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Definition of docent

Did you know.

The title of docent is used in many countries for what Americans would call an associate professor—that is, a college or university teacher who has been given tenure but hasn't yet achieved the rank of full professor. But in the U.S. a docent is a guide who works at a museum, a historical site, or even a zoo or a park. Docents are usually volunteers, and their services are often free of charge.

Examples of docent in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'docent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

obsolete German (now Dozent ), from Latin docent-, docens , present participle of docēre — see docile

1880, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near docent

docendo discimus

Cite this Entry

“Docent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/docent. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.

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MUSEUM DOCENT: ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

A museum docent is an essential role within a museum's day to day operations. A 'docent' operates much like a museum guide. However, they have received training, and often done their own research on current museum exhibitions. Taking a tour through the museum with a docent allows insight into the exhibition that just reading a label, or observing the materials, may not have been present. 

Docent tours are perfect for families and individuals, and present a human element to the museum experience that can enhance patron's learning and overall enjoyment. 

BECOMING A DOCENT

Become a docent and share your enthusiasm for the Peoria Riverfront Museum!

With over 150,000 guests a year, the Peoria Riverfront Museum welcomes a diverse population from central Illinois and beyond, and provides a completely unique museum experience.

The Peoria Riverfront Museum is a multi-disciplinary museum that hosts exhibitions on art, science, history and achievement. As a museum docent, you will help to inspire our patrons by leading a tour that focuses on imparting a deeper understanding of all of our exhibitions, and providing an unforgettable experience to each and every individual who attends.

You will receive training in the content of all museum exhibitions, and work closely with the museum’s education and engagement team to create fun, educational tours for all ages.

Contact Family and Educator Engagement Coordinator Sadie Helmick for more information.

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Why Take a Docent tour?

By Stephenie Frasher, Docent Team Leader

The word "docent" in Webster's dictionary means teacher or lecturer. Today, the word docent has taken on a different meaning. A docent today is a "guide" to learning not a lecturer. Why is that important?

Over the last 10 years, museum educators have realized that having someone tell you a lot of facts about the artist and the time period is interesting but certainly not what the artist intended. There is so much more to a work of art than facts. The facts we can learn on the internet. Really looking at an artwork, standing in front of it, is a whole different experience. Nothing can replace that in person experience!

Art Speaks to Us

If an artwork can "speak to us" through its colors or brushwork, do we need anyone to help us? What draws us to one artwork in a room and not another? As viewers we all need a toolbox to explore art, to help us consider the elements and really get a sense of what the artist wants us to see and feel. Can we do this on our own? Of course!

Does having a "guide" by your side facilitate this? Yes. And this can lead to a richer and more fulfilling visit with any work of art. Are the facts and history of the time important in learning about the artwork? Yes. But two weeks after your visit, will you remember the dates the artists was born or where they went to school? Or will you remember the artwork you saw and how it moved you?

So what's in the toolbox? Place yourself in the artist's shoes…what are the choices they have made when creating an artwork? Color, light, line, composition, will it be realistic or abstract, will it be large or small? Is there a donor paying for it or is this the artist's creative outlet? So many choices.

The Docent's Role

The first thing a docent will do is invite you to look…really look at the artwork. Take in all of those choices the artist has made…line, color, composition, brushwork…. The next step is to analyze what you are seeing. How do we do that? The best tool is to describe the work. Imagine yourself on your cellphone talking to a friend and tell them what you see. If every picture tells a story, what is the story here? This step is very important because now we have a connection with the work.

Does the title give us any information? How does the artist's choice of colors affect our feelings? What mood has the artist created? What might the brushstrokes tell us? Where is the light source? Where is the artist leading our eyes to "look"? Has the artist placed the scene close up to the front of the picture plane so that we become part of the scene or have they pulled us back into the scene? How have they done this?

You can certainly enjoy a work of art on your own but sharing your discoveries about an artwork with someone else is so much more enriching. A docent will not only guide you with that "toolbox" but will weave interesting facts about the artist and what was happening in the world and the artist's life at the time…what we call the inside scoop. This makes the artwork truly come alive.

Bringing Art to Life

One of the best experiences I had as a docent at the National Gallery of Art was on a tour of our Modern Sculpture collection. One of the gentlemen in the tour told me upfront that he hated Modern Art and he was only there because his wife said he had to come along. As we progressed through the tour, and I used that toolbox of discovery, he began to look and ask questions and really became engaged.

