docents, interpreters, and interns: relying on volunteerism

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Page 1: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism
Page 2: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Docents, Interpreters, and Interns:

Relying on Volunteerism

Page 3: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism
Page 4: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

What is a docent?

• Word “docent” has the Latin root, meaning “to teach,” just as curator is derived from “curate” – both job titles borrowed from the Catholic Church.

• Possible connection with early envisioning of the art museum as a quasi-sacred space of uplift and improvement

Page 5: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

What is the job of a docent?

• Unpaid volunteer• Leads tour groups through museum

exhibitions• Also called interpreters, gallery instructors,

tour guides, or gallery guides• Each year, hundreds of thousands of

schoolchildren and other visitors are guided by docents

Page 6: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism
Page 7: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Early Education Departments

• Early docents set the foundation in today’s art museums for education departments

• Currently docents are primarily women, with numbers in the thousands, especially in art museums

Page 8: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Early History of Docents in American Art Museums: 1890-1930

• The Museum of Fine Arts, with its origins in 1807 as a gentlemen’s reading club, the Boston Athenaeum, introduced the first docents, 1890-1930

• Benjamin Ives Gilman (Secretary and Trustee for the MFA,1851-1933) conceived of docents as gallery guides. He and a group of men, the first officers of the museum, provided docent services in the earliest years

• Docents representative of an altruistic, hospitable form of museum outreach that shaped the early practice of docentry

• Demographics of the art museum audience changed• Social and educational opportunities for American women and

children changed• Definition and role of a docent changed

Page 9: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docents

• In the first decades, docents’ tasks were carried out by professional men (1890-1910) but by 1930 had become the volunteer work of middle class women

• Gender is important issue to consider when thinking about docents

• Post Civil War America unstable, advent of progressivism as an organized political force in the 1890s, which fueled the expanding educational efforts of the MFA (docents)

Page 10: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docents

• 1880: the Met offers classes for school teachers• 1892: J. Randall Coolidge (trustee, MFA) proposes that the

museum begin using expert guides• 1895: National Education Association called upon art

museums to “be more helpful in public instruction”• 1901: Teachers petition the MFA. 1904, official beginning of

public lectures, 1908, free gallery talks• 1910: Women’s Educational and Industrial Union publishes a

leaflet describing docents and suggesting docentry as a new profession for college educated women

• 1912: Huger Elliot becomes Supervisor of Educational Work at the MFA

• Gilman wrote about docents and how they should teach, saying that it is more important to inspire a new visitor to the museum than to inform about history or art making

Page 11: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docents

• 1908: Florence Nightingale Levy contributes to publication, “The Educational Work of the Museum,” in a chapter on public art education

• Early pairing of docents and Progressives (larger historical context of progressive advocacy for educational ideals)

• 1915: first large scale conference of museum instructors, only eight years after MFA begins practice

Page 12: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docents: Children• Charles W. Eliot (President of Harvard University,

1869-1909) and the Committee for the Utilization of the Museum by Schools and Colleges offer teachers and students free admission, new era of closer relationships between schools and children

• Benjamin Ives Gilman decries trend: “educational racket” attempting to “turn children into habitues of the museum”

• By 1915 young audiences at MFA had grown to nearly 9,000 children

• By 1927 the MFA begins to look like it does today

Page 13: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docents: Role of Women • By early 1900s middle class women have smaller families, more servants and

new labor-saving appliances• Seek new areas of expertise that bring about personal changes in their

individual social status, collective changes in their local communities, and eventually, collective enfranchisement through national voting rights

• Social mobility of a young American democratic society (unlike Europe) • Many encumbrances hinder a woman’s full participation in public life • Domestic reformers were conservative activists who tried to improve

women’s lives without upsetting the status quo.• 1868: First women’s club in NYC; New England Women’s Club in Boston –

Become important organizational structures which lead to significant progressive reforms. Women gain many skills from participation in these clubs, including the ability to become docents teaching in American Art Museums

• 1870s new women’s colleges offer women education beyond high school, including Smith, Wellesley, Simmons, and Radcliffe. These lead to associations with Museums. Docents become the “New profession for college-bred women.”

Page 14: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Continue Early Docent• From 1907-1920 docent hired, paid staff of museum; status changes as

they become administrators of the museum’s department of education• A separation drawn between supervisor and docent is pivotal• 1931 Marion Doane is supervisor of Educational Work, first woman in

charge of education at the MFA• Women’s clubs provide educated, unpaid, volunteer docent work to art

museums• Women (upper and middle class) restricted from most forms of

employment, especially if married• Teaching children acceptable for single women• MFA’s audience numbers increase, docents seen as the perfect solution• Docents figure prominently in the modern origins of museum education

Page 15: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Volunteerism Today

• Who volunteers and why?• Who do we want for volunteers in the future? • How do we build positive, long-term

relationships with our volunteers? • What administrative structures will we need

to support their effectiveness (which turns out to be OUR effectiveness)?

Page 16: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism
Page 17: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Contemporary Scene for Docents, Volunteers and Interns

• 65.4 million adults volunteered a median of 50 hours from 2004-2005

• Largest number of volunteers come from 35-44 age bracket• Women are more likely to volunteer than men• Total value for volunteer time in 2005 is estimated at $280

billion, based on the hourly rate of $18.04 established by Independent Sector (U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)

• Baby boomers began turning 60 in 2006 and 77 million are approaching retirement

• Other end of the spectrum are teens, half of whom donate their time

Page 18: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism
Page 19: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Canada’s Code for Volunteer Involvement

• Board and senior management show strong support for volunteers• Clear policies and procedures provide a framework• Professional volunteer program manager in place• Staff and management welcome volunteers who are treated as

valuable and integral members of the team• Meaningful volunteer assignments• Recruitment reaches out to diverse sources• Clear and consistent screening process• Orientation and training is in place• Volunteers have appropriate support and supervision with

opportunities to receive and give feedback• Volunteer contributions are regularly acknowledged

Page 20: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Teen Volunteers

• 30 % of students in grades 6-12 volunteer more than 80 hours a year!

• 93 % anticipate volunteering as adults• 38% say that volunteering provides an opportunity to

combine interests and talents• 32% believe the primary purpose of volunteering is to

be exposed to new experiences and new people• 44% find volunteering highly rewarding

(USA Weekend Teens and Volunteering Survey, 2005)

Page 21: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Junior Docents Take Classmates on Museum Tour

Page 22: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

Major phases in volunteerism within a museum

1). Recruitment and interviewing: where do you find your docents, how do you interview them, how do you find out if they are trustworthy or talented?

Page 23: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

2) Training program: what are the elements of your training? Do you teach them content? Do they shadow others? What is essential to know or master before they are doing the work?

Page 24: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

3) Actual teaching and supervision: how do you supervise volunteers while they are teaching? What happens when they are not effective, or good teachers? What policies and procedures do you have in place for evaluation, and moving an ineffective volunteer on to another job, or out of the organization?

Page 25: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism

4) On going training: What kind of on-going education/training would you ideally give your docents? Lecture based? Museum field trips? Access to curator talks? Regular meetings? How do you recognize/thank your docent? What perks do you offer the volunteer?

Page 26: Docents, Interpreters, and Interns: Relying on Volunteerism