University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art seeks docents

IOWA CITY — In anticipation of its fall 2022 reopening, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is relaunching its docent program. Museum docents will be ambassadors to the community and will play an important role as tour guides in a new era of the institution.

The museum is seeking a diverse group of qualified individuals to engage the community, teach, learn, and appreciate differing viewpoints. Formal or informal experience teaching K-12 students is required. A background in studio art or art history is helpful, but not mandatory.

Longtime museum docent Jude Langhurst recalls one of the highlights of her experience:

“I was presenting our classroom collection of American Indian art to a fifth-grade art class. As I was talking about the meaning of some symbols on Southwestern pottery a student began waving his hand enthusiastically. I called on him, he grinned and said, "I have a powwow blanket with that on it." I asked about his blanket and he explained that his family traveled to powwows and his prized possession was a blanket with art that was similar to what I was presenting.

He was most proud that his family owned something so important that it deserved to be part of a museum's holdings. And I was even more proud to have been able to share something so meaningful to that young fellow and his family.”