The Phoenix Art Museum is once again offering public tours and other programming. With them, a newly structured training program has begun for the docent class of 2021.
The museum resumed in-person tours on Nov. 3 after 20 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Lisa White, the museum’s docent president.
The new docent training program launched this fall emphasizes accessibility, flexibility and diversity, White said.
In 2019, the museum realized it needed to make its training program more flexible for working people, White said.
The museum’s goal is to remove barriers and broaden its docent body, which historically tends to attract retired white women, she said.
The museum wants to ensure that people of all ages and all walks of life can join the program and be successful in order to be more representative of the community. One of the ways the museum has done this is by reducing the training program from two years to only one, White added.
First, docents take an introductory module using a mix of in-person and online content to learn the basic elements of art, art history, and how to present in front of a piece of art.
After completing this first module, each docent will choose if they want to give school talks, school tours, adult talks or adult tours, according to White.
Previously, docents had to learn all the different types of presentations during the two-year program, but some people don’t feel comfortable around children or have physical limits that make giving hour-long tours difficult, she said.
Betsy Pai, co-training chair for the docent program, said they found that most docents tended to specialize in a certain area, even though they were trained in multiple presentation formats. The module training allows docent trainees the flexibility to specialize in their areas of interest, Pai said.
There was a lot of work done before the museum changed up the program, added Leslie Lewis, Pai’s co-training chair. The museum conducted studies, surveyed the entire docent population and created focus groups of docents to figure out what was and wasn’t important to the docent trainee program, Lewis said.
The museum’s education department also surveyed museums all around the country to see what their training programs were like, Lewis added.
When it came time to build a new program, Pai said they knew what was important to make the training effective while still making it accessible due to the museum’s research.
Additionally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people got more comfortable using Zoom and other online platforms. This let the museum shift more of the training online, making the program more accessible to parents and working professionals, Lewis said.
“There’s nothing like standing in front of an artwork, and that’s why you cannot do the program purely virtually, but there are definitely aspects that can be done from the comfort of people’s homes,” Lewis said.
Pivoting to online platforms during the pandemic also allowed the museum to expand its reach through community talks and school talks, Docent President Lisa White said.
The museum now gives talks across the United States and expanded its student outreach; for example, docents give presentations to schools in Tucson and Snowflake, White said.
“We want our museum to be welcoming to our entire community,” Lewis said.
Every class touches on tools and techniques to make the museum welcoming regardless of one’s color, creed, sexual preference or background, she said. Art can be political or controversial, and they want to be sure future docents feel comfortable touring the whole museum.
The museum’s new group of docent trainees has noticed this renewed commitment to diversity and inclusion, too.
Beverly Kim, a current trainee, said the program interests her now because of the museum’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity. That wasn’t her impression in the past, she said.
“When I look around at my class, I still think there’s a ways to go in terms of representation, but you have to start somewhere,” Kim said.
Something else that has really impressed Kim is the amount of time that not just Lewis and Pai give back, but the other museum docents as well, who come to give the trainees their guidance and feedback.
“There’s a huge amount of generosity, time, spirit and an enthusiasm that you cannot pay for or enforce. I think that’s the quality that exists there,” Kim said.
Jenna Condas, an art historian with experience as a docent, is impressed as well.
“I am so gratified with the program,” Condas said. “Our training chairs, Leslie and Betsy, are absolutely amazing. Not only are they kind, but they’re just really, really smart. I know a lot about art, but I’ve already learned so much from this program.”
Will Hoskyns, a retired reconstructive dentist, started the program two years ago with his wife, but he had to drop due to health reasons.
Now, he is more passionate and excited than ever to be a part of the program.
“What people don’t realize is all the arts are the humanities,” Hoskyns said. “And yet, school only spends about an hour or two a week teaching humanity. The humanities really are teaching us to be humane to other people. So, that’s what we’re modeling: humanity.”
He added that he loves the class because people aren’t there to make money, but because they want to be surrounded by art.
“We’re all different, but the whole reason we’re there is the art and our excitement for the art. It sort of strips away a lot of the judgmentalness people normally have in society,” Hoskyns said.
The first group of trainees in the new program started training in October and will hit the museum floors to give tours in mid-May 2022.
Training Co-Chairs Lewis and Pai encourage anyone interested in becoming a docent to visit their website to learn more.
