“I’ve always found that the best training occurs when participants are really engaged with each other and sharing ideas, not just sitting and listening,” says Gallery Guide Charlene Livingstone.
She’s explaining how she and colleague Frances Bleviss came to develop a highly interactive small-group training activity called Connections – and how it made its way from an enthusiastic Gallery-Guide reception at the AGO in 2012, to an equally enthusiastic North American reception in San Francisco last month.
“Fran and I were 2012 co-chairs for the Daytime Gallery Guides,” continues Charlene. “We came up with the project together and built on each other’s ideas. For example, I designed a set of tarot-style cards with an art image and inspirational quote on each one – and Fran suggested they be the trigger for the activity.”
Participants break into clusters of 4-5 people. Each chooses a card, thinks about how they relate to that card and how it might relate to other works of art, and share their analysis with the rest of their group. Result? Stronger connections – between each individual and a work of art, among works of art (which can help Gallery Guides plan tours), and among the group of participants.
“When we tried out the activity with other Gallery Guides, they were very positive,” says Fran, picking up the story. “Later in 2012, Charlene and I were chosen to represent the AGO at the 2013 National Docent Symposium, to be held in San Francisco. Delegates were invited to propose workshop activities for the Symposium, and we suggested Connections.”
The idea was accepted. NDS organizers must have been delighted. It was a perfect fit with the 2013 theme: “Inspiring Innovations, Creating Connections.”
Charlene says, “We did wonder a bit what the response would be. Unlike here, we’d be working with people who didn’t know each other well, and who had different styles and approaches to their role as docents.”
They needn’t have worried. The workshop had great attendance, and great response. The Symposium’s 450 delegates had a choice of 8 concurrent workshops, and 74 of them – well more than 1/8th of the total – chose to spend their time with Fran and Charlene. “I think a lot of the appeal was that the activity is so totally interactive,” says Fran. “They really enjoyed that.”
Charlene and Fran have had lots of email correspondence since with some of those participants, all of whom plan to use the activity in their own institutions. “We’re just waiting to hear the results,” says Charlene with a big grin.