Report to Docent Board by President Mary on November 1, 2011

Note:  The following represents 3 different reports reviewed by Mary so keep scrolling all the way down to the bottom to read the reports:

                       The National docent symposium October 2-5 2011 Saint Louis, Missouri

The theme: GATEWAY TO THE BEST!

The docents from the Saint Louis Museum of Art hosted this year’s symposium. The entire 4 days were superbly organized and most enjoyable. The pre-symposium events, the opening events, the break out sessions, the offsite workshops, the pre and post tours, the food and the first class hotel (The Ritz Carlton) were outstanding! Saint Louis is a beautiful city. Even the weather was perfect! Dinner at the World’s Fair Pavilion was a grand affair!

Purpose: To promote the value of docents and education staff; to provide a forum for docent idea exchange and to offer opportunities that highlight current best practices in the field.

History of the National Docent Symposium Council:

1981: Docents at the Indianapolis Art Museum organized the first meeting.

1983: At the second symposium at the Milwaukee Art Museum a permanent advisory board was established to ensure continuation of symposiums every two years.

1988: The National Symposium Council was born and bylaws drafted.

1995 The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, CA hosted the Docent Symposium.

See under Index for a list of museums that hosted the biennial symposia.

                                                  

2002: The Docent Handbook, edited by former NDSC directors Carole Kramer and Helga Keller, was published by the NDSC. More than 8,000 copies have been sold. Carole Kramer was the Chair of the NHM Docent Roundtable from 1985-87

                          Highlights of the Breakout Sessions I attended

Effectively Managing Docent Evaluations

Presented by the Seattle Art Museum (Docents & Docent Manager)

The presenters identified how evaluation programs strengthen the docent programs and discussed the key components of the Seattle Art Museum’s Docent Evaluation Process Model:

At this museum they have:

65 non-touring docents

117 school and adult touring docents

They see 23,000 students a year

Tours:

Tour assignments for the 117 docents are confirmed 1 year in advance (September to August.)

Docents conduct 1 tour a week (must find a replacement if they cannot make their tour.)

The theme for the year is determined in advance, the goals must be relevant, valuable, positive and achievable.

New docents are assigned a mentor that meets and works with them during their training.

Docents are evaluated every 3 years. New docents are evaluated in the first year.

Docents can choose their evaluator.

They have a website that all docents are responsible for viewing to see their schedule and to confirm tours, replacements and evaluation dates, evaluator etc. They are reminded by newsletter via this website. 

                                            

Evaluators:

Are experienced docents

Have been trained as evaluators                          

There is collaboration between museum evaluators and docent evaluators.

The Education Staff train the docent evaluators.

They use an “Evaluator Feedback Form.” (See index for sample)

Museum Evaluators have the responsibility to determine when a docent cannot continue in the docent role, it should not be the peer).It was stated that most of the time those who work with a docent know they are not performing but do not want to say anything because he/she was the very best in the past, he/she is respected, a dear friend, has been there forever etc.

Most docents recognize when it is time to go or change what they do in the museum.

Options available for docents that do not meet established standards: 

      Mentoring/ partnered for designated period of time and re-evaluated

      Assigned to less busier areas

      Other type of volunteering assignment; welcome table, greeters

      Leave of absence

      Termination      

The goal is to make the process a constructive and positive experience.

Food for thought!

                      

Posing Questions that Engage the Visitors

Presented by the Textile Museum of Canada

This was a “hands on workshop’, that demonstrated how effective questions stimulate the visitor’s curiosity. We each had an opportunity to develop and ask questions we would pose to engage a visitor in looking closely at objects. The focus was to share ideas, be creative, and applying what we discover to more meaningfully “engage” visitors at our own “home institutions”.

This is nothing new to us at NHM!

The “Good, the Bad, and the Docents” & Maintaining Standards when People Change

Presented by the Bowers Museum of Art

Though 99% of docents do a great job, there’s always an exception. This program discussed how people management techniques commonly used by business can be applied to docents, as they have successfully been by the Bowers Museum of Art again it is a collaboration between management and docents.

