A Day In The Life of a Museum Ed. Intern

(Mary H. using our powerful Prox card)

(click on the pictures for a larger view)

9:00 AM: Our day begins in the Student Programs and Docent Room in the basement of the Modern Wing - we lovingly refer to our windowless domain as "the dungeon" - though it's quite nice and comfy inside.

Our 'Prox' cards are the magic keys to the Staff Only doors. Forgetting your Prox card makes for a miserably tedious day of inaccessibility... I learned this the hard way.

9 - 10:15 am: Here in the Docent Room we conduct a lot of SERIOUS RESEARCH to come up with great tour ideas such as: Storytelling in Art, Travel and Transformation, Technology and Innovation, Movement and Music, Ritual and Celebration and of course, my tour partner Mary and I's favorite, EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION!

(NOTE the breakfast muffins in the foreground - early on we realized that something about this job made us hungry as soon as we stepped in the door regardless of how large our breakfast was - thus, we instated a breakfast schedule.)

At 10:00am we also have a morning meeting so we know where everyone's tour is going - though even with this kind of preparation we still find ourselves in traffic jams every now and then.


10:15 - 10:30 am: We meet our little tour participants (who are not always as little as seen here - the group here is Pre-K and ADORABLE!) in the orange floored Ryan Education Center just off the Modern Wing Entrance.

Here we introduce ourselves and introduce them to the museum rules. The question, "Does anyone know some rules we have here in the museum?" has produced a wide range of odd and adorable answers such as: "No hurting" or "No choking" or "No stealing"

(left to right: Jen leading the little ones through Griffin Court, Maya and Natalie going into the closed Modern Wing galleries in the morning)

10:30: Annnnd...we're off! At 10:30 we can officially let our groups into the museum. A guard tails each group so that we can bring them into the galleries that are closed due to the rotating closures.

(left to right: Mary D. and I (Adrienne) going to the Alsdorf Galleries; David and Sandy in the Rice Wing; Mary H. and Jen in the Alsdorf Galleries)

10:30 - 11:30: Chaos in the museum! Ok, not really - but for an hour there are multiple student tour groups weaving in, out and around galleries.

(left to right: Me (Adrienne) have an impromptu story time, Mary D. in front of the Seurat, Jen using her teacher tricks in the Chinese galleries)

We try to see 6 works on an Art From Many Places tour (meant for student groups above 1st grade) and 4 works of art for the ABC's Tours (meant for the little ones with a shorter attention span) - but sometimes you have to improvise.

Pre-K kids are adorable, but if they aren't paying attention to the artwork as much as you'd like, sitting them down for a story might help corral them in.

(left to right: Mary D. using the key to get back into the Modern Wing, Mary D. and I about to take kinds into the Sagmiester, Natalie leaving the modern galleries)

Mary and I took the Pre-K tour to "Being Not Truthful Always Works Against Me" by Stefan Sagmeister - this is an interactive piece which kids LOVE.

They jumped, they played, they ran, they yelled - they pretty much broke every rule we introduced to them that morning and they loved every second of it.

(left to right: Maya and Picasso, Natalie with Shiva, Natalie and Mary H. talking to groups in the same room, Mary H. at Doris Lee's "Thanksgiving")

One problem we occasionally encounter is the tour traffic jam - however a skilled docent can maneuver through this problem with ease like Natalie and Mary H. did today. By crouching down with their groups and keeping their voices low they masterfully engaged two young groups in an American art gallery.

(left to right: Sandy and David leading their group down the Grand Staircase at the end of the tour)

"Oh my god, there are so many stairs! I'm going to be so tired! (after 3 stairs) I'm already SO tired" - 7 year old boy

- Quotes like these and many others on our intern Twitter: Overheard at AIC

12:00 pm: We like to attend the noon-time gallery walks led by other experienced docents in the museum. We went to a Highlights tour to get ideas for future tours.


She was great! What I learned: Doing extensive research really helps to keep people engaged on a tour. The public (and we interns) LOVED the little anecdotes found in original letters and other obscure research material that the docent shared with us.

Some of the regular docents have been doing this for as long as 30 years! So, needless to say, we have a lot to learn from them.

LUNCH (1:15 pm): We tend to rotate our lunch locations depending on the weather - which in Chicago can change dramatically in seconds. On nice days we like to sit outside at the museum cafe, sometimes we dip our feet in the river at the Lurie Gardens and on miserably humid days we admire the view from inside one of the studios in the Ryan Education Center.

2:15 - 5:00 pm: (Imagine more research and tour planning here - it pretty much looks the same as the morning except we may be spread amongst The Education Resource Center, Ryerson Library or walking around the museum)

5:00 pm: On our way to have happy hour drinks with some other Museum Education staff. One of the best parts of this job is liking the people we work with.

5:30 - whenever: Drinks at Midtown Bar.

The day is DONE...well not really...most of us are doing multiple things this summer - whether it's another job, school, one of the many Chicago summer festivals or just making sure we see our non-museum friends - we all keep pretty busy.

After a long day, we go home, sleep and do it all over again tomorrow :)

I broke the Jinx!

I successfully gave my first Adult Tour this Thursday!

