Introduction by Kay Seedig - Docent Training at the Amon Carter of Museum of American Art

Warm greetings, everyone! My name is Kay (they/them/theirs) and I am so excited to learn about your internship experiences and share more about mine, too. 

Briefly, a bit more about me: I am an artist, teacher, and learner with a background in studio art (MFA, 2017) and an interest in teaching and programming in art museums. I work full time at UNT as a technician in the Foundations Program and I have been involved in the behind-the-scenes work at arts organizations like 500X Gallery in Dallas and the soon-to-be nonprofit Radical Intersectional Printmakers Guild. I find that collaborating on exhibitions, programming, teaching, and mentorship are incredibly enriching and things I aspire to do no matter my position!

My internship is a bit unconventional due to circumstances created by COVID-19, in addition to balancing my full time and part time positions, and taking courses. I am so grateful for this flexibility as I complete this certification!

For my internship, I applied to the nine-month Docent Training Program at the Amon Carter (the Carter) in Fort Worth. After interviewing and being accepted in January 2021, we started meeting as a class on Thursday, February 25th, 2021 and have met just about every Thursday each week since then. Additionally, we meet for education sessions with curators and other specialists to discuss the collection, operations, and Carter's values. Back in September, I was lucky enough to volunteer during the 60th Birthday Bash, too! I met so many champions of the Carter - from board members and trustees to emeritus docents. Interacting with the visitors was my favorite part though!

Initially, I was drawn to the Carter after seeing the collection in person a few times. There is more to the collection than what meets the eye and their dedication to education, programming, and working with contemporary artists really got my attention. My interest intensified after meeting curators Maggie Adler and Kristen Gaylord and hearing how they are working internally to challenge the traditional ways in which museums display collections. Their thoughtful approach to curation and exhibition design can be felt as you walk through each gallery at the Carter.

My cohort is comprised of 12-15 folks, majority of whom are retired, and a few of us still work full time. Each Thursday, we meet as a group to discuss what I like to call the "anatomy of a tour." That anatomy includes aspects such as, how to insightfully ask questions and deliver information; how to create a welcoming and inclusive environment; and how to balance historical contextual information with the visual qualities of an object. Our lead instructor, Nancy Strickland, also emphasizes the importance of integrating the values of the Carter into our tours. Similarly to teaching, a thoughtful tour can be quite complicated to craft!

Initially when I began the internship, my intentions were to develop a tour for visitors that 1. was impactful in such a short amount of time (1 hour spend with visitors) and 2. closely aligned with my teaching values.  I hope to work on and hone the following skills during my internship: 

• craft effective and engaging interpretation of artworks within the collection
• deliver historical content of art objects and find innovative ways for viewers to relate
• develop a tour that utilizes embodied and dialogic strategies
• integrate ways to connect with a diversity of museum visitors in my tour and interpersonal skills

Currently, I am finishing up my tour development and for the last month or so, all meetings have been spent presenting tour stops to each other and getting/giving critical feedback about what is working and what could be improved upon. The theme of my tour is "Choices: Radicalism in the Everyday." I am interested in using works where I can analyze significant and/or radical choices (made by the artist in life or in their aesthetic choices) that rejected prescribed traditionalism at the time in some way or another. I also want to encourage those on my tour to interpret the work without necessarily being right or wrong about the historical information. What questions can I ask that engage their individualized experiences? How can I encourage them to think more about the experience of seeing and making? How can I make this tour really fun and memorable!?

Lastly, finding overlaps between subtlety and the obvious (typically seen as direct opposites) are what I am drawn to. Yes, a still life painting can be radical! 

Below are a few of the artworks I have used to develop tour stops:

Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 2, Oil on Canvas, 1928

John Singer Sargent, Alice Vanderbilt Shepard, Oil on Canvas, 1888

Robert Laurent, Plant Form, Stained Fruitwood from Direct Carving, 1924-28

Charles White, Love Letter III, Color Lithograph, 1977

Martin Johnson Heade, Thunder Storm on Narragansett Bay, Oil on Canvas, 1868

I'm very excited to present my tour in its entirety in November and begin touring each month at the Carter. Thank you for reading. I also can't wait to share more with y'all!

Introduction - Meadows Museum

 Hello everyone!

My name is Evan Blackwell (they/them/theirs) and I am the Meadows Museum graduate Onstead fellow. 

I just completed my fifth week working at the museum's education department under the director of education, Anne Kindseth. I have three main focuses for my time at the museum: 1. a short-term goal on producing a three to five-minute gallery talk for a college night event and assisting with the event itself, 2. managing all tour requests and scheduling for the museum entirety, and 3. managing the student collective. I have also been given the side task of recording a couple of audio guides for two portraits I spoke on in my short gallery talk.

My goal with this fellowship is to gain a better understanding of the administrative side of art museum education as well as practice my educating skills through developing curriculum and providing talks and tours. I only relatively recently added art museum education to my studies, and all of my experience has been digital/remote, so I intend to build my skills with the interpersonal aspect of this type of teaching, as well as develop my ability to work in a physical setting. Through the Meadows Museum’s more specific collection of Spanish art, I want to practice operating within the limitations presented by that specificity - e.g. how to build audience connections when there are not seemingly endless subjects and/or histories to use to connect to or pique interest? Along with this, the museum being part of a university allows for exploration of how to facilitate and build connections to not only students but also to other disciplines. How does one encourage diverse engagement with a specific collection? I am happy to say that these explorations have already started happening!

While the Meadows Museum Student Collective (MMSC) has existed for several years, Anne and I have transformed it in order to provide the students a way to gain direct paid experience with the museum. The collective will be producing a short podcast exploring a specific portrait by the end of the spring semester - the first podcast associated with the Meadows Museum! I am currently in the process of interviewing our applicants and securing guest speakers. Managing all of the tour requests for the museum takes up a good chunk of my workday, but I’m hoping to start developing individual meeting plans for the collective soon. Our fall college night event has already passed and was a great success, but the development for that (and future events) is for another post.

Our current exhibitions Canvas & Silk: Historic Fashion from Madrid’s Museo del Traje and Imagine & Identity: Mexican Fashion in the Modern Period opened on September 19th, 2021, and will be on show until January 9th, 2022. I hope you will come visit!