Chicago Art Institute defense

You remember the volunteer docents for the Chicago Art Institute--fired to be replaced with paid docents to be named later, with the appropriate skin colors and intersectionalities. I thought then that this was a scam to provide patronage jobs to the relatives of the clout-heavy, and quite possibly the start of a bust-out scheme.

One should hear all sides. I've changed my suspicions somewhat after reading the Chicago Tribune editorial. Apparently the Institute has quite the endowment--they can drain that for a while and won't need to start selling off the out-of-sight stuff for a while.

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, said the MCA, more centered on temporary exhibits than the Art Institute, required less time of docents and “therefore you would see younger people, a different mix racially” in its docent corps.

I hadn't heard about this:

At the Milwaukee Art Museum — which has experimented with weekend and online access to docent training, to attract more volunteers — there was a paid docent program for formerly incarcerated men; it ended when grant money ran out, said Brigid Globensky, senior director of education and programs, “but it showed me a broad community who would like to docent if those resources were there.”

And there's this

James Rondeau also doesn’t want his museum “dependent on free labor,” he said. He understands an institution with the reach and influence of the Art Institute can’t operate the way it has for generations. He wants to focus on the future — though talking with him, it’s not always clear what that future resembles. Partly this is because of business jargon that he gravitates toward — new staff are not hired, they’re “onboarded,” and so forth — and partly because that future is still being mapped.

But there are clues. Docents will not be responsible for knowing everything within the museum; specialization will become more common. There will also be more of an emphasis on teaching itself, more emphasis on the “civic wellness” of the visiting public, with more “intersections” between the museum’s “community partners” and the volunteers.

The above quote is the only reference to the "visiting public." Deprecations of the prejudices of those who transformed museums a century ago--check. "Countless instances of cultural insensitivity among docents" (never quantified, of course)--check. Shifting from "lecture-based tours to more conversational, inquiry-based ways of explaining art" (not sure what that has to do with anything)--check. Complaining that the existing docents were "connected"--check.

But how this is supposed to be good for the public: crickets. "Civic wellness" can mean just about anything depending on whose mouth the term comes out of. Nothing much on what the public learns...

If you want a bit of amusing irony: Karmit Bulman, director of Minn. Alliance of Volunteer Advancement, thinks they're moving too slowly. But apparently it was welcoming enough that she "spent her childhood at the museum."