Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

Today is the last day for one of the Mueum's longtime volunteers. Her name is Maxine Thompson and she has been a volunteer since 1996 and a Museum member for more than 20 years.

Maxine lives about 50 miles outside of Kansas City and has continued to make the drive on a regular basis to volunteer at the Museum. She has served in many capacities from holiday gift wrapping to special events. Her enjoyment of the Museum, our visitors and the staff members is evident to everyone who comes into contact with Maxine.

For special events Maxine would add a touch of whimsy by dressing up such as the beautiful red Chinese style dress she wore for Chinese New Year. One of my favorite stories about our volunteers features Maxine doing what she does best.

Maxine recently turned 80 and decided it’s time to change how she supports the Museum. Today is her last day in Coat Check and the last day she’ll have a regularly scheduled volunteer role. She’ll continue to help with special events and to prepare classroom materials at home.

I'm glad she will still be connected to the Museum but we will all miss her smiling face and cheerful hello.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum Guide program is an innovative new way to involve working adults and professionals who would like to be involved with the Museum as more than just a casual volunteer but are not able to commit to a full-time program such as training to be a docent. Museum Guides attend training sessions for two to three months to learn how to give introductory and highlight tours to visitors in the evenings and on weekends.

Our inaugural class of Museum Guides recently began giving their first tours to visitors. We have had many delightful reports by the guides about their early experiences. Here are just a few:

“The couple was a little concerned about the kids' attention span and wondered if they should go. Of course I told them about the "drop out" option and that made them feel OK. So we began. And of course we find ourselves in front of Woman IV (by Willem de Kooning) with the most noticeable indices of being a woman. Got by that without the kids or parents getting flustered. Yes, I was fine as well. From there, actually the Dad was the one who wandered around most. I thought he was going to "pull" the rest of them off into their own tour several times. But he kept coming back and listening/answering questions. The Mom was very engaged. The kids enjoyed a few of the paintings. It does help to direct questions and comments to them. The parents do like it."

- From Craig Anderson, Director of Human Resources for Black & Veatch Energy and the Director of Employee Relations for all Black & Veatch divisions. His interests include collecting guitars, trying to play golf and travel.

“It was so great. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it. They all said that they learned new things about the museum and the art. They all said that they had just passed by some of the tour pieces before without actually taking a close look at them, especially Woman IV, Beaded Throne and the Han House. As we were walking back to the Bloch Lobby, they all mentioned that the tour made them want to come visit the Museum more often. A couple of them have let their Friends of Art memberships lapse and they plan to renew. I did not have to prompt them to get these responses.”

- From Gerry Becker, a general contractor who formerly specialized in high end residential renovations and is now interested in contemporary cabinetry & furniture making. His interests include gardening, geology and canoeing.

"I arrived for my tour a little frazzled and distracted. But meeting my group brought me immediately into focus. The 7 ladies who attended the tour could not have been more fun and charming! They didn’t have a lot of experience with art, but they were amazingly open-minded and wanted to learn everything they could.

“We did have to stop twice to rest, and thank heavens there are benches in the European and Chinese galleries where they could sit while we discussed the art. I’m also thankful I had done advance reconnaissance to know where the elevators were! We had a great time, and I left the ladies in the Rozzelle Court to enjoy a lovely lunch."

- From Merry Quackenbush who is retired from the corporate world, having worked for IBM and JP Morgan as well as running her own marketing and strategy consulting firm. Her interests include art, music (singing and composing) and dogs.

Recruitment for the next class of Museum Guides is in full swing. If you are interested, please attend an information session. The application deadline is Dec. 22, 2008. Interviews will begin in January.