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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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
Barbara Dale Retrospective
Barbara Dale’s artistic journey began with a modest inheritance of $500 from her grandfather. With this seed money, she ventured into the world of printing and created Dale Cards in 1979—a line of alternative greeting cards known for their wit and edginess. Created with support from PNC Bank.
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.
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.
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.
