Become a Museum Docent
Know Your Museum Like the Professionals Do
What does a docent do? How do you learn to give docent guided tours? Learn about docents and docent training at National Docent Symposium.
It takes numerous curators, exhibit designers, and administrators to create a museum experience that is as intriguing to children as it is enlightening to adult visitors. A docent is a trained volunteer who serves as a tour guide armed with in-depth knowledge about the museum’s collections and exhibits and helps make museum visits special.
In exchange, a docent commits to guiding tours for a specific period of time, often for a year or two. However, most tours are only a couple of hours long.
A potential docent submits an application. They are usually interviewed by professional staff about their interests and availability.
A docent typically must be at least 18 years of age. Unique skills, such as foreign language, are valued but not a requirement. Enthusiasm, a desire to learn, and commitment are always the most valuable characteristics of a docent.
The cost for becoming a trained docent usually is the price of an individual museum membership, and includes the benefits membership affords. In exchange for their time, a docent is treated to tours given by museum curators and they are the first to preview new exhibitions.
Museums of every type and size depend on docents. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, in New Orleans, invites volunteers who are willing to complete monthly trainings and make a two-year commitment to lead school, adult, and specialized tours in addition to group events.
Docent-led tours make it possible for the Bruce Museum, in Greenwich, Conn., to fulfill the donor’s wishes. This historic home of Robert Moffat Bruce, a wealthy textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange, has been preserved as the Bruce Museum. Bruce bequeathed the property to the city with the stipulation that it be used as a natural history, historical and art museum. But it takes a staff to make that a reality. Docents are an essential part of that staff, as they are in many museums.
A docent with foreign language skills is especially treasured by museums. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History seeks volunteers for their Korea Gallery Docent Program, with training by Smithsonian educators and scholars. A docent helps interpret the organization, themes, and concepts of Korea’s distinctive art, culture, and history.
Even though a docent is a paraprofessional, they are essential to museums and docent education is supported by organizations devoted to volunteerism. The first National Docent Symposium was organized by a group of docents from the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1981.
The National Docent Symposium is actually international with symposiums held every other year at host institutions in the United States or Canada. The symposiums offer additional docent education. It is an opportunity for volunteers and a limited number of museum staff to participate in a dialogue about the role and mission of docents.
Docents at the Bruce Museum have the opportunity to attend the bi-annual Connecticut Art Docent Symposium. In addition to the state-level symposiums, six regional U.S. symposiums and two Canadian symposiums are devoted to volunteer training issues.
Many museums provide docent information and applications on their website. Otherwise, contact the museum – or ask your docent the next time you take a guided tour how you, too, can become a docent!
