The students are energetic, eager and happy, and their teachers urge them into lines, coordinating final plans with the museum’s staff.
At the appointed hour, the lines of students are broken into smaller groups and each group follows a museum docent, a trained tour guide, into the galleries, where the students can explore the collection, learn about art in general and often relate what they discover to their own work in the classroom.
Additional docents lead new sets of tour groups at 11 a.m. and noon, and again at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. — schoolchildren or business groups or civic organizations. A group of Girl Scouts from Hickory is scheduled for July. A family reunion has planned a field trip in August. And the museum’s daily 1:30 p.m. tour is open to any and all art lovers, no reservations needed.
“On average, we may have 20 or 25 tour groups each week,” said Cynthia Hogan Dopko, the museum’s docent coordinator. “And each group can require up to 12 docents. In all, our docents provide tours to over 30,000 people each year.”
The museum’s docent organization currently boasts 203 members, 131 of whom are actively touring. 16 freshman docents finished their initial year of training in May 2001 and will begin touring halfway through their second year in the program. Additionally, the organization’s numbers include 14 docents emeritus (with 20 years of touring experience, but not currently active) and 14 retired docents (65 years or older and with at least 10 years of service). Even among those docents actively touring are many who have been with the museum for more than 20 years.
So what is a docent? The term comes from the Latin dooere, meaning “to teach,” and the men and women of the organization are, as the etymology suggests, much more than tour guides.
“They are educators as well,” said Dopko, citing the docent’s extensive and continual training about the collection and exhibitions, their study of the school curriculum through the state’s Arts in Schools program and their pursuit of specialization in certain areas of art history.
Docents make a minimum commitment of two years, with weekly attendance required at training classes from fall to early spring.
n Freshman Docents enroll in the museum’s art history survey course, From Pyramids to Postmodern, with 27 lectures presented by Dr. Kristine Door.
n In the second year, Junior Docents (there is no sophomore year) study highlights of the museum’s own collection and learn methods of conducting tours. By January of the junior year, these docents begin leading tours for school groups in addition to their class.
n Senior Docents (docents in their third year or beyond) attend special topic lectures and focus on new and upcoming exhibitions. Senior Docents are also required to maintain a schedule of at least two tours each week from September through the end of May.
“Junior Docents study the school curriculum for third, fourth and fifth-graders to tailor their tours to these classes,” elaborated Dopko. “And the museum’s education department continues to coordinate optional training sessions for docents interested in leading tours for persons with visually impairments, or for other persons with special needs, such as autistic children or persons with developmental disabilities.
Because many docents have specialized in areas of particular interest, the museum also offers tours geared to specific galleries — whether Egyptian funerary art, European works, African art or Jewish ceremonial objects — or focused on thematic topics including mythology, religion or even flowers in art. Tours are also available in Spanish, French and German with docents fluent in each language.
“Our docents are wonderful at tailoring tours to almost any special interest group,” said Dopko. “For a graphic design class, they can discuss aspects of design in 20th century art. If a literature class is studying The Ilian, they can prepare a related tour of our classical gallery.”
While touring and teaching constitute the bulk of the docents responsibilities, the organization contributes to the museum in other ways, often through a separate organizational fund. For example, the docents sponsor a biennial lecture through an endowment they established in 1983; Raleigh artist Thomas Sayre will present this lecture in fall 2001. And in Commemoration of their 25th anniversary as an organization, the docents donated 10 Ghanaian textiles to the museum’s African collection beginning in the fall of 2000.
The docent organization publishes a bimonthly newsletter (except for summer months), maintains a separate lending library for both docents and volunteers, and hosts fall and spring luncheons as well as a holiday party.
Benefits include free admission to exhibitions, discounts in the museum stores and the opportunity for travel on study trips to art institutions both within the United States and abroad.
Several docents recently traveled to Boston, and potential destinations include the African-American Museum and the Chrysler Museum in Hampton Roads, Virginia; the High Museum in Atlanta; and the Weatherspoon Art Gallery in Winston-Salem. A trip to Italy was recently led by Joseph Covington, the museum’s director of Educational Services.
“Being a docent gives you a tremendous opportunity to serve the community,” said Margaret McCulloch, president of the docent board. “I’ve been a docent for eight years and I’ve found it very fulfilling both to learn and to teach. You get a first-class art history education from the Education Department and the curators, and you have a front-line position with the museum’s visitors, both young and old alike.”
Because of the extensive training provided by the museum, no art history background or teaching experience is required to become a docent. “While an educational background may be helpful, it’s not necessary,” explained Dopko. “If you want to keep learning and want to share that learning with others, then the docent organization at the North Carolina Museum of Art is for you,” said Dopko.
“The art history education is phenomenal, even better than college. It’s an enriching experience all around, a volunteer opportunity that’s both challenging and, ultimately, rewarding for everyone involved.”
