This Week In Global Museum | Celebrating 28 Years Serving The Profession | The #1 Museum Site For Museum News, Museum Jobs, Museum Resources & More! http://www.globalmuseum.org** British Museum director rules out restitutionThe director of the British Museum has ruled out any move towards allowing restitution from its collections as he focuses instead on fostering global collaboration.**  Hidden Liabilities: How Rare Manuscripts Threaten Institutional ReputationsControversies involving stolen artifac ...Continue Reading

Sloane King Owen reacted to your message: *From:* talk@museum-ed.org <talk@museum-ed.org> on behalf of Jennifer Lee Gray JGray@historicASMH.org [talk at museum-ed.org] <talk@museum-ed.org> *Sent:* Monday, May 19, 2025 5:18:21 PM *To:* talk at museum-ed.org <talk@museum-ed.org> *Subject:* Re: [talk] seeking articles about shortening attention spans Rachel, I have sections of articles that talk about this, but nothing is coming to mind that focuses on this topic fully; if I find something I'll ...Continue Reading

Below is the form that we use for docent self-reflection. We poll docents separately regarding docent training, asking them how we are doing and what learning opportunities would benefit them or the whole group. In addition, a staff member from our Learning & Engagement department shadows docents for Tour Feedback opportunities every other year (when there is not a new candidate training class). Docents have access to the rubric and advanced notice in scheduling. * * *Docent Self-Reflection* Following one s ...Continue Reading

Rachel, I have sections of articles that talk about this, but nothing is coming to mind that focuses on this topic fully; if I find something I'll pass it along. If it helps, when I train my part time staff & volunteers, I tell them that the rule of thumb is a 3-minute attention span. As visitors get younger their attention span shrinks, but 3-minutes is a good marker for most visitors on a guided tour. Our tours at my site are about an hour long, but every 3 minutes you need to add a shift/adjustment/moveme ...Continue Reading

Hi Rachel, Nina Simon has some great info in her books.  There is also a book called Great Tours!  https://thinkingmuseum.com/2020/02/19/information-overload-on-guided-tours/ https://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2010/06/making-museum-tours-participatory-model.html https://museumonmainstreet.org/sites/default/files/tips%20for%20museum%20docents%20and%20tour%20guides.pdf Michelle Zupan Site Manager Los Luceros Historic Site 253 County Rd 41 Alcalde, NM  87511 Cell: 505-690-1393 NM Department of Cultural ...Continue Reading

I'm working on making the case with one of my clients that they'd do well to consider offering shorter experiences than a 1-hour guided tour.??Do any of you have good articles about the shortening of attention spans, especially since COVID???These don't have to be museum ed specific, and in fact, it might be better to offer these folks some more general psychology/neuroscience info as they go through their process.??Thanks for all suggestions!?Rachel?Rachel S Ropeikeducator | adventurer | facilitator | exper ...Continue Reading

This Week In Global Museum | Celebrating 28 Years Serving The Profession | The #1 Museum Site For Museum News, Museum Jobs, Museum Resources & More! http://www.globalmuseum.org**  Tate Modern Is the Museum of the Century (Like It or Not)The London institution, which turns 25 this week, encouraged its peers to look beyond the West; but its greatest impact was to remake the art museum into a kind of theme park.**  Denmark’s museum objects at risk from ‘extreme’ new mould, say conservatorsA new typ ...Continue Reading

Hi Kathy,We just launched a self-reflection form at the Denver Art Museum. We moved away from the terms "evaluation" and "assessment" so that the form would be less intimidating for docents. It's only been out for a few weeks but so far I haven't received pushback or complaints from our docents about the form. We are also hoping the form will be used more frequently--a tool for them to reflect on their own practice and to share feedback with museum staff about their experiences. So we used ...Continue Reading

Hi Kathy, Here is a form we have new guides fill out at the end of their first season. Julia Julia Butterfield (she/her) K-12 Program Coordinator Historic Hudson Valley _jbutterfield@hudsonvalley.org_ TEL: 914-366-6905 In office: Tuesdays-Saturdays _HHV's Resources for Students and Teachers_ _Request a School Program_ *From:* talk@museum-ed.org <talk@museum-ed.org> *Sent:* Friday, May 16, 2025 3:17 PM *To:* talk at museum-ed.org <talk@museum-ed.org> *Subject:* [talk] docent/gallery guide s ...Continue Reading

Hello,We are looking for examples of self-evaluation tools that education staff have used for docents/gallery guides.  We are looking for examples of a form that we can ask docents to complete at the end of a tour (probably once-a-year), that asks open-ended questions about their tour, what strengths they have, what challenges they need help with, etc.  We'll use their answers to help guide future training for the group as well as tailor support for those who need it.If you have a self-evaluation fo ...Continue Reading