See under Index; Obligations of an Active Docent; Structure of Docent Guild

The application process screens out people not suited to be docents

Periodic evaluations are conducted

There is a Standards Committee with a mechanism for reporting problems

The biggest problem for dealing with problem docents is other docents:

   “Oh, that’s just Betty. She is always late.”

   “I don’t want to get her in trouble.”  

   “She’s been here forever.”

   “Everyone loves her.”

  “Well, she’s never prepared. Why would she be now?     

                                    

Key Steps in dealing with problem docents:

1.     Define the problem (how often, who is impacted?)

2.     Consider the problem docent as a person (the human element)

3.     Decide ahead of time what you really want to happen.

4.     Plan to get from where you are to where you want to be

5.     Implement the plan

 There is a detailed plan for utilizing the 5 steps

Again food for thought!

     

Docents + Staff; A Recipe for Success

Presented by the St. Louis Zoo Docents and Education Staff

They have 250 docents; paid interpretive staff and many other types of volunteers

There have 3 million visitors a year

Volunteers/Docents: (Docents have most in depth training & are the most reliable)

Work 2 to 4 shifts per month/ 62 hours a year

Docents work in:

Exhibit/animal interpretation & touch carts

Support & seasonal exhibits

Animal Handling and Children’s Zoo

Hospital Docent

Training

3 months, homework, tests, mentoring/shadowing (mentoring helps prevent attrition)

Additional training for docents who want to be animal handlers (rubrics) and tests

(Must have an annual TB test)

Hospital Docents must be interviewed first to determine if can meet strict requirements and trained in operating room,  treatment room, histology lab, quarantine area, contraception, technical skills etc.

Relationships with Staff:

“We watch each other and learn”

“Work side by side “

Become a team

Present to audiences together with staff & enhance each other

All docents must:

Find replacements for unscheduled absences

Must attend required continuing education training

Docents are evolving and must be flexible

Staff and docents have:

Shared mission

Shared values

Good relationship has been established by discussing:

          What does the Zoo need?

          What do docents need?

Everyone is encouraged to “bring your best self to the working relationship and leave your hostilities and baggage out of it.” So true!

21^st Century Innovative, Interactive Docent Training

Presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art

The applicants are selected by the Docents

Format for the Docent Class: (42 weeks/ 3hours, vetted by curators and Education Department)

Reading assignments

Lectures

Extensive time in the galleries:

      Research papers

      Theme tours

      Special Exhibits/ themes, connections, interactive questions

      Continuing Education requirements

      Docent Class Presentations (criteria followed)

      Visual Training

      Art History

Final Exam includes:

      4 presentations for class

      Mini tour for class

      One hour public tour with mentor

      Written exam

      Individual evaluation

 Mentor Program

       Benefits of a mentoring program; the mentor:

1.     connects with the total docent program

2.     provides balance and perspective

3.     provides a non-judgmental forum for asking questions, learning, routine

4.     makes knowledge of the halls manageable

5.     role model

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Mentors

The Vice Chair:

.determines which docents would make good mentors

.meets with mentors for informal discussions

.a mentor is available to mentor as needed

.mentoring supplements information learned in class

.mentors submit their evaluation of the new docent

.at end of class mentors are asked if they want to continue mentoring the new docent

There is a handbook for mentors

Docents are forced into the 21^st Century by:

Buying into e-mail and Website to get their news and schedule!

I was very disappointed in this ‘presentation,” the emphasis was to get their docents to use email and the website to communicate with the museum and each other.

I thought they would be presenting something really new and innovative.

                                                      Off Site Tours I attended

Laumeier Sculpture Park

This park is where monumental contemporary sculpture by internationally recognized artist blends into the 105 acre natural environment. There are sculptures of all sizes made of different materials and in different styles. This is great place to hike in, relax, meditate and enjoy art and nature!

