Self-Guided Visits to ROM

Experience Type: Installation
Pricing: +$2.50 surcharge per person
Learn more: Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks

The Southern Netherlands — better known today as Flanders — was home to revolutionary artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, Hans Memling, and others. These extraordinary painters found new ways to depict reality, portray humanity, and tell stories that created parallels to their world then - and to our world today.

This large-scale exhibition, featuring over 80 stunning art works and objects — medieval, Renaissance, and baroque paintings, sculptures and more — offers a doorway into the Southern Netherlands of 1400 to 1700, a dynamic environment where new artistic genres and styles were created and flourished. The exhibition's unique presentation introduces the visitor, through these rare, extraordinary artworks, to stories of enterprising townspeople, prosperous cities, and an ever-developing society.

Experience Type: Installation
Pricing: Free with General Admission
Learn more: Chinese Zodiac Case: Year of the Snake

As part of our annual zodiac installation, January 29, 2026 ushers in the Year of the Snake (蛇), the sixth animal in the Chinese zodiac. Those born under this sign are believed to be wise and charismatic.

The snake rarely appears as a decorative motif in Chinese art and design, however, when depicted with a tortoise, the pair have come to symbolize the mythical creature Xuanwu (玄武, the Dark Warrior), later evolving into the god Zhenwu (真武, the Perfected Warrior). The snake and tortoise symbolize the interplay of power, wisdom, and harmony of nature.

Experience an exquisite array of snake and tortoise-themed objects and cultural belongings in this specially curated zodiac case. Marvel at impressive ceramics, including a mythical double-headed serpent from the early 500s. This and much more are now on view in this unique display celebrating the powerful snake.

Experience Type: Installation
Pricing: Free with General Admission
Learn more: Connection Stations

ROM Connection Stations invite you to reflect on Museum objects to build a deeper understanding of the world and how others may experience it.

How does your personal background shape your perceptions? How can current interpretations differ from when an object was produced? How could other people view the same object?

These interactive stations can be enjoyed alone or with other guests and invite visitors to share in a collective conversation to recognize biases, consider the impact of perceptions, and foster greater understanding.
 

Experience Type: Installation
Pricing: Free with General Admission
Learn more: Picnics and Pastimes

What makes for a delightful picnic? Food and drink? Poetry? Music? A new installation offers a window into the pleasures, pastimes, and artistic heritage of Iran during the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736). A royal picnic, depicted on a large, treasured tile arch from the collections, is complemented by exceptional objects from the period.

Gracing the Osler Gate on Level 1, a colourful tiled archway made over 350 years ago in Isfahan, Iran takes centre stage, showing picnic-goers out for an afternoon of leisure and luxury. Individual tiles reveal immaculately dressed figures relaxing, enjoying delicious food and drink, and being entertained with music, poetry, and feats of archery. Lively and cheerful, the scenes on the arch offer a wonderful glimpse into the cultural vibrancy of Iran when it was ruled by the Safavids, a Shi'a Muslim dynasty, who were great patrons of the arts and architecture, and who fostered international trade and diplomacy from Isfahan, their newly built capital city.

The tile arch provides a magnificent focal point for the installation, which also showcases several stunning objects from the same period. A gorgeous lute with exquisite inlays and detail, an ornately decorated bow and arrow, a delicate swan-neck bottle, and beautifully crafted dishes - one of which carries words by medieval scholar Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) beginning with the lines: "This dish, which the intellect applauds, and on whose forehead it places a hundred kisses!" - bring the action on the tile arch to life. This beautiful collection of objects not only complements the arch scenes, but showcases the stunning artistry and intricacies of artisanal work iconic to the Safavid dynastic period.

One has only to take in the physical objects to be transported to the scenes in the arch, enjoying music, poetry, food, and entertainment.

Experience Type: Exhibition and Gallery Trail
Pricing: Free with General Admission
Learn more: Crawford Lake: Layers in Time

Sediments from the bottom of a small lake in Ontario are revealing a remarkable record of our impact on the planet.

Just outside Toronto, Ontario lies a significant site offering a unique, comprehensive 1,000-year record of human impacts - local, regional, and global: Crawford Lake near Milton, Ontario.

The lake has intrigued scientists for decades, and research on sediments at the bottom of the lake has identified it as having the best record of humanity's impact on the planet. This led to the lake's selection as a "golden spike" (definitive marker showing where one epoch ends and another begins) candidate for a proposed new epoch on the geologic time scale - the Anthropocene.

