful resource to enrich your students’ school year. Find out today if your school is eligible by contacting us at educators@longislandmuseum.org
Payments
Cancellation Fee:
Cancellations within 30 days of the scheduled program, unless due to dangerous weather conditions or the museum canceling, will be subject to a $25 per-class cancellation fee.
BOCES:
The Long Island Museum’s programs are listed with Nassau, Western Suffolk, and Eastern Suffolk BOCES. Please let us know if you plan to bill your visit through BOCES.
Payment:
Payment must be made by check payable to The Long Island Museum or contact the education department, (631) 751-0066 ext. 212 to pay by credit card.
Thank you
LIM’s 2026–2027 School Programs have been made possible in part by our generous sponsors.
Laura B. Vogler Foundation
Smithtown Community Trust
The Carol & Arnold Wolowitz Foundation, Inc.
Colors of Long Island: Student Art Exhibition
Our annual art exhibition highlights the creativity of Long Island students in grades K-12, on view February 11- April 11, 2027, in the History Museum. The call for entries will be sent in September, registration opens October 2026. Previous participants and those on our mailing list will be contacted. If youhave any questions or would like to be added to our contact list:
- Email: art@longislandmuseum.org
- Call: (631) 751-0066 ext 212