A light bulb went on for him and he began to understand that like all art, it is the artist's creativity and choices that inspire us. He thanked me at the end of the tour for helping him to see the many possibilities and challenges for an artist. It had completely changed his feelings about Modern Art!

I invite you to discover the Sarasota Colony Artists works with our docents. The collection is a so varied in style and techniques. You will have lots to explore and discover. It is an outstanding collection.

Our Docent tours are offered to the public on the first Wednesday of the month and private tours for groups are available.To make an appointment for a tour visit Arts Advocates Docent Tours .  

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Crafting a Tour

This issue of The Docent Educator examines introductions, transitions, and conclusions — three of the most important structural elements of any lesson. Along with content, these structural elements determine and direct every guided learning experience. When poorly conceived or implemented, introductions, transitions, and conclusions can defeat the most well intentioned and deliberate tour. But, when fashioned in a manner that facilitates learning and achieves cohesiveness, they become the distinguishing hallmarks of a well-crafted lesson.

The Well-Crafted Tour

The structural elements of a lesson or tour consist of its introduction, content, transitions, and conclusion. Since content differs for every institution, we will focus on the functions and characteristics of the remaining three.

• The introduction. A tour’s introduction serves as its starting point. The introduction should orient learners by providing them with a sense of purpose, a tone for interaction, and an awareness of the institution. It is also an opportunity to handle logistical considerations.

When constructed properly, introductions give tours “definition.” Definition refers to the tour’s focus and form. Do all participants have a clear understanding of the tour’s subject, purpose, or theme? Do learners understand what is expected of them? Is the format to be active or passive, responsive or fixed?

• Transitions. A tour’s transitions are its moments of change. Transitions should help learners shift from one thing to the next by forging relationships between experiences or among ideas. ensuring that there is a continuity and focus throughout. Transitions can also provide an opportunity to embellish, emphasize, or clarify. When successful at establishing linkage between two objects or ideas, transitions give tours a sense of “unity.” Unity refers to the tour’s cohesiveness. Do all facets of the tour relate to one another? Does the central theme, message, or idea tie all parts of the experience together? Does learning carry over from one thing to the next?
• The conclusion. A tour’s conclusion is its ending point. The conclusion should review with learners the lesson’s purpose and content, integrating both into a larger scheme or body of thought. It is also an opportunity to evaluate the learning that has taken place and to invite visitors to return. When constructed properly, conclusions place what is learned into “context.” Context refers to the circumstances surrounding or relating to information. How does this information fit into a greater field of study? What implications or applications does it have? In what other circumstances might this information be useful?

The Introduction: A Time to Define

Perhaps no single feature of a lesson is more crucial to its ultimate success than is its introduction. This is when visitors make inferences about the nature of the institution and the tour’s intent, and appraise the character of the person leading the experience.

First impressions do count! Defining the appropriate tone is the immediate order of business. Are you friendly and accessible, or, are you formal and removed? One or the other is quickly communicated — through your body language, intonation, facial expression, and greeting.

Be welcoming. Convey enthusiasm for the subject matter. Remember that every learner deserves your best effort. Being tired or nonplused is contagious. Moods and interest are communicable. Often, it is your style of delivery that is the key to unlocking your audience’s attention, interest, and enthusiasm.

Introduce yourself and your institution. “My name is Alan. I will be guiding you through the Metropolis Wildlife Conservancy, which most of you know as the Metro Zoo.” If you volunteer your time to conduct tours, let your audience know. You need not say much, simply that you are a volunteer who tours the institution with visitors. This lets your audience know that your commitment is personal and that your interest is genuine.

If your tour will be interactive — in other words if you will be asking questions of your visitors rather than reciting a scripted presentation to them — ask them a question early on to get them talking and to let them know that you will want them to engage with you. Some typical questions are “Have any of you been here before?” or “Is there something in particular you were hoping to see on your tour today?”

Try using an ice-breaker to get things going. Ask questions that relate to the tour. “As you walked into this house, what was the first thing you noticed?” Or, “What things do you associate with a rainforest environment?” I do not recommend beginning an introduction with institutional rules filled with “please do not …” This starts things on a negative tone. Instead, present the rules in a positive fashion during your first transition.

Tell visitors the purpose of your tour. State the central theme or idea that will occur throughout the tour so that they can link the new information on to a concept that they understand. One should not assume that the reasons for learning are obvious or that they will be “discovered” by the lesson’s end. (School textbooks can provide good examples of how to introduce a topic by presenting the overall concept before delving into the details.)

