You have researched your newest exhibition for months, amassing extensive material on each work of art. The opening is quickly approaching and you, as a docent or gallery teacher, need to be prepared to tour the exhibition. This tour will not be a lecture in which you regurgitate the volumes …
Once upon a time, I thought I had this touring business , figured out. After all, I had the material more-or-less mastered. I knew generally how to select objects that would be the most engaging to visitors and how to shift course, most of the time, if I needed to! …
One thousand pound sea lions peer across the steps where a small group of grade schoolers sit in fidgety by expectation. Momentarily, a thousand and one questions erupt from Teresa the youngsters as the decent vies for their attention. “Are they real?” is Bullock usually the first and most often …
Been there, done that,” is all too often the reason teachers say they don’t schedule school field trips to historic house museums. If you’ve seen it, why go back? The perception that such visits merely involve a walkthrough of the whole house may be at the root of the problem …
Conventional wisdom in 16th century Europe declared that gravity acted differently on different objects. Galileo Galilei climbed the steps of a tower in his hometown of Pisa, dropped two metal spheres of different sizes, and concluded that all objects are accelerated by gravity in the same way. Not content with …
Scientists interpret data to determine cause and effect, and to understand the meaning of information or patterns. Historians interpret objects and events to accurately construct the past and to place them in a systematic and explained, chronological order. Artists interpret the range of human experiences, ideas, and emotions to articulate …
We all know of William Shakespeare as a pretty good play wright and poet but, judging from some of the subplots that show up in his plays, he had pretty distinct opinions about how to present his works as well. Perhaps the best known is Hamlet’s instructions to the players …
“A word means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” — Humpty Dumpty to Alice As an educator working in ail museums, I often introduced young people to art. Of the many tours I conducted, I recall one most clearly. It involved a group of …
There are times when a decent has a certain degree of latitude in teaching about the objects or artifacts on a guided tour. In other situations, however, a docent’s choices can be more limited. This may occur for many reasons, including the audience’s level of awareness, the docent’s own comfort …
Because there is little else that one can do with the objects displayed in art museums besides look at them, such museums imply that all objects in their care, regardless of their initial uses, are valuable primarily because of their visual interest. This visual bias, which is at the core …
There is no doubt about it — Shadows-on-the-Teche is a remarkable place because of its setting, because of its history, and because of the resources available for making tours memorable. In telling the story of the Shadows, the museum staff is at a tremendous advantage over the staffs of many …
Art museums are natural laboratories where the ability to see with our eyes, our minds, and our hearts can be cultivated. Works of art issue invitations to each of us to step into the skin of others and see the world through their eyes. Art asks us to reflect upon …
If you’ve listened to a conversation without understanding what was being said, or seen a movie and not been able to figure out the plot, then you know how it feels to take a tour that lacks a theme. It’s confusing! A theme is the glue that holds a tour …