Who said history wasn't fun?

We offer several guided tours and workshops designed to stimulate interest in Guatemala's history and archaeology while encouraging the active participation of students and children. Guided tours through the Museum's exhibit galleries highlight the most relevant aspects of various periods of Guatemalan history as reflected in the artifacts displayed. Students then take part in hands-on workshops seeing for themselves how these archaeological and historical treasures were made, and how today they are studied and restored.
Children during a guided tour
Archaeological excavation during a vacation course

Pre-Columbian packages

A tour through the Museum's eight exhibit galleries is like a journey through time beginning with the history of the ancient Maya and ending in the Colonial period. Trained guides select and explain the most representative pieces from each period and use complementary illustrations, photos and tools. At the hands-on workshop students can work in the following areas:

  • As an archaeologist in a simulated excavation.
  • At the restoration table, classifying fragments and putting replicas
    ... .back together.
  • As an ancient Maya potter creating clay vessels, stamps and
    .... figurines which they can then take home with them!
  • This package can be adapted for children from five years of age up
    .... to adults.

    • Guatemalan Colonial Silver

    Here students learn how to work silver, when and how this art form was first introduced to this country and how to identify the work from this period. How do they learn this?

    • Attending a slide presentation and talk illustrating silversmith procedures, styles and markings.
    • Visiting the Museum's Colonial art galleries to see first hand the silver on display.
    • Working as a silversmith in the hands-on workshop creating a piece of false repoussé.
    • This workshop is recommended for ages 12 and over.
    Modeling clay at a hands-on workshop
    Students during a guided tour

    Clash of Two Cultures

    An interactive guided tour through the Museum's exhibit galleries in which the principal components of the Maya and Spanish Colonial cultures are compared. There are two workshop options to choose from:

    • Beads and Coins, in which the participants string together a chachal and learn about this unique form of Guatemalan jewelry and the materials used to make it.
    • Mateo de Zúñiga, named for the great XVII-century Guatemalan sculptor. In this workshop participants paint a clay angel with paints and gold dust designed to imitate the patina which forms on antique images. The techniques employed to create religious images are also explained.

    Guatemala's Rock Art Workshop

    This package includes a lecture and slide show of representatives of the principal areas of Guatemala’s rock art. This is followed by a workshop in which the children learn how to grind rocks to create pigments with which they will emulate the prehistoric designs on leather and cardboard. This new technique, imported from Venezuela, provides for the eye and hand a finished work that resembles the original ones found in caves and rocks. Each student will receive:

    • A lectures with slides.
    • A handout summary of the lecture.
    • Hands-on workshop for both the preparation of pigments and for painting.
    • Free admission for family members.
    • This workshop available for students in grade four and up.
    Drawing made with the technique of rock art
    Children during the workshop of Pre-Columbian music

    Pre-Columbian Music

    Elementary concepts of the ancient Mayan creation of their music and instruments are introduced by use of both audio-visual tools and a lecture. In this guided journey through the salons of the museum students learn about the production of musical instruments, their forms, selection of materials, decorative elements, and the sounds they produce. As a complement to this tour the students take part in a musical workshop. Participants are given flutes, whistles, cymbals and other instruments so they can take part in learning and creating a musical dynamic which seeks to capture the sounds of nature.

     

    All of the tours and workshops are available in Spanish or English.

    For more information:
    Contact the Educational Project of the Museum Popol Vuh.

     

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