National Docents Symposium Council
Dedicated to providing an ongoing forum for docent education and the exchange of ideas since 1981
We’re filling up fast!
Don’t miss the opportunity to make your 2022 National Docent Symposium reservations!
Registration is now open for more than four people per institution!
The last two years have been a long and tough slog. We have all felt a bit lost and overwhelmed. We need to find ourselves again…and what better way than to be with other docents and connect with each other, to learn and to grow.
So please, consider joining us for the 2022 National Docent Symposium. Let’s get together again as docents and remember what we’ve all missed these last two years…giving tours to people of all ages and watching that moment of discovery in their eyes.
Click on the logo to the right to visit the NDS2022 home page where you can preview the session options plus hotel and other information to aid your pre-planning.
This link will take you directly to the registration page where you will find a very helpful registration tutorial as well as host contact information to assist you in directing your questions to the appropriate resource.
We can't wait to see you in Kansas City!
Become a National Docent Symposium Council (NDSC) Regional Director or Director-at-Large
A dynamic leadership opportunity to expand your docent experience beyond the symposium.
You can continue your symposium and docent experience by applying to be an NDSC director. The NDSC's mission is to support an ongoing forum for docent education and exchange of ideas through the biennial National Docent Symposium (NDS.) The NDS is organized by volunteer docents/guides for volunteer docents/guides and is held in the United States and Canada. For more information, click this LINK
Since the first National Docent Symposium in 1981, the National Docent Symposium Council has served as a resource and forum to promote docent education and the exchange of ideas. Join us as we celebrate our 40th anniversary with a series of articles discussing our past, present and future! Read here an interview with Doug McTavish, who has taken on a new role as a SPARK and a photographer at the Burke Museum in Seattle, WA. Renee Reese, former "Picture Lady" and now a docent at the MInt Museum in Charlotte, NC, talks about adjusting to new philosophies and using technology, and helping to get this website up and running! Read her story here.
Docents are acutely aware that words, and how we choose to use them, are important to making visitors feel welcome and appreciated. Read here how the docents at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco created a glossary of terms relevant to current cultural discourse and made it available to docents in an interactive platform.
Be inspired by this and other resources in our Diversity and Inclusion section.
The Nevada Museum of Art currently has an exhibition of works by Jean LaMarr, a native American artist. Museum docents and staff felt it was important when presenting her art to learn the story of the local Stewart Indian residential school, one of over 500 Indian residential schools operational in the US from 1890 to about 1980. Docents Betsy Burgess and Linda Miller relate how the experience assisted docents to better understand contemporary issues in Native American art. Read here.
We are proud to recognize our supporters by profiling the individuals and institutions that inspire them. From left to right, Gin Wachter (Saint Louis Art Museum); Cheryl Palmer (The Mint Museum); Renée Brummel Franklin (Saint Louis Art Museum); and Wadsworth Atheneum Docent Council 50th Anniversary.
Now available in two versions, digital and print.
For more information and ordering instructions, click this LINK.
Find PowerPoint Presentations and Handouts from the Washington D.C. Symposium and several past symposia at the Symposia menu tab above or click here
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