Earlier, I shared that I’ll be shifting the content of this blog to include explorations of art and artifacts at specific museums (including behind-the-scenes looks), as well as family heirlooms. This shift is the result of deciding to volunteer as a docent at a local art museum. So what exactly is a docent?
In many countries, a docent is an academic title for a professor who hasn’t yet achieved tenure. But Merriam-Webster Dictionary also defines a docent as “a person who leads guided tours, especially through a museum or art gallery.” This latter definition is the one I will be using throughout this blog.
Docents are volunteer guides at nonprofit organizations such as museums, parks, historical sites, and other places whose mission is to serve as stewards to the public. They can help you wade through the crowds and see the pieces of art you really want to see, without wandering around and getting lost. They can also help you wander around and see the unexpected if that is what you want to do, too! Docents are there to help make the experience more engaging and accessible to you.
At the The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA where I volunteer, docents receive 9 months of training to learn about the art, the museum’s history, and how to best make the art accessible to its visitors, or as it was described in our first training session:
“The exchange between visitors and docents should not be like that between teacher and student, but more like that between friends, undertaken in the spirit of free intercourse, not in that of compulsion, in the spirit of play and not work.” – Benjamin Ives Gilman, 1915.
And the best part? We are encouraged to research and create our own tours. Beneath the floors of the artwork lies an enormous library at our disposal, allowing us to discover untold stories behind the art and artifacts and bring even more context to our tours.
I want to pinch myself.
