For those of you looking for a good book, movie or play with subject matter close to a docent's heart, our new feature, Book and Movie Recommendations, is a place to start. Docents review and summarize some of their favorite picks for you to enjoy. After reviewing these suggestions, you can add your own comments and recommendations on the Docent Forum.
Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation by Charlotte Perriand
This is a memoir written by Charlotte Perriand in French and translated by the Monacelli Press publisher. She was born in 1903 and died in 1999 at the age of 96. She was a designer who was on the cutting edge of industrial, architectural, and interior design. She was hired when she was just in her twenties by the visionary modern architect Le Corbusier and his partner/cousin, Pierre Jeanneret. While the book is not so well-written (it reads like a personal diary), it is filled with wonderful stories, anecdotes, and experiences of this world-renowned designer. One of the more memorable stories includes her connection and visit to Japan just before the outbreak of WWII. She had a large circle of creative collaborators and friends including Pablo Picasso, Walter Gropius, Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, and Sori Yanagi. Sori Yanagi was the son of Soetsu Yanagi who founded the Mingei-kan in Japan. It is a book that could be read in short bursts. It will give great insight into an amazing woman and her creative as well as personal adventures.
- Reviewed by Rena Minisi, Mingei International Museum, San Diego
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art, psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius. This journey leads him toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, The Swan Thieves is a novel of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
The Ephrussi banking family of Vienna were nearly as rich and powerful as the Rothchilds until the Nazis took over Austria in 1938 when they lost almost everything. This book, written by a descendant of the family, himself a ceramics scholar, traces the fate of a family netsuke collection through five generations. This process sheds light on kinship, culture, and the enduring passion for objects.
- Recommended by Sue Phillips, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
SUMMER READING SUGGESTIONS
As we think about summer vacations and books on the beach, I’ve compiled a list of “tried and true” selections for you to re-read or enjoy for the first time:
Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
The siege of Leningrad in 1941through the memories of a Hermitage guide sinking into Alzheimer’s and what was endured to save the museum’s treasures.
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Story of Griet, whose life is transformed by her encounter with the genius of Vermeer as she is immortalized in canvas and oil.
The Tapestry and the Unicorn also by Chevalier
Brings to life the story behind the medieval tapestry in the Cluny Museum in Paris.
Devil In the White City by Erik Larson
The incredible story of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair combined with the mayhem of a serial killer on the loose.
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman
Takes us into the world of Mary Cassatt’s early Impressionist paintings through her dying sister Lydia.
Lust for Life by Irving Stone
Biography of Vincent VanGogh using the many letters he wrote and were kept by his wife.
Life Studies by Susan Vreeland
Separate stories focus on individuals like Monet’s gardner, peripheral to the lives of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, people whose personal challenges are played out against the artists at work.
If you get tired of reading pop Midnight in Paris into your DVD player for fun with Woody Allen as he takes us back to 1920 Paris where we encounter the likes of Picasso, Dali, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway.
- Recommended by Marilyn Finberg, Carnegie Museum of Art
The Museum Educator’s Manual, Educators Share Successful Techniques, Anna Johnson, Kimberly A. Huber, Nancy Cutler, Melissa Bingmann, and Tim Grove: New York, Altamira Press, 2009.
The authors are a mix of volunteers and professional educators in museums and higher education institutions. They each provide case studies with practical suggestions for both volunteers and staff. The examples include areas such as volunteer management and training; exhibit development; program and event design and implementation; working with families, seniors and teens; collaborating with schools and other institutions; online education; and funding. The book includes examples of materials that might be replicated for use by docents or staff. The authors compiled many suggestions, ideas and experiences that are compiled into a useful format and organized by the various topics.
I found the book useful for gleaning suggestions for our docent education program.
- Recommended by Rena Minisi, Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA
The Interpreters Training Manual for Museums, Mary Kay Cunningham: Washington, D.C. , American Association of Museum, 2005.
This manual is exactly what the title suggests. It is a wealth of practical suggestions and worksheets that can be used as is or easily adapted for various museum and docent education programs. The book offers comprehensive resources that might be used by museum volunteers and staff in their education programs for gallery guides and docents. The material covers a range of topics and could be used by a variety of museums. The topics include: preparing for the training, interpretive overview, applying interactive techniques to interactive opportunities, developing new interpretive programs and the tools of interpretation (which are templates, activities and worksheets).
