by Bailey White
Staff Writer
Two weeks ago, 30 people graduated from The Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art’s docent program — the first in its new location on North Laura Street.
Now the museum is getting ready to train another group of volunteers and will host an orientation session Wednesday night for those interested in acting as tour guides for JMoMA’s visitors.
The program is designed not only to arm docents with information about the museum’s history and its permanent and temporary exhibits, but also to educate them on stimulating discussion about modern art.
“We’re teaching people facts about modern art, but also giving them the skills to look at art on their own,” said Allison Graff, JMoMA’s director of education. “Sometimes with modern art, people feel uncomfortable because they don’t recognize anything in it. So much of modern art is about perception, and people are tentative to talk about it.
“My theory is that we start with what’s familiar, with what we call visual thinking strategies. We ask, ‘What do you see?’ In order to learn something new, I think you have to link it to what you already know. I think that’s what’s different about our approach to giving tours.”
Docents-in-training meet once a week for 14 weeks.
“We start with the basics,” said Graff. “They meet the museum staff and learn the history of the museum. They learn different ways of talking about art — the vocabulary and the formal language. Then we merge into the collection.”
JMoMA has more than 800 objects in its permanent collection. Since taking on all of them would be overwhelming, Graff said, the docents focus on 24 works of art.
“They study some of the museum’s signature pieces, including works by Picasso, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler and James Rosenquist,” she said. “And I encourage people to do a little research on their own, too.”
Not only do the docents learn about the museum’s permanent collection, but they also get a chance to study temporary exhibits in ongoing training sessions.
“They have the luxury of meeting artists behind the scenes and of attending informal gallery talks,” said Graff.
Graff said that one of the best things about the docent program is the diverse group of people it attracts.
“We had young professionals and seasoned professionals,” said Graff. “We had lawyers, real estate agents and an artist who was active in Jacksonville for over 40 years. They came from a wide variety of knowledge bases, too, and it’s nice because over the 14-week period, a real camaraderie develops.”
The variety of backgrounds of JMoMA’s docents will also help put visitors and tour-goers at ease, said Judy Guarnieri, who went through the museum’s first docent training program.
“I think one of the museum’s main missions is accessibility,” said Guarnieri, a convention sales manager with the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They really stress that through training, and I think the core group of docents really reflects that. We had a 17-year-old, and we had women in their 70s. Everyone was very warm, friendly and interested in making a connection to the community.”
“The docents are accessible and engaging,” said Graff. “They act more as facilitators than experts. We’re teaching them how to look more critically so that can facilitate that for others. They help to deepen the experience for people who are new to it, and for people who may be a little timid about talking about art.”
JMoMA is holding an orientation meeting for prospective docents Wednesday from 6-7 p.m.