National Volunteer Week Day 5: Why I'm a Docent

The National Volunteer Week blog-a-thon continues today with comments from members of our inimitable docent team. Thanks to Tracie McCambridge, Educator for Docent and Teacher Programs, for compiling the comments.

Why am I a docent?

"I love to see art, to make art, to think about art. Sharing my passion for art is a joy."-- Joan Tallan

"I volunteer for selfish reasons: I love to provoke, prod, ponder and occasionally pontificate about art. I love the sheer joy and challenge of the place, sometimes maddening, always stimulating."--Susie Gerald

"Being a Wexner Center Docent is like hitching your heart to a star -- everything is brighter and full of wonder."--Carole Dale

"I look forward to the exhilarating, exciting, funny and sometimes frustrating exchange of ideas, questions and comments from the young people as I take them through the galleries, as well as around the building and grounds, discussing the art, architecture and history of the Wexner Center for the Arts."--Joan Folpe

"I volunteer at the Wexner Center because I enjoy seeing children and adults respond to contemporary art. It's a "high" for me when their perceptions as well as my own really expand."-- Herb Gross

"When we relocated to Columbus 14 years ago, the first thing I wanted to be part of as a volunteer was an Art Museum, as I had been a Docent at the DIA in Detroit. I have been learning about and touring our ever changing shows happily ever since."--Jeri Sutton

"As a Wexner Center docent for the last 15 years I have become acquainted with and enriched by hundreds of artists and their work. It has been very exciting to share this experience with thousands of people ages 7 to 70; to hear them engage with the art and to see their eyes light up with wonder." --Gisela Vitt

"I am a Wexner docent because on every tour at least one kid makes a unique comment about the art that gives me pause, brings me up short, makes me laugh, breaks my heart, or takes my breath away. It's the best job I have ever had, volunteer or paid, for the pure spontaneous drama of the human condition."--Becky Lowther

The Wexner Center Education Team would also like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the entire docent team for their commitment and hard work to the docent program.