Hi all,
On Tues. I got to watch the docent training at the Corcoran. It was a smallish group of docents with two teachers. They were practicing their introductions, like what would they say to a theoretical group of museum visitors who would follow them around. It was pretty interesting to hear them. They were all articulate and knowledgeable about the history of the gallery and they gave a lot of thought to how they stand, their tones, even jokes. It was harder for them because they can't go into a lot of the gallery so they had to pretend that they were in the atrium. They were also speaking about different pieces, where they could go into, and challenges of not being able to get everywhere. Overall, it was an interesting group. One thing I did notice was that the average age of the docents-in-training was over 45. I wonder if younger people decide to become docents or it is a second carrier for most. Just thinking out loud. Can't wait to go back, not so much to watch the training but to learn more neat stuff about the gallery.