For instance, you might begin the tour of a botanical garden by saying, “On this tour, we will learn how plants have adapted to specific climatic conditions by carefully observing their form and characteristics.” Or, when touring an historic house museum, you might tell visitors, “On this tour, you will see how this wealthy 1 8th century family lived by considering their home and by examining the objects they purchased and surrounded themselves with.”

If you are able to divide the group into smaller touring parties, now is the time. Have young visitors count off, and have all the “one’s” go with docent A, all the “two’s” go with docent B, and so forth. Teens and adults should be corralled and then asked, “Would the six of you please go with docent A,” and then ask about the same number go to with docent B.

Transitions: Ways to Unify

The first transition, which occurs as the group moves from its gathering place to the first stop, is an appropriate time to review institutional etiquette. Remember that it is nice to know the reasons for following a rule, rather than just to be told the rule. “Let’s keep our voices low so that we don’t startle the animals. People frighten them and they will hide from us if we are too noisy.”

Every transition thereafter should serve to unify the lesson by making experiences interconnect. Transitions are intentional ways to move productively from one thing or idea to another. Whether in the form of a question, statement, or activity, transitions should keep people on task while propelling them toward something else.

For instance, stating that “like these frogs, the birds we will see next also live in the rainforest, but they live at the top of the tree canopy” provides visitors with the connection between two different life forms, while supplying them with useful information about habitat. Asking visitors, “How do these hunting tools differ from those we looked at previously?” can heighten their awareness, while reviewing and reinforcing what they previously learned.

Activities are useful transitions when teaching youngsters. While investigating lines as an element of design in an art museum, have the children walk to the next art work in a single-file line, in parallel lines, in wiggly lines, and in broken lines. In similar fashion, you might have children count the number of birds they see while walking between stops during an ecology lesson in a park.

Use transitions to reinforce the overall theme or message of a lesson, while giving visitors something productive to contemplate. “Remember, our tour topic is adaptation. So, as you look at the plants in this next area of the garden, consider how they have adapted to climate and soil conditions.”

Conclusions: Culmination and Context

The conclusion of a lesson is the time for summarizing. It is an opportunity to glance both backward and forward — backward to make certain that new information was understood and forward to ensure that new information will be placed into its proper context.

When concluding, ask visitors what they learned or remember best about the tour. This is a quick method to review and reinforce what was learned and to evaluate what you taught. (If everyone seems to remember something fairly peripheral, perhaps it was given too much emphasis.)

After visitors tell you what they have gleaned from the tour, remind them of how to use any newly acquired skills. “Remember, by comparing works of art to one another, you can gain greater awareness and understanding of artistic styles and subject matter.” Or, “As you encounter new cultures, try asking yourself the same question we asked ourselves today — in what ways are these people similar to us?”

Finally, place the information and your institution into context. Context tells visitors that the educational experience they had at your institution is anchored in something larger than itself. It is learning that has usefulness, purpose, and applicability.

Without context, the meaning and significance of content are obscured. Consider the plight of the poor patient who overhears two medical professionals talking outside of the examining room where he has just received a check-up.

“You know,” one physician says to the other, “he really looks terrible.”

“It’s true,” the other responds somberly. “In fact, I don’t see how he can hold out for long like that.”

The patient, in near panic, scrambles out of the examining room only to see that the two doctors are watching a televised tennis match where the favored player is losing badly. Unless context is known and understood, things can be misconstrued and misinterpreted.

Give learners a context within which to place their new discoveries. For instance, tell them that “Your tour through this historic home has not been descriptive of most people’s lives during the time period. This house is a special place that shows us some of the most precious and exceptional things about life during the 18th century.” Or, that “Many of the same pressures threatening the rainforest ecosystem in Brazil threaten areas of our own country, too.”

Putting It All Together

Whether purposefully developed or haphazardly occurring, all tours have a beginning, middle, and end. At their worst, these elements can actually obscure lessons, making new information seem less accessible and increasing the level of confusion; but, at their best, these structural features work to support learning by reinforcing lessons and giving them symmetry.

It need not take lots of time to make introductions, transitions, and conclusions work on behalf of your teaching. A three-minute introduction, a sentence or two each time you move to a new location, and a brief conclusion can be sufficient. Almost immediately, these structural elements will become part of the flow of your tour, which is only fitting, as they are a part of your tour, whether deliberate or not!

