We are currently seeking prospective docents!
We encourage candidates from all backgrounds and disciplines to apply to be part of this program.
Docents are volunteer tour guides who interpret works of art and lead tours for a diverse audience of adults, families and school students. As a docent for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, you will provide the personal contact between works of art and our museum visitors. Scholars have deemed PAFA’s one of the world’s three best collections of American art for its depth, breadth, and quality, and we are excited to build a docent organization that reflects the diversity and quality of our art collection. After successfully completing a multi-week art history course on PAFA’s collection, candidates for docent will embark on a training schedule that gives them both the knowledge and the skills to enliven the history of PAFA for all visitors and to provide unique and thrilling experiences for the public.
Qualifications:
- A boundless love for the arts and history
- Availability to give tours at least one day a week
- Previous volunteer or job experience interacting with people
- Access to a computer
- Interest and ability to dialogue with groups of adults or children for up to an hour in the galleries
- Enthusiasm, maturity, common sense, dedication, initiative and reliability
- Ability to make information accessible and interesting to others
- Age 21 or older
Requirements:
Docents and docent candidates must agree to be members of PAFA and to keep their membership current during their tenure as volunteers here. Each docent candidate will be expected to give at least two years of service after completing their training at PAFA, which consists of a minimum of 30 tour hours each year and attendance at 2-3 meetings each month.
Benefits:
- Private, preparatory walkthroughs of exhibitions led by curators and staff
- Complimentary catalogues for some major exhibitions
- Special discounts on other catalogues and merchandise at Portfolio, the Academy gift shop, and in the Museum Café
- Access to behind-the-scenes experiences like tours of the vaults or the Cast Hall, use of the student library, and use of the docent research room
- Invitations to some special events, including lectures and exhibition openings
- Educational trips to see collections and museums off-site
And of course, the gift of life-long learning for yourselves and those visitors whose lives you touch.
Current Docents:
Edith Agard
Barbara Anderson
Bruce Anderson
Nancy Barness
Maxine Brodo
Larry Chestnut
Susan Couch
Carol Denmark
Sheila Ellman
Rochelle Felixon
Janet Fink
Ruth Fischl
Marsha Friedman |
Jerilyn Getson
Harriet Goodwin
Miriam Grossman
Sharline Heller
Elaine Jaffe
Maris Kobb
Joyce Krain
Beth LeBow
Tamar Levin
Audrey Litto
Shirlee Maglietta
Jane Mason
Mary Monteith |
Naida Mosenkis
Joan Naide
Joan Quann
Reva Rose
Lee Rothberg
Ruth Rothman
Renee Saul
JoAnn Simon
Jane Slater
Richard Wechsler
Rochelle Kaufman-Yalowitz
Patricia Zolfaghari |