Frank Lloyd Wright House

This beautiful home called the Krause House in Ebsworth Park is notable for its architectural integrity as well as for retaining all of its original, Wright-designed furnishings and fabrics. The Usonian design home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I was very impressed!

Cahokia Mounds Historic Site

Designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site explores, preserves and interprets the Pre-Columbian Cahokia Mounds. It is the site of a civilization of Mississippian people thriving long before Europeans came to America. It is a 1,000 year old urban center, the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico-a religious, political, economic, and cultural center.  We crossed the Mississippi River to Illinois to get to the mounds. This place is awesome! Dinner was delicious.

Campbell House Museum

The Campbell House Museum is one of the most accurately restored 19^th Century buildings in America, reflecting the high-Victorian opulence of the 1880s. Built in 1851, on elegant Lucas Place, the house was the home of renowned fur trader and entrepreneur Robert Campbell and his family from 1854 until 1938. This collection contains most of the original Campbell possessions including furniture, paintings, clothing, letters, carriages, and a unique set of 1880’s interior photographs.

It’s like going back in time!

The docents here were most welcoming and excited and proud to provide us with a tour, they were absolutely delightful! We had lunch in the garden.

                                            Closing Breakfast Meeting

Re-Thinking Docent Education in 21^st Century Museum

Speaker: Michael Murawski; Mr. Murawski is the Director of School Services at the St. Louis Art Museum since 2009.Recently he was honored as the 2011 Art Museum Educator of the year by the Missouri Art Education Association.

He was the very best speaker I heard at this symposium!

Here are some highlights of his talk regarding what he calls the “evolving and irreplaceable role of the Docent in the 21^st Century Museum”

• There must be a balance of content and information & inquiry
• Definition of a Museum; a Museum contains the most wonderful things in the world. Museums are places of real engagement with real things. Every Museum is a “curiosity cabinet” filled with wonder. (He showed us the same picture of a curiosity cabinet that Dr. Long showed us.)
• Museums preserve, display, engage, and generate & excite wonder
• In the past Museums were built to impress & they can be imposing & intimidating to visitors instead they need to be welcoming, interesting with a sense of WONDER. We must share the wonder and excitement we feel
• DOCENTS ARE AT THE FRONTLINE OF THIS EXPERIENCE
• Docents must listen to and engage the visitors with active questioning, exploring, moving, and having the visitor respond freely to what they see.

• His training of docents equips them with varied approaches to provide Museum visitors with the confidence and encouragement to embrace the Museum experience as rich, informed, and personal.
• Docents should have “conversations’” with visitors
• Excite wonder, be passionate and knowledgeable
• Discussed informal learning, visual thinking, critical thinking
• Docents own style, content, energy, skill ,interest
• Spoon feeding docents does not work
• Education staff must:

-        know what the public wants

-        respond to collection curators and curators must respond to educators and docents

-        It must be a TEAM EFFORT; education staff, curators & docents

-        Example: listen to the docent re: the placement of an object in the exhibit (listen re; what interferes with a presentation)

Work with the Docent Group to:

-keep the good docents

-docents are educators & have to be seen as “professional”

-docents should not be treated as a “service”

Docent Training is a staff responsibility

Peer Evaluation is not really a docent responsibility/ staff must be responsible for termination

Staff must work with docents, less separation, more of a “partnership”

      Change is difficult and staff has to impart changes to the docents as to how

      Docents are to remain relevant

Audiences are different in the 21^st Century

      Children and schools are different; cell phones, I-pads, phone cameras, computers

Role of the docent:

        To inspire WONDER, get visitors to perceive differently, explore something

        To get people to look and see, question and THINK, perhaps in a complex way

Docents are professional learners as well as educators

There needs to be more of “an expectation of thinking”, getting visitors to think

Docents have to be “agents of change”

Docents need to “evolve” with the audience; Keep up with new techniques & rapid change

Staff and docents must care about the Museum mission

As a teacher this speaker follows the Chinese proverb: “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself”

After hearing this speaker and trying to scribble what he said I realize that at NHM we have been exposed to all the new ideas and techniques he mentioned.