Alan Gartenhaus,  Publishing Editor

Gartenhaus, Alan. “Crafting a Tour,”  The Docent Educator 5.1 (Autumn 1995): 2-4.

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Heather Ainsworth

When people ask me what a docent is, I smile. Before joining the Wellin team more than five years ago, I didn’t know what that word meant. “Docent” is a not a word that exists in the world outside of the museum. It’s a role that is often known by other monikers. “Is that like a tour guide?” Yes, but that’s only part of it. “Tour guide” doesn’t really cover all of the facets that this person must embody to properly orient, educate, and entertain a museum guest. To fully understand the nuanced functionality of a docent, especially at the Wellin, one has to realize three things:  

• Most people who enter the doors of a museum are now used to obtaining information from a device, not a human. This fact creates an interesting dichotomy of goals for the docent. You want to be as informative as possible, yet retain the attention of the viewer and whet their appetites for MORE information. Throw in the goals of a docent at an academic museum whose audience is primarily from the iGeneration, and this job becomes even more precarious. At the Wellin, it helps that our docents are Hamilton College students, so they are usually speaking to their own generation. This however, does not deter from the importance of engaging each visitor at their own level.  
• One size does not fit all for museum experiences . A docent needs to recognize when a guest desires more information versus when they just want to browse. They need to be cognizant of the needs of a young child versus the needs of an elderly guest. They need to be able to communicate on the level of a professor versus the level of a class of third graders. A docent needs to always be reading the room, always acclimating their words to suit the crowd’s needs and reactions at a moment’s notice. This takes immense practice, acute awareness, stellar presentation skills, and an in-depth knowledge of the content being presented.  
• Docents might love art, but not all docents are artists. At the Wellin Museum, our crew of more than forty student docents have an academic range of interests that span from anthropology to neuroscience and world economics to yes, art and art history. These cerebral endeavors mix with countless personal interests, personality traits, and backstories. This means that no two tours are ever the same. To a Docent Program Supervisor, this is simultaneously the stuff dreams are made of and borderline scary. Docents need to train, read, practice, and revise. Each person brings a different flavor to this job; different strengths and challenges makes for an exciting environment.

The fact of the matter is, none of us can climb into the heads of an artist to know exactly what they thought the moment they created something. Even if we hear an artist SAY what they were thinking, we will still imbibe our own meaning into the retelling of their story. With that in mind, I offer that docents are not simply tour guides; docents are storytellers .

One can learn projection techniques, study content, and practice crowd management, but at the end of the day, what makes a great museum experience with a docent is their ability to engage the viewer, to create buy-in, and to stoke curiosity. A good storyteller keeps people hanging on and wanting more. At the Wellin, our student docents take our viewers on a journey through the lens of their own understanding. So yes, a docent technically guides tours. But ideally, a docent is more a guide to an individual’s personal journey into a relationship of curiosity and excitement for art. That is, at least, our goal.

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Most Smithsonian museums operate Docent Programs through their public programs or education departments. Docents are volunteer teachers who provide group learning experiences in the form of museum tours, demonstrations, or instruction in special activity areas.

The Docent Program year varies from museum to museum. Some operate October through May; others operate year-round. Training programs, eligibility requirements, openings, and time commitments also vary.

If you wish to participate in a museum Docent Program, information is available on each museum or unit website.

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Become a Docent

Qualifications, training, and duties.

The Daum Museum is always looking for friendly, outgoing people with excellent communication skills and an ability and desire to work with diverse audiences. All docents receive free training by museum staff, so an art background is not necessary.

The role of a docent is three-fold:

• Serve as hosts, to provide a welcoming atmosphere.
• Serve as interpreters of the museum’s exhibitions, helping to give the visitor a deeper understanding and appreciation of the artwork.
• Assist in preserving the collections by providing auxiliary security in exhibition areas and attend monthly meetings covering upcoming events, scheduled tours, and exhibition information.

The educational role of the docent is the most important and challenging aspect of the job. A docent should help visitors attain a personal relationship with the art and enable them to include art in their own lives. In addition, a docent must be sensitive to visitors’ differences – learning style, cultural backgrounds, age level, and special needs. Today’s audience is as varied as the artwork on the wall and requires open-mindedness, flexibility, and respect.

Benefits of Becoming a Docent

Docents participate in satisfying experiences working with children, college students, and community members while they expand their understanding of art and are challenged by new ideas.

