Docent Days

Today was touring day at the art museum, Long Beach Museum of Art. I have been a docent for a little less than a month. Training began in mid January, '09 and we graduated as a class on June 25. I have given about 4 tours to 5th graders in groups of 10 or so. We have 2 forty minute tours of the museum and the time goes by so quickly, I feel sad when I hear the chiming bell to tell us time's up.
This morning I started at our beautiful Claire Falkenstein fountain that sits on the patio of the restaurant named "Claire's." It was a perfect morning and my first group of kids were attentive, polite and extremely bright. They said the twists and turns and jagged edges of the sculpture made them feel happy, wet, comforted. We walked back into the museum and stopped at the first monumental book at the exhibit, Novel Constructions. One student told me that she thought it meant that we should all read books because of how much information you can find in them. Mind you, we're standing at a book that is layed out horizontally and is about 4 feet high and eight feet wide. There are no words, the pages are in black and white with mysterious figures painted on a canvas of ads from newspapers and magazines that have been affixed to burlap and barely peek through a white base. At that moment, I knew these students would listen to what I had to say, and I better be pretty sharp! They expressed sadness at the large 3 dimensional cell with the cell bars made of pages of Marie Antoinette's Diary. They knew the meaning of Metamorphosis.
One of the other docent's told me her group had read Metamorphosis in 4th grade!
It is a joy to show the student's the peace and beauty and inspiration of the museum, and to tell them that they can return and bring their families.
At a painting called "Left hand turn, late afternoon," a student said, "I think the arrow is telling you to make the turn that will be the best way to lead your life."
Whoa. This young lady had some serious upbringing!
I will return in a couple of days to teach a workshop. I think that group will be second graders. What surprises will they have in store for me?