Learn about the effects on the land and waters when Indigenous communities started growing food in the 13th Century, the impacts of 19th Century European settlement, the nuclear age, and more. Through the study of the lake's unique varved sediments - thin, alternating layers of calcite and organic sediment marking each year - similar to tree rings - scientists have been able to chronicle nearly a thousand years of human-caused and natural environmental changes up to the present day.

Showcasing Indigenous belongings and settler objects, examples of local and introduced plants, historical documentation, related artworks, core samples, and more, Crawford Lake: Layers in Time offers an engaging, compelling look at the record of human life on Earth. The exhibition illustrates how everything from early agriculture to modern nuclear weapons testing has left its mark on this unassuming Canadian lake - and on the Earth at large - encouraging us to consider what record our activities and the decisions we make today will be left behind for future generations to uncover.

Use the Gallery Trail to help structure students’ learning in the exhibition, and revisit the learning back in your classroom with the Virtual Exhibition.

Experience Type: Exhibition & Gallery Trail
Pricing: +$2.50 surcharge per person
Learn more: Sharks

Sharks have intrigued humans for as long as we have explored the oceans. The terrifying monster from the movie Jaws is what many might imagine when they think of these animals, but they are far more fascinating and complex than their depiction in popular culture. Did you know, for example, that there is a shark that eats seagrass? Or that some sharks can sense Earth's magnetic field?

Presented by Desjardins Financial Group, this family-friendly exhibition invites you to uncover fresh perspectives, groundbreaking research, and the astounding diversity of this ancient group of fishes.

Visitors will delve into the anatomy, behaviour, and history of sharks, from familiar favourites like tiger sharks and great whites to lesser-known species like the dwarf lanternshark—a tiny, light-producing marvel small enough to hold in your hand.

Through dozens of interactives and life-sized models, including a life-size head of the huge extinct Megalodon, join us for a unique look at these magnificent creatures, their habitats, hunting techniques, and the conservation threats that they face.

Use the Gallery Trail to help structure students’ learning in the exhibition.

Experience Type: Exhibition
Pricing: +$2.50 surcharge per person
Learn more: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025

ROM is delighted to present this year's competition finalists and winners in a vibrant new exhibition.

Powerful, inspiring, and enlightening, the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition invites viewers into a world of extraordinary images and visual storytelling.

The world's longest running and most prestigious annual nature photography competition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year attracts and recognizes the world's best nature photography, and has done so every year since 1965.

Each year, the annual competition - organized by the Natural History Museum in London, UK - receives tens of thousands of image submissions by aspiring photographers of all ages. One hundred photographs from this year's competition - the best of the best - will be on view at ROM this fall.

Experience our world in vivid detail and see some of the most unusual species and their habitats in ways you never imagined. Each back-lit photograph provides exquisite quality and depth. From the photographer's eye to the camera's lens, viewers become witnesses to the lives animals live and the challenges they face. Emotive, surprising, and sometimes sobering, glimpses of life on our planet are showcased through exceptional talent, technical expertise, and perfectly captured moments.

Use the Gallery Trail to help structure students’ learning in the exhibition.

Experience Type: Exhibition
Pricing: Free with General Admission
Learn More: Shokkan: Japanese Art through the Sense of Touch

This groundbreaking ROM-original exhibition examines the profound connection between Japanese objects and the human sense of touch, known as shokkan—a vital element in the creation and appreciation of Japanese art. Transcending the tactile sensations felt at the fingertips, shokkan is the combination of memories, language, and other senses like sight and sound.

This first-of-its-kind exhibition showcases over 100 objects, including textiles, armour, paintings, lacquer works, ceramics, prints, and contemporary art, many of which are integral to everyday life rather than solely for display. From the intricate texture of a matcha tea bowl to the “imagined touch” of a woodblock print, be inspired by the exquisite and innovative craftsmanship through encounters with touchable objects and hands-on experiences that allow you to fully appreciate Japanese art.

Experience Type: Exhibition
Pricing: +$2.50 surcharge per person
Learn more: Psychedelics

An immersive and transdisciplinary exhibition, Psychedelics takes a closer look at the cross-cultural and scientific importance of altered states of consciousness. Featuring artworks, objects, botanical specimens, and interactives, along with broad consultations and a nuanced narrative, this exhibition makes sense of a topic which, for the past half century, has been too taboo to tackle.