Tag Archives: volunteers
Ownership: Making the Woodson Your Art Museum
Posted on June 04, 2014
How can we nurture engagement and foster loyalty in our visitors? How can we engender in our volunteers a sense of pride in the Woodson Art Museum? These and other big-picture ideas and lofty aspirations take shape in various ways here – inclusive public programs accessible to all, enthusiastic and passionate staff, dynamic exhibitions, and pleasing public spaces, to name a few.
These are notions I consider when working with new volunteer greeters and docents and this spring has been filled with many volunteer training sessions. In addition to teaching incoming docents about Museum collections or art interpretation, it’s important to communicate our underlying identity: a thoughtful, progressive, and barrier-free institution that seeks to enhance lives through art for all visitors and the north central Wisconsin communities it serves.
Beyond the Recycled Runway
Posted on May 08, 2014
The Woodson Art Museum’s exhibition schedule is developed to provide visitors with rich visual arts experiences. As curator of exhibitions, I look for variety in building a diverse schedule to appeal to the broadest spectrum of visitors.
A couple of years ago, an exhibition of artist-designed clothes made of recycled materials caught my attention. Through research, I discovered a TED talk by the artist – and environmental advocate – Nancy Judd. In it, Nancy wore a yellow dress that she’d made from strips of plastic caution tape. She explained how her fashionable clothing made from trash was the perfect way to encourage people to recycle. After seeing the talk, I knew it would be a special exhibition.