                 Sites of the National Docent Symposium

1981 Indianapolis Art Museum, Indiana

1983 Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

1985 Oakland Museum of California

1987 Toledo Art Museum, Ohio

1989 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

1991 Denver Art Museum, Colorado

1993 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

1995 Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California

1997 Seattle Art Museum, Washington

1999 Philadelphia Art Museum, Pennsylvania

2001 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

2003 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

2005 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

2007 Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

2009 Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

2011 St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri

2013 Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California

2015 Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Some things I found out from some of the docents:

Most docents are required to find a replacement for absences (at least in Art Museums.)

Many pay higher dues than we do ($50 & higher), a few less ($10)

Some pay for training, books & parking.

Attire; some docents wear uniforms, some an identifying scarf or white top with black skirt or pants, or just professional attire.

Changes in interpretive techniques:

Appears to be happening everywhere and is well accepted by majority, reluctantly at first, some still fiercely opposed.

There are many Docent groups older than 50 years or close to 50.

Most training programs are pretty traditional. The majority have exams.

Some “Docent Councils” (Art Museums) are self governed body of volunteers working in collaboration with the Museum.

I couldn’t find any group that had more school visits than NHM (except the zoo)

Most have staff interpreters. Tours by reservation

Many had other categories of volunteers.

Most docents did not know how many docents they had at their institutions or how many visits per year.

Very few knew how old their docent program was.

Everyone was committed and passionate about their museum and proud to be docents.

Smithsonian Museum of Art, Washington, DC

Not currently recruiting docents

They have:

Museum Docents

Video Conferencing Presenters

Art Signs Gallery Guides

Art a La Cart Volunteers (age 16 +)

Information Desk Volunteers

Internship Program for museum jobs

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

12 docents see 1,000 visitors a year

Divided into two groups; Docents, tour school groups on Mondays in a.m.

                                         Guides conduct Public Tours daily in p.m.

St. Petersburg Art Museum, Florida

100 docents; 40 in the new class

17 week training; 15 two hour slide presentations

                               3 written exams,

                              A final mini-tour exam

 They have Adult Docents, Outreach Docents and Jr. Docents

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina

Conduct 1 hour tours

Dues $10

Portland Museum of Art, Seattle, Portland, Oregon

Established in 1892 (7^th oldest Art Museum in USA)

Have 220 docents. Training is from September to June, allowed only 3 absences during training

Dues $50 + cost of books & parking

All current positions are filled

Barnes Foundation Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Museum established in 1922. Docents there over 50 years

Docent training is in summer. 60 hours per year. Dues $35

New Volunteer program for greeters & visitor orientation

Have Arboretum Volunteers also
 

DOCENT SYMPOSIUM ATTENDEES

Total 415

          328 from United States

            26 from Canada

              1 from Korea

Docents 350 (Delegates to Symposium) of these 107 were presenters

Staff        63 (From Institutions listed)

Other        2 (Speakers that were not docents or staff)

Institutions Represented:

Art Museums…………………………..386

History Museums………………………...6

Zoos……………………………………….6

Art, History & Science Museums………..4

Cahokian Society.....................................3

Science Center…………………………....2

Sculpture Park………………………….. 2

Natural History Museum......................... 2

Anthropology Museum…………………. 2

Holocaust Museum……………………... 1

Mission (San Capistrano)………………   1

Breakout Sessions (Presentations)…41

Offsite Workshops & Tours………...20

Docent delegates from California: 53

San Francisco 20    Palm Springs     4    Stockton           2    

San Diego         7     Sacramento       3    Los Angeles       1          

San Jose            5    Oakland             3    Capistrano         1                     

Stanford            4    Santa Barbara   2    Santa Ana         1        

New York                  5 (only 1 from NYC)

Chicago                      3

Philadelphia              6  

Washington DC       14

Boston