Nov

2019 National Docent Symposium

The 2019 National Docent Symposium was a rousing success. Nancy Lebaron shares some highlights.

Augustus Casely-Hayford, Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art was Symposium’s opening guest speaker. (Photo courtesy Nancy LeBaron)

Performers welcome Symposium delegates before the opening night dinner at the Mayflower Hotel. (Photo by Vivian Lock)

In association with the National Docent Symposium Council, the Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Galleries co-hosted the 2019 National Docent Symposium, Capitalizing On Experience, in Washington, D.C., last month. Almost 500 docents docents representing museums and historical institutions from across the United States and Canada gathered at The Mayflower Hotel to attend a range of docent-led workshops, hear world-class speakers, visit museums, galleries and private collections, and share their docent experiences with one another.

Volunteers gathered around display table

Docents from Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History at opening night’s Showcase of Ideas. (Photo by Vivian Lock)

Docents from the Honolulu Museum of Art at opening night’s Showcase of Ideas. (Photo by Vivian Lock)

Smithsonian American Art Museum docents joined by staff member to present a workshop on distance learning. (Photo by Vivian Lock)

Docents left the Symposium with additional tools in their ‘toolkits’, memories of a great city, new friends, and an energized appreciation for what they do as docents for their institutions and communities.

For more information about the National Docent Symposium Council, visit: https://www.nationaldocents.org/.

Nancy LeBaron is a member of the National Docent Symposium Steering Committee, an enthusiastic volunteer docent at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, and the docent representative in the Smithsonian Office of Visitor Services’ Volunteer Enrichment Working Group.