Please note: Your Symposium Registration includes ONE Breakout from EACH Session, for a total of 4 Breakout Sessions.

Outside the Box

J. Paul Getty Museum

Discover a variety of activities to use in your tours to make them more fun, engaging, and relatable. Learn to use music, writing, drawing movement and critical thinking when interacting with museum visitors of all ages.

The Connected Docent Corps Project

High Museum of Art

Learn about the docent community building program, Connected Docent Corps Project, which includes, Peer-to-Peer (docents learning from each other), Reflection Circle (touring techniques), Enrichment Programs (excursions) and Communications (connecting tools).

Ale & Art

Toledo Museum of Art

Considered by some as one of the world’s greatest beverages, explore the confluence of art and beer. This interactive workshop provides a short history of beer in art, along with looking for “beer clues” in art. Examples of beer-themed tours and connecting to your community through “beer art” themes will be explored.

Zing Up Your Zoom

San Antonio Museum of Art

Spice up your virtual tours and in person tours with pre and post activities to pique interest through music, video, and simple games to encourage student participation.

Engaging with our Diverse Visitors

The Walters Art Museum

Explore techniques to become more welcoming and inclusive with your diverse museum visitors through stories and inclusive language. This workshop will help you consider how to find the right words and information for a richer visitor experience. A formula for creating information sheets about objects in your collection and a DEAI annotated bibliography will be shared with participants to help in developing inclusive tours.

STEAMED UP: A Collaboration

Toledo Museum of Art

Be introduced to a collaboration between docents and K-5 educators that led to the design of cross-curricular STEAM tours using the Museum’s art collection. This interactive session includes docent-modeled tours specific to STEAM strategies so students’ engagement with art will inspire critical thinking, problem-solving and creativity.

Docent Reset: A Specialist Approach

Denver Art Museum

This docent training approach provides paired leadership of docents with staff, team building and a tech toolbox that enabled docents to reimagine the museum’s collection through the use of collection cohorts.

The Artist in You

Columbus Museum of Art

Learn school touring techniques through a mini-studio experience which uses creative hands-on activities to better understand artists’ views and the creative process. This approach is designed to encourage deeper appreciation of the museum’s collection and to build docent rapport.

Windows & Mirrors: Multi-literacy

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Using the “window and mirror” metaphor, explore issues of inclusiveness and bias to connect more personally with works of art. Sample “windows” and “mirrors” will be used in this session as participants practice this interactive tool and learn how to apply it to their own interactive tours