I found this to be a very helpful resource when first developing our docent training program and have used it repeatedly to fine-tune our docent training program.
- Recommended by Marilyn Finberg, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism taught by Professor Richard Brettell from the University of Texas at Dallas DVD
As we are gearing up for an Impressionism exhibition at our museum this Spring, many of our docents are turning to The Teaching Company’s The Great Courses for supplementary information and education. Taking you from the Realists to the Nabis touching on such artists as Monet, Renoir, Degas Cassatt, Manet, Gauguin, and Cezanne, this 2 part course of 24 lectures is invaluable for reference and enrichment. You can order it from the Teaching Company, look for it on ebay or find it in many libraries.
- Recommended by Kristen Keirsey, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
The Greater Journey by David McCullough
About American scientists, writers, performers and artists who came to live in Paris in the 1800's. Augustus St. Gaudens, Samuel Morse and Mary Cassatt are just a few described by McCullough. "This is more history than art history but I enjoyed reading about the artists and how they fit into the history of Americans in Paris."
- Recommended by Kristen Keirsey, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Red, A Play by John Logan about artist Mark Rothko.
On Broadway for a short time, it is making its way to local theaters and has received good docent reviews. Mark Rothko in New York in 1958 is painting a group of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant. With an assistant as the only other character, the artist is made to face the decision between the commission and his own principles. Received great reviews by all docents who saw it.
- Recommended by Marilyn Finberg, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Rothko's Rooms, Mark Rothko DVD
If you like Rothko, this one hour DVD available at Amazon for $14.99 is worth viewing. It is a documentary tracing his steps from the early years into abstract expressionist. Shows us his personal view of both himself and how his art should be viewed. Interesting interviews, as you get to see Kate Rothko sitting in front of a great dark painting of her Father's, as she speaks of him. Sadly, only one hour long.
- Recommended by Marilyn Finberg, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Teaching in the Art Museum: Interpretation as Experience (2011-Getty), by Rika Burnham and Elliott Kai-Kee
Briefly, this is a compendium of all of the rationale supporting the methods most of us, as museum educators, currently use. The book reviews the past, present and future of gallery teaching and thus provides a concise review for experienced docents and an overview for “newbies”.
Each chapter is a stand-alone essay with Burnham and Kai-Kee doing a tag-team performance throughout.
Included is an essay on the Barnes Foundation and the often criticized teaching technique that some view as restrictive. They flesh out this discussion and encourage us consider the pros and cons of Albert Barnes’ philosophical dream of “a place where the theory of art can be appreciated and understood by all.”
Several of the essays are illustrated and contain vignettes relating actual dialogues with tour groups. The final chapter is a discussion of the future of teaching in art museums. You will be pleased to hear the authors assert that, “in museums of the future, gallery teachers are the most accomplished members of the education department, those best qualified to shape and animate its programs.”
- Recommended by Madelyn Mayberry, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
The Museum Experience (2011-Left Coast Press) by John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking
How can we get into the mind of the museum visitor? What impressions do they take away from their visit? Will they return? The Museum Experience by John Falk and Lynn Dierking gives us that ‘visitor’s eye view.”
This well-researched book asserts that what is stored in memory is an inter-connected whole, or gestalt. The authors present what is known about why people go to museums, what they do there, and what they will remember. Their research reveals that memory involves an interaction among three contexts: the personal, the social, and the physical. This “gestalt” concept really resonated with me as I related it to my own experience as a museumgoer and as a docent. The “whole” experience is retained. It is a concept that deserves thinking about.
Written to encourage museum planners and staff to think carefully about every aspect of the visitor’s experience from pathways to exhibit labels, this book also serves to remind the docent to encourage visitors to experience all of the best parts of our own museum and to listen carefully to any questions, complaints or concerns that are expressed and pass them on, when appropriate, to museum staff. We all can contribute to ensure that the visitor’s total experience is—“a social, physically, intellectually, and emotionally rich experience.”
- Recommended by Madelyn Mayberry, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa