And I think to myself, “Oh Snap, I have to metro into the city through snow and ice?! GRRRRR! As if weekend track work didn’t make the metro slow enough already!” This prompted me to quickly hop out of bed and get dressed for my 10am Smithy volunteer training.

Pro Tip: Always dress with a theme in mind. Today I was trying to go for the museum nerd style, which is a look that I basically made up in my head because I always like to picture museum-goers as being modern, stylish, but smart (similar to a really hip librarian or art history major). Something very close to the below photos is what I came up with.

I paired all of this up with my signature side braid and coat,…

…which made me look a little bit like a colorful female version of Sherlock Holmes. Of course I didn’t mind because that meant I looked like a bad ass.

Upon arrival at the Castle, I met the other volunteers up in the library. We were all shivering since at Orientation the weather was 60 degrees F and now some of us had snow in our shoes. Generally speaking though we were all enthusiastic about this opportunity.

The training was supposed to last from 10am to 3pm and at the time I couldn’t imagine what they could possibly teach us about volunteering that would last that long. I was fearful that it would be a lot of common sense stuff, such as how to be nice to tourists or don’t carry weapons in the building. Luckily it wasn’t that boring.

We began by having Michael deliver a lecture about the history and founding of the Smithsonian Institution. To summarize, it was about how thankful we all are that British scientist, James Smithson, and his heir and nephew, Hungerford, died without having any children so that the United States could take his estate and all his stuff to form the Smithsonian Institution. Why in his last will and testament did he say that he would give us all his stuff if there were no family heirs is a mystery.

After the history lesson we had lunch where I had the pleasure of sitting with a group of old ladies. It’s no surprise that amongst our volunteer group I was one of the youngest (and maybe most beautiful; It’s a tough call because there was this very cute French dude there as well. He looked classically European, aka. really cute!). Many people want to volunteer when they retire and the ladies I sat with were very nice and easy to converse with. We talked about what museums we’ve been to and which museums we hoped to be placed in. I personally hope I get placed in one of the art museums (no offense history, postal, and culture) because art museums tend to be quieter in my experience and also because I have a great interest in art in general. Most everyone else didn’t care where they were placed, although some expressed that they would prefer a busy museum so that they would see more action. I can understand that, but sometimes small museums have their charm too. It allows for more time to communicate with visitors, which is my motivation for volunteering.

Post lunch we proceeded to go over rules, regulations, dress code, and some paperwork. The main thing I got out of that was when we’re behind the info desk, we are no longer allowed to have any opinions on anything. That means no political opinions, no best restaurant in the area opinions, no favorite exhibit opinions, NOTHING. And of course Michael taught us some common phrases to reply with when asked these tough questions. “Well I don’t really have a favorite museum or exhibit. What are YOU interested in?” “There are plenty of food choices around here. Let me tell you about _____, ______, and _____ choices.” “I don’t dislike any of the exhibits at the Smithsonian.” …etc.

We were also assigned some homework. We are to complete at least 2 tours from 2 museums of our choice and we have until our last training day in a month to do it. Any additional tours done will be extra credit on our final exam. (Yes, we have a final exam on how to be a volunteer. Ew.) Luckily for me, we got out of training early so that I could get one of these tours out of the way.

The Hirshhorn is located next door to both the Castle and the Air and Space museum and houses contemporary and modern art as well as a sculpture garden. Although my profile picture is me standing next to the statue at the front of Hirshhorn, I had never been inside. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to go (especially since there will be less tourists, nobody except for a local will go to a museum in the snow).

Pro tip: You’d think that the entrance is by that wavy statue. It’s not. It’s actually on the other side of the building by the triangle circle statue.

My docent (aka: tour guide) was named Meredith and she was very nice and seemed to enjoy her job a lot. Docents are also volunteers, like info desk peeps, so they aren’t necessarily scholars in the field. They do however know a lot of stuff about the artists featured and about the exhibits from their training and can answer most any question you have about the museum itself. I personally like that they aren’t brainy know-at-alls with PhDs. It makes visitors feel more comfortable asking questions so that they don’t feel like they’re asking anything dumb.

Meredith was very comfortable with telling us whether or not she liked a piece or whether she didn’t get it at all. She also liked to ask us what we thought about the art. For example, with this sculpture Meredith didn’t see the horse at first until she asked us what we thought and I described why I thought it looked like a horse to me. She ended up liking my answer and seeing the horse in the end. 

It’s very nice to have an interactive tour instead of the kind where you just listen to the guide drone on and on about where the artist was born or how they died and you have to follow them around silently through the gallery. Seldom do those tours actually talk about the art itself and they often try to rush the tour because they have a schedule to meet. From what I gather Smithsonian isn’t like that because they only have 1 or two tours a day to allow for as much time to really allow the guests to get their fill of the museum.

There was another sculpture (which I’m sorry to say I don’t have a picture of) called ‘Reclining Woman Who Dreams’ by Alberto Giacometti. Meredith said she didn’t understand it and to be honest it looked nothing like a woman to me. It looked more like some spoons stuck inside some wavy wood. So I said that maybe it wasn’t about the woman, but perhaps the whole sculpture was a representation of the dream the reclining woman had. From that moment on, Meredith and the two other tour goers with me thought I was an actual artist or something. I got slightly embarrassed and told them that I don’t actually know much about art. I mean I’ve taken some studio art classes and made some art, but that doesn’t really mean anything. I have no art history material in my brain, nor do I know anything about the modern contemporary stuff. But apparently I know more than the average human being does about art, so I guess my thoughts came off really knowledgeable or something. It was odd considering that amongst my friend group I'm not the most insightful.

This does help me point out a pro tip for art museums. You don’t have to know anything about art to sound like you know something about art. When you see a piece, just think about how it makes you feel, or what it reminds you of. Be sure to look at the title of the work and on then on the tour just say what you think of it. Because most art is not about what the artist was thinking. Generally speaking almost nobody knows what the artist was thinking about when they made the piece and what it means (unless the artist is alive and they told you or something). Artists (similar to novelist) create the pieces and when they’re finished it’s no longer theirs. It belongs to the viewer and the viewer can interpret it at will. A lot of times the artist has no other meaning or reason to create the art other than to try to illicit an emotion out of viewers (and if the artist is a jerk, the emotion is anger). Ultimately, art belongs to us and helps us to think critically in way that we can’t in other situations.

Now I will say this, if you go up to a piece of art and say that it reminds you of your favorite sports team because of the color scheme the artist used… people WILL think that you know NOTHING about art (this happened on my tour). So yeah…

At the end of the tour I told Meredith that I had a good time and hopefully I’ll see her around once I start volunteering. If any of you visit Hirshhorn on a Saturday, ask for her to be your guide. You won’t be disappointed.

Next week is computer lab training in the Natural History museum. I of course will blog details.

P.S. Gift shop find! One of the exhibits features mobiles created by Alexander Calder. 

As you can see, they are quite cool. But the best part was that you could buy your own mobile replica of his work in the gift shop.

Too bad it was $45. Sigh Maybe when I get my volunteer discount…