GGs Frances Bleviss and Charlene Livingstone (co-chairs of the Daytime Gallery Guides) were delighted to be selected to present their recently developed workshop at the National Docent Symposium being held this year in San Francisco in October.  Using a set of Tarot cards Charlene created (and which are sold in the AGO store) each person chooses a card, thinking about the reasons for that choice, and then links either the art image or text on the card to other works in their own collections. This analysis is then shared with others in small groups to inspire every group member, perhaps to make new associations among works they may know well. The final task is for the group to choose one of the new groupings of works, and to create a tour around it.

The workshop was developed as part of an in-house AGO GG training session to create new tours for gallery guides.  The Daytime Gallery Guides loved interacting, both with one another (they were asked to sit with people they didn’t already know), and with other people’s ideas about what constitutes an interesting tour or visit. Fran and Charlene collected the “new” tour ideas at the end, later sending out an email to everyone with all the tour ideas. The feedback was encouragingly positive, inspiring Fran and Charlene to apply to the symposium.