What is a Docent?

SMA volunteers, staff, and docents with "Eons: Unraveling Time" artist and curator Maria de Los Angeles. [Artwork featured: Gerry Snyder, Beyond the Votive, 2024, acrylic and gouache on tin; Courtesy of the artist.]

Before the opening of each exhibition here at the Schneider, we have a meeting called the docent walkthrough. During this, our staff, volunteers, and docents are invited to take a tour with one or more of the artists whose work is featured in the upcoming exhibition. This year, we were grateful to have the insight of "Eons: Unraveling Time" curator Maria de Los Angeles, whose work is also featured in the show. Maria took the group through the galleries and explained some curatorial choices, asked and answered questions, and gave a little background on the exhibition itself.

But why do we do this? What is a docent, and how does something like this walkthrough help them? In this Inside the Museum article, rather than talking about the artwork, I will be explaining the role docents play in a museum environment.

Docents, or Museum docents as they are called in the United States, are people who serve as educators in museum settings.

In Europe, "docent" refers to an associate professor or teacher position, due to the fact that the word docent derives from the Latin word docēns, meaning "to lecture". Docents are found in all types of museums, from art to science to historical institutions, where they give tours and lessons about what is on display. There are no formal requirements for becoming a museum docent (besides enthusiasm for learning and teaching about art or history), but prospective docents are required to go through a training and shadowing process before being able to lead tours.

If you'd like to experience a tour led by one of our Schneider Docents (Alan, Allen, or Cynthia), sign up for a free Tuesday Tour! Tours are at 12:30pm every Tuesday once the museum is open. The link to sign up is below!

SMA Docent Cynthia Cavanaugh in front of the work of Alex Valentine ("Eons: Unraveling Time"). Photograph by Emily McPeck.

From the Whitney Museum of American Art: Docent Gianie Kim leads a tour in Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables, 2018. Photograph by Filip Wolak. Photo from https://whitney.org/about/careers/docents

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