Though, I am excited that I managed to engage and educate a group of adult museum goers - a feat that seems particularly more nerve-racking than entertaining school groups and summer camps - I am most excited that I may not be the bad luck charm responsible for repulsing our would-be tour participants of the Art Institute.

(The jury is still out on Mary's bad luck and whether she is the cause of our misfortunes this week - Sorry Mary.)

FYI: In case you have not read my last blog post "The Case of the Jinxed Intern Pair," Mary and I endured the frustration and humiliation of three no-show tour groups throughout the week. Nobody likes being stood up. Our emotional wounds are still healing.

I am happy to report though, that I have broken the jinx.

After anxiously waiting in Griffin Court (with the much appreciated presence of a few other interns) a group of about 10-15 talkative museum patrons showed up for the Highlights of the Modern Wing tour I was giving with Senior Lecturer, Margaret Farr. Unfortunately the lines to get into the museum during our Thursday night free hours are so long that I know at least one friend could not even get into the museum in time to participate in my tour. *Note for future Tour-goers – Come early for the 5:30 free hours tours*

Margaret started our “Contemporary Storytelling” themed tour with Gerhard Richter’s, “Woman Descending a Staircase.” This piece is one of my personal favorites. The audience was very engaged and Margaret perfectly segued into my next two pieces by introducing ideas of layered understanding and closer investigation.

Next I took the group to Charles Ray’s, “Hinoki” asking them to give me their first impressions from further back and inviting them to take a closer look to see what it might reveal. I’ve found that this piece is rewarding to talk about. Everyone seems to be intrigued by it and they always want to know more. You can’t lose with a piece that takes a lot of technical skill (even if not by the artist, himself) and has a lot of good anecdotes to accompany it.

The third and final piece (the 5:30 tours are only 30 minutes) was Doris Salcedo’s, “Untitled (Armoire).” I was a little bit worried about people connecting to this piece and I did have one man express his frustration, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction and interest from the rest of the crowd.

This tour was really fun and it is up there with Family Tours as my favorite kind of tour to give. People pose interesting questions, make insightful points and usually manage to get you to look at the piece in a new light. ...wait, isn’t that my job?

Now, a few words of advice to future interns about the kind of …well, ‘characters’ you may get on a tour:

1) Always acknowledge someone’s comment, question or concern…even if they ask/state the same thing repeatedly. You will hear yourself say “Yeah, sure, maybe, that could be” more than you would like to know, but it will get worse if you chose to ignore them.

2) Other tour participants may not appreciate the incessant questioning or commenting of another tour participant – Don’t be afraid to ask, “Does anyone else have a question or comment?” while looking through/past/around said tour participant.

You’ll have your crazy, angry, frustrated, bored and know-it-all tour participants, but the large majority are nice, encouraging and engaged. They chose to be there, we want to talk to them and that’s what makes it fun.

The Case of the Jinxed Intern Pair

Sad interns - Mary D. and Adrienne (me)

This week was supposed to be our second week of touring real student groups after our intense and nerve racking mock-tour presentations. Most of the interns were able to try out a new tour theme, introduce different works to eager young eyes and most importantly, get the experience under their belts that would prepare them for giving solo tours. Most interns have had this luxury. Unfortunately, Mary and I have not.

For the third time this week, our tour was canceled.

We spent last week and the weekend preparing our new, exciting tour themed: "EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION!"(to be said in a British accent). We were anxious to try it out and talk about new pieces but the week had other plans in store for us:

Tuesday - The scheduled school group tried to call during the 4th of July holiday weekend - needless to say we didn't get the message until Tuesday morning. 'That's fine,' we thought, 'We'll just have more time to make this tour even more EXTRAORDINARY.'

Wednesday - After waiting in the studio for 20 minutes, the school group called Gianna to let her know they would not be able to make it. Gianna, Mary and I were not happy. Mary and I began to take it personal and ideas of capes, puffs of smoke and British accents started to trickle into our tour plans - 'They'll be sorry for missing THIS tour!'

Thursday - All of the interns were stood up as we waited on a group of 80 students who did not show up until 11:30. The tours are supposed to end at 11:30. Our bad luck jinxed the entire group - my sincere apologies to everyone else. Our EXTRAORDINARY tour has still not embarked on it's maiden voyage - fears that it may be too ordinary have started to creep in.

Barye "Roger and Angelica Mounted on a Hippogriff"
Part of the EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION Tour

Things learned:
1) Don't disrespect the interns/docents by not showing up for a tour - or you'll have Gianna to deal with. Gianna is awesome and will give a stern talking to/reprimand/not reschedule a group that does not show up without advance notice.

2) Summer groups are unpredictable - the number, age and presence of students could change at any time. Roll with it - the best part of touring is the unpredictability.

3) No group, means more tour prep time - this could be a good thing...or it could drive you crazy.

Now on our third day of unexpected free time - Mary and I are left to do even more research on the tour that never was and I will prepare for my adult tour tonight at 5:30 - assuming that my bad luck has not reached the adult audiences of the Art Institute. If so, I may be giving a private Highlights of the Modern Wing tour to a few lucky interns who don't mind staying a little after work.