Docents receive:

• Guided previews of each exhibition from the museum director
• Field trips and other special educational activities
• Invitations to openings and special docent appreciation events
• Tax deductible mileage to and from the museum
• Access to the museum library
• Free copies of selected museum publications

Whether you are a college student, retiree, or someone interested in giving back to the community, consider becoming a docent today!

Other volunteer opportunities include helping at children’s workshops and Daum sponsored community events.

Become a Docent Inquiry Form

Interested in becoming a docent? Complete this form and a staff member will contact you soon.

• Name * First Last
• Please tell us about yourself and your interest in becoming a docent: *

Membership in the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art provides unique opportunities and sustains a lasting artistic legacy for future generations. Members receive exclusive invitations to exhibition previews and social events with featured artists to learn firsthand about their art and discuss art-making processes. Special discounts on museum publications and participation fees are also a benefit for members.

Carol Fleming, United Forest , 2001

Docent Handbook

The handbook must be ordered on-line.    nationaldocents.org/handbooks

How to Order

The Docent Handbook 2

First published in 2001 and revised in 2017, the Docent Handbook 2 is a valuable resource for docents, guides and interpreters from museums and cultural institutions of all types in the US and Canada. A stimulating and informative "nuts and bolts" manual, the Docent Handbook 2 is useful for new and veteran docents, as well as an important tool for museum educators in their training of docents and guides.

The Docent Handbook 2 updates and expands the original handbook with new sections, material, and additional references to reflect the increasingly diverse audiences for museums, the arrival of our digital world, and evolving tour strategies geared to museums of all kinds. Included are sections on learning styles; seeing or learning from objects; family groups, school groups and serving visitors with special needs; appropriate language and guidelines for current practice in addressing arts and artifacts of indigenous peoples; dealing with problems; technology and the docent; and much more. Examples in the handbook reflect a wide range of museum settings. In addition, the h andbook serves as a workbook. Each section in the chapter gives you ideas and best practices as well as space at the end of the chapter to write “Your Personal Notes.”

Read Customer Reviews HERE

How to Order the Handbook

Table of Contents

The docent handbook 2: table of contents.

Introduction

• Foundations
• Points of Departure
• On Language, or: What's in a Word
• Learning Styles
• Know Your Audience
• On Seeing or Learning from Objects
• Asking Questions: Observation-based Touring
• Act it Out! Hands-On!
• Sensitive Issues
• Dealing with Problems
• Looking Back & Facing the Future

History of the National Docent Symposium

Suggestions for Additional Reading/Resources

To place an order, please click here.  

Sample from Chapter 8

Sample from Chapter 8:

Act it Out! Hands On!

“A wide range of movement and theater activities exist that involve visitors visually, physically, emotionally and intellectually with a painting, object or diorama.”

Suggestions are provided for activities that can be incorporated to enhance tours for both children and adults. Here is a sampling:

Take a Pose “Posing can be used to illustrate differences between objects or living things.

For example, you might look at:

• The difference between an animal poised for attack and one at rest or • The difference between an Egyptian and Greek sculpture

Ask students to assume the two poses. By experiencing the different poses, visitors arrive at a better understanding of techniques and insights used in creating the two sculptures.”

Hands On! “Touchable objects on carts or presented by you on your tour offer a range of experiences that can enhance visitors’ viewing and understanding of museum objects and specimens that are ‘do not touch’”…

This is a sampling of the 9 suggestions provided:

• Pass around samples of marble, aluminum and lead to allow the visitors to feel and weigh the specimens as they look at sculptures • Feel the difference between meat-eating and plant-eating teeth • Examine and feel the different size animal hair brushes used by artists

Further development of the chapter topic includes sections on Role Play, Historical Interpretation, Gallery Activities, and Storytelling with suggestions for Preparation, Telling Your Story, and Interaction After the Story Has Been Told

To make a purchase, click here .

First published in 2001 and revised in 2017, the Docent Handbook 2 is a valuable resource for docents, guides and interpreters from museums and cultural institutions of all types in the US and Canada. A stimulating and informative "nuts and bolts" manual, the Docent Handbook 2 is useful for new and veteran docents, as well as an important tool for museum educators in their training of docents and guides

The Docent Handbook 2 updates and expands the original handbook with new sections, material, and additional references to reflect the increasingly diverse audiences for museums, the arrival of our digital world, and evolving tour strategies geared to museums of all kinds. Included are sections on learning styles; seeing or learning from objects; family groups, school groups and serving visitors with special needs; appropriate language and guidelines for current practice in addressing arts and artifacts of indigenous peoples; dealing with problems; technology and the docent; and much more. Examples in the handbook reflect a wide range of museum settings. In addition, the handbook serves as a workbook. Each section in the chapter gives you ideas and best practices as well as space at the end of the chapter to write “Your Personal Notes.”

