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1 person is interested
Guides for Tour Experiences
ORGANIZATION: Peabody Essex Museum
Please visit the new page to apply.
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1 person is interested
PEM Guides for Tour Experiences are volunteer docents who support the Museum’s mission by leading groups of participants in conversational, interactive explorations of PEM’s exhibitions, collection, and creative spaces. Guides host innovative museum experiences, helping audiences delve deeper into special exhibitions, historic houses and gardens, collection highlights, and special topics. Tour experiences may last from 10 minutes to an hour or more, and include gallery games, art-making, and other special techniques that support interpretive goals and promote curiosity, surprise and delight, new insights, broader perspectives on creativity, and enhanced understanding of global culture and creative expression. PEM Guides for Tour Experiences work with a range of audiences, including walk-in museum visitors, pre-booked group tours, special needs audiences, and VIPs.
Responsibilities include:
- Complete an Initial Training program, concluding with a qualification process certifying the Guide to lead programs with the public
- Learn, practice, and deliver a variety of guided experiences developed by PEM’s Education Department, including walking tours, art-making, close looking, gallery games, and other techniques
- Attend monthly Team Meetings, participating in sharing, peer support and conversation about effective practice and contributing creative ideas to the ongoing development of Tour Experiences
- Participate in continuous improvement, self-assessment, and program evaluation processes led by PEM staff
- Use recordkeeping systems to track audience participation numbers
- Conduct preparatory research outside training hours to develop knowledge and keep up to date on new content
- Support PEM’s educational and interpretive goals and values, using interpretation and interpersonal communication approaches established by Education staff
PEM Guides for Tour Experiences; sincerely enjoy meeting and talking with people of all ages and backgrounds; know how to get people involved in talking and sharing, and have a knack for storytelling; show enthusiasm for sharing art, culture, and ideas with people of all ages and backgrounds, and a desire to help them explore the world of creative expression; show respect for all individuals; use creative approaches, drawing ideas and information from many disciplines, cultures, periods, and sources; take an active approach, moving through widely-dispersed museum spaces using stairs, elevators, outdoor and historic house spaces, and offering a variety of techniques from sketching to gallery games to writing activities; are curious and enjoy continuous learning; enjoy trying new things; are interested in art, creative expression, performance, culture, and/or related topics; are able to improve constantly, respond to coaching and critique from peer guides and museum staff; are reliable in fulfilling their commitment to the museum
Commitment
- Complete a one-time, intensive program of 10 ( /-) weekly 3-hour sessions, sessions covering basic program skills and content, leading toward qualification. Initial training is offered on both a weekday and a weekend day.
- Attend 2-hour monthly Team Meetings to learn new programs, explore content, practice activities and share ideas. Team Meetings are offered on both a weekday and a weekend day. Optional but recommended Enrichment sessions will also be offered throughout the year.
- Attend quarterly 3-hour meetings with PEM Guides from all four teams. Receive updates on museum activities, hear new exhibition introductions, and access other useful information. TheseInformational gatherings are offered in both weekday and weekend sessions.
- PEM Guides for Tour Experiences deliver experiences daily from 10 AM to 5 PM and during evening hours when the museum is open. Tour Experiences are offered six days a week (PEM is closed Mondays).
Active PEM Guides for Tour Experiences are expected to contribute 6-10 hours per month (including Team Meetings), according to the following schedule.
Weekday Guides contribute at least one 2-hour shift per week.
Weekend Guides contribute at least two 2-hour shifts per month, typically on the 1 st and 3 rd weekends or the 2 nd and 4 th weekends.
To apply, go to http://www.pem.org/about/_employment/volunteer/ and download and complete the application and email it with a cover note indicating which team you are applying for, to Ellen Soares, Docent Program Manager, at ellen_soares@pem.org or by mail to Ellen Soares, Docent Program Manager, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970.
More opportunities with Peabody Essex Museum
No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.
About Peabody Essex Museum
Location:
EAST INDIA SQUARE, SALEM, MA 01970, US
Mission Statement
The mission of the Peabody Essex Museum is to celebrate outstanding artistic and cultural creativity by collecting, stewarding and interpreting objects of art and culture in ways that increase knowledge, enrich the spirit, engage the mind and stimulate the senses. Through its exhibitions, programs, publications, media and related activities, PEM strives to create experiences that transform people's lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of themselves and the wider world.
Description
Founded in 1799 by America's first global entrepreneurs, the Peabody Essex Museum is a museum of international art and culture dedicated to connecting art to the world in which it is made.
More than a decade ago, the Peabody Essex began a comprehensive campaign to conceptually and physically integrate, interpret and exhibit the full breadth of museum collections for the first time in its 200-year history.
The museum also set out to greatly enrich and enhance all its programs. During the last several years, the Peabody Essex has ranked among the top museums in the nation for collection acquisitions through purchase and gift. The institution's $194 million transformation resulted in the creation of a new and major museum, serving people in Greater Boston, New England, the nation and the world. At its opening in June 2003, its facilities ranked among the 25 largest art museums in the nation. The suite of new galleries dedicated to changing exhibitions is among the largest on the East Coast.
The Peabody Essex has emerged as a new and different kind of museum -- one that creates a richer experience for visitors by bringing art, architecture and culture together in new ways, and by presenting art in the world in which it was made. Astonishingly, given the superlative quality and scope of museum holdings, the majority of collection areas had never been adequately exhibited. Most had not been exhibited at all. The Peabody Essex is now able to interpret its singular collection in ways that invite visitors to discover the inextricable connections that link artistic and cultural traditions, connections that have always influenced art and culture and that now characterize our lives in a global community. By presenting contemporary and historical work, the museum can help link the past and the present.
The Peabody Essex is one of the nation's major museums for Asian art, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Indian art, along with the finest collection of Asian Export art extant and 19th-century Asian photography. It presents the earliest collections of Native American and Oceanic art in the nation -- all collections of exceptional standing. The historic houses and gardens, and American decorative art and maritime art collections provide an unrivaled spectrum of New England's heritage over 300 years.
CAUSE AREAS
WHEN
WHERE
East India SquareSalem, MA 01970
DATE POSTED
October 1, 2015
SKILLS
- Teaching / Instruction
- General Education
- Exhibition Arts
GOOD FOR
- People 55+
REQUIREMENTS
- Background Check
- Orientation or Training