The Docent Educator
To use this online archive, search the issues using the search bar on the top right side of the screen under The Docent Educator Menu, or browse the index of issues using the link below the search bar.
About The Docent Educator Online Archive
Between 1991 and 2003 museum educator Alan Gartenhaus published the essential guide for interactions between museum docents and the public. The 50 issues of The Docent Educator produced during that twelve-year span comprise a core resource for both museum docents and the educators who train them. Articles were written by a wide range of professionals from the museum education field, and they are as relevant today as when they first appeared.
The Docent Educator was available in print to institutions and individuals for a nominal subscription fee. However, little had been done institutionally to archive this resource. In 2014 Museum-Ed launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd fund the digitization of The Docent Educator. Thanks to the Kickstarter’s overwhelming success, Museum-Ed was able to create a fully searchable online archives of The Docent Educator.
About Alan Gartenhaus
Alan Gartenhaus is a museum educator whose career has spanned over 40 years. He has worked in museums all over the United States. He is a recipient of the Alden B. Dow Fellowship for his work relating to museum use and creative thinking. As a teacher and education specialist for the Smithsonian Institution he earned their Award for Meritorious Service to honor his work building programmatic bonds between museums and school systems in communities across the US. Gartenhaus is also the author of Minds in Motion: Using Museums to Expand Creative Thinking, Start Exploring: Masterpieces of American Art from the National Museum of American Art and Questioning Art: An Inquiry Approach to Teaching Art Appreciation. Gartenhaus is now retired and living in Hawaii.