Museum Readies Volunteers

GALLERY GUIDES Ed Adair, from left, Marinell Adair, Gail Slagle and Steve Slagle have been in training, most of them since January, for their upcoming roles as volunteer trail and/or gallery guides for Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art, scheduled to open Nov. 11 in Bentonville. Gallery guides must be knowledgeable about the museum’s collection and the artists who created them. Training for a trail guide’s role included taking a master gardener’s course and learning the different plants that visitors will see along the trails.
GALLERY GUIDES Ed Adair, from left, Marinell Adair, Gail Slagle and Steve Slagle have been in training, most of them since January, for their upcoming roles as volunteer trail and/or gallery guides for Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art, scheduled to open Nov. 11 in Bentonville. Gallery guides must be knowledgeable about the museum’s collection and the artists who created them. Training for a trail guide’s role included taking a master gardener’s course and learning the different plants that visitors will see along the trails.

Gail Slagle walked into the gallery for the first time a little more than a month ago. Once a week, three times a month, since the beginning of the year, she has studied art history in preparation for her work as a volunteer at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

“To walk in the museum and see them hanging on the wall, it was pretty exciting,” she said.

Gail, 59, and her husband, Steve, have trained to guide visitors along the museum’s trails and through its galleries. Once the museum opens, Steve Slagle, 61, said volunteers in either of these programs may be working 80 to 100 hours a year, so he and his wife will be volunteering at the museum more than 100 hours each.

Almost 950 people expressed an interest in becoming volunteers at Crystal Bridges or filled out an application, Jennifer Dunham, the museum’s volunteer services manager, said on Oct. 18. More than 480 of those applicants have gone through orientation or are participating in volunteer training.

As trail and gallery guides, the Slagles, Bentonville residents since 2006, will be taking people on tours lasting 45 minutes to an hour, Gail said. On the trails, they will talk about plant life and the outdoor sculptures. As gallery guides, they will be conducting several different themed tours in different buildings within the museum, she said.

Marinell and Ed Adair also spent hours studying and training this year to be volunteers at the museum, which opens Nov. 11. The Adairs have lived in Bentonville for 42 years and have been involved in many community projects. They are retired and jumped at the opportunity to be museum volunteers, Marinell said.

Marinell, 67, is training to be a gallery tour guide.

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Elizabeth Dolan, a Crystal Bridges volunteer talks with an applicant during a job fair at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.

“It’s just exhilarating to me, at my age, to be learning new things,” she said.

Ed, 68, wanted to be a trail guide because he loves nature. Part of the trail guide training is investing 40 hours to become a Master Gardener, he said.

“We just wanted to be a part of something that’s going to be so important to our area, to our state, and really to our country,” he added.

Gail Slagle said the training taught her more about art and allows her to appreciate it more. She said going to a museum once intimidated her, but she found that art is meant to be appreciated by everyone.

Neither the Slagles nor the Adairs had prior American art knowledge before becoming volunteers. Marinell Adair said she took an art history class in college, but it didn’t include American art.

It’s been “a thrill to me to see how American art has evolved over the two centuries” and how it parallels the history of the country, she said.

Gail Slagle wants to spend more time getting to know the trails. The volunteers haven’t been able to walk on the trails too much because the museum is still a construction zone, she said.

Ed Adair said it’s been fun to volunteer with Marinell and talk about what they’re learning.

“I can’t wait to take a tour group around and see their response to these beautiful paintings that we have,” Marinell said.

Dunham said in her past experiences, she spoke to civic groups and tried to get the attention of the media to recruit volunteers.

“That hasn’t been the case at Crystal Bridges. It’s been just a steady stream of people who want to be a part of it,” she said.

Volunteers range in age from 18 to about 92, she said. Each volunteer area has a fairly good mix of ages.

Volunteers can be gallery guides; trail guides; library guides, who serve as resources for people who are doing research; museum guides, who are similar to welcoming concierges; administrative assistants; museum store workers; Skyscape facilitators, who introduce visitors to James Turrell’s “Way of Color” sculpture; ambassadors for the museum; and hands-on volunteers, who work in the open studios to help with the creation of art, Dunham said.

Applications are being accepted for each of these positions on the Crystal Bridges website as of Oct. 18.

General museum guides, who would be asked to work two shifts a month taking tickets, checking coats and answering questions, are the museum’s greatest need. Dunham wants to fill those jobs with people who want to be part of the museum, but don’t want to commit to something with a great deal of training and time involved, she said. Some of the positions, such as gallery guides, who are trained to discuss the artwork, require significant commitments of time and energy.

All the volunteers train for their positions. Everyone goes through an hourlong general orientation, which includes learning basic policies and procedures and signing confidentiality agreements. The training for different areas can run from an hour to more than 150 hours, she said.

Dunham said there are no prerequisites for any of the volunteer opportunities. Some job descriptions may list a requirement though, such as availability to work in the morning. She has relied on people to read the job descriptions on the website before applying and determine for themselves if it is a good fit for them.

“Flexibility right now is the key for everyone,” she said.

Dunham noted her challenge will be to maintain the high level of interest and make sure it is a mutually beneficial relationship between volunteers and the museum. It will take time, she said, to find out volunteers’ specific interests and talents and determine the right placement for them.

People can also apply for future volunteer opportunities. Next fall, school visit guides will conduct tours of the museum for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, she said.

Dunham said volunteers are vital to the museum’s mission.

“I don’t think that we could exist without them,” she said.

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