Customer Reviews 

From the San Antonio Museum of Art

The updated Docent Handbook is a must-read for docents with all levels of experience. For the more-recently minted, new insights, tips and techniques will come fast and furiously. But even the more experienced will benefit from the opportunity to reflect on and refine current practices. To discover that one’s own style and approach is considered a “best practice” can be reinforcing and validating. The suggestions for further reading, including journals, books and websites, should prove valuable to all.

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• academician
• associate professor
• board of education
• co-principal
• housemaster
• housemistress
• lectureship
• schoolmaster
• schoolmistress
• teaching assistant

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acting or speaking together, or at the same time

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From the Fort Wayne Museum of Art

Looking at, Talking about, and Appreciating Art

Docent Dialogue: What Does a Docent Do?

Alyssa Dumire, Director of Children’s Education

We’ve already profiled one of our illustrious docents, but today we’re looking a bit more closely at what it is that a docent actually does.

The word “docent” comes from the Latin docere , meaning “to teach.” Google the word, and that is what you will find on almost any website dedicated to docents, but we’re not here to talk dictionary definitions. What do docents mean to FWMoA and the community we serve?

We occasionally get mail from schools who visit the museum (and we LOVE it—keep it coming!). The drawing above came in a packet of written and drawn student responses that I received over a year ago, and it’s been hanging in my office ever since. While this second grader took some artistic liberties with the details of her drawing (our floors are unfortunately not magenta), if you’ve visited FWMoA, you may recognize Peter Bremers’ pink cast glass  sculpture, now installed just past the atrium. Notice the little bubbles within it? Many of our young visitors see the bubbles in the glass and ask what’s inside—soda? Hand sanitizer? Jello? Nope, just air bubbles trapped in the glass! We see here the magic this student experienced in viewing that work of art. This group of kids is reacting, engaging (look at their eyes!), and making connections. This student clearly had a positive experience at the museum, and that is thanks to their docent.

When a school group visits the museum, we hope to impart some information about the artwork on display, maybe something about the artist, the historical context, or the process used to create it. What we really hope they learn, though, are behaviors and skills. They should leave the museum feeling comfortably equipped to engage with objects—in some way—on their own, and also knowing that the museum is a place for them and their families to visit again and again.

Let’s look a little closer at that Peter Bremers sculpture, Icebergs and Paraphernalia 219 (more of Bremers’ work can be seen through September 23 during the Glass International). Imagine you’re part of a tour group. Your docent might ask any of the following questions: What shapes do you notice? Although we can’t actually touch the work on display, how do you think you would describe the texture if we could? Does it remind you of anything? What do you think the artist might have been thinking about when he created it? Does the title give us any clues? Why do you think he chose to create this piece from glass rather than another material like stone or metal? Is the way it’s displayed part of the artwork? Would you display it differently in your home? I also encourage students to look closely (but not too close, note the boy pictured above with his hands behind his back so he isn’t tempted to touch the work!) and notice that way down at the bottom, Peter Bremers scratched his name into the glass to sign his work. Why is it important to sign our work?

These questions are simple—anyone can answer them! But they’re designed to get visitors looking and engaging with the work, spending more than the typical 7 seconds to look a little deeper and make connections with what they see. The way docents build on student responses to these questions is important, too, and is one of the skills we work on most during training. A good tour is really a good conversation about selected artworks, in which some information is woven to tell the story of the artwork on display. We also know that some of that information sticks! In that same packet of student letters, students wrote that they learned about Impressionism, which, thanks to their teachers, was also spelled correctly.

Want to learn more about why we do what we do? Here in the Children’s Education Department, we’re pretty excited to learn more about the AAMD-NAEA Study on the Impact of Museum Programs,  which examines the effects of single-visit, inquiry-based museum experiences on a variety of student capacities.

Want to join us as a docent?  Check out Joan Bovee’s  interview to meet one of our current docents and feel free to get in touch with Director of Children’s Education Alyssa Dumire for more information !

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