Crystal Bridges Museum offers volunteer positions

Opportunities vary, deadline for applications Friday

Niki Ciccotelli (right), director of education, and Eve Rosin, guided tour coordinator, speak Saturday inside the Bentonville Public Library at a volunteer guide information session at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Niki Ciccotelli (right), director of education, and Eve Rosin, guided tour coordinator, speak Saturday inside the Bentonville Public Library at a volunteer guide information session at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

— Cathy Alford is among those who live and breathe museums and art so much that they’re willing to work around them for free.

The Bella Vista resident is not alone, as more than 200 people have attended a series of three sessions on what it will take to become a trained volunteer for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is under construction in Bentonville.

Alford was among about 90 aspiring volunteers who attended the final session Saturday morning at the Bentonville Public Library.

For her, volunteering for Crystal Bridges would help recapture the joy she felt years ago when the arts were a big part of her life.

“I’m from Louisiana, and I volunteered at the MasurMuseum of Art in Monroe,” Alford, who now works in information technology for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said afterward. “I was very young.”

The time was her senior year in high school and her first couple of years as a college student studying art and architecture. Her duties at Masur included serving as a gallery guide, museum guide and all-round gofer, she said with a laugh.

She’s been watching the construction of Crystal Bridges progress while taking regular walks with her dog on a trail that overlooks the planned museum.

“I want to see that architecture from the inside,” Alford said.

Those who turned out Saturday learned about several types of volunteer opportunities with varying levels of skill, training and time commitments required.

The high-level ones are gallery guides and trail guides, akin to what some museums call docents.

A gallery guide will provide regularly scheduled, interactive tours of the artworks on view inside the museum’s galleries year-round, teaching visitors about the paintings and sculptures, as well as the museum’s architectural features.

A trail guide will take visitors on regularly scheduled tours of Crystal Bridges’ network of trails on a seasonal basis. Each trail guide will become a certified master gardener and will use this knowledge to teach visitors about the museum grounds’ flora and fauna, sculpture, and architecture, while at the same time getting in the volunteer hours required by the master gardener pro-gram.

The gallery guide position will differ from that of museum guide, in that the museum guide will work much like a concierge, offering general information to museum guests.

The museum guide will help visitors understand options for tours and events year round.

Those seeking to become gallery or trail guides must apply before 5 p.m. Friday, according to Crystal Bridges’ website. In addition, those positions require two different applications, the audience learned Saturday, and the museum will be asking for references.

Alford’s question from the audience drew some chuckles: “Are you looking for volunteer references, or museum references - or a neighbor who’ll say: ‘No, she’s not a serial killer’?”

Gallery and trail guides must commit to at least one year of service and an average 80-100 hours per year in approximate four-hour shifts.

The gallery and trail guides must complete a preopening training program sometime between January and November 2011, according to the website’s job descriptions that can be found at: crystalbridgesmuseum. org/public/volunteer.

Classes will take place one day a week for three weeks each month. In addition, both types of guides will be required to complete outside research and possibly other tour preparation, and more training will be required as the museum’s collection and trails change.

Museum guides also must commit to a minimum of oneyear of service and to working at least once a month for a shift lasting about three hours. They must complete a pre-opening customer-service training workshop at a date that has not yet been determined.

Aside from any special training, all museum volunteers must participate in basic volunteer training at least once annually. All must be at least 18 years old.

Other volunteer opportunities at Crystal Bridges include trail surveyors and “hands-on volunteers.”

Trail surveyors will observe trail usage, collecting statistical information and engaging a percentage of trail visitors in “conversational” surveys about their experience, according to the website job description. Their data will be used for planning and security assessment.

One phrase in the handson volunteer’s job description stands out.

“Not afraid of getting messy,” it reads.

The hands-on volunteers will help the Crystal Bridges staff with miscellaneous tasks, such as lifting, carrying and manipulating “diverse materials,” as well as preparing and cleaning up materials and work spaces for program activities.

The hands-on helpers will work two- to four-hour shifts at festivals and “handson” workshops. These volunteers will also assist the staff in welcoming visitors and telling them about program offerings. Besides the once-a-year annual training all museum volunteers must complete, the miscellaneoushelpers might be required to take extra training in specific art activities.

At Saturday’s session, the audience learned about the volunteer opportunities from three Crystal Bridges officials: Jennifer Dunham, head of volunteer programs; Niki Ciccotelli, director of education; and Eve Rosin, guided tour coordinator.

Ciccotelli and Rosin have worked at other museums in the country.

“There are very few museums that have guides as a paid position,” Ciccotelli said afterward, adding that volunteers often become “ambassadors” for the museum out in the community.

“We always find that, traditionally, these people are lifelong learners,” she said. Ciccotelli had told the audience she was interested in learning something herself - specifically in discovering the outdoor trails, being the “New Jersey girl” that she is.

Dunham said her background is in rallying and coordinating volunteers. Most recently, she did this in a job with the Head Start program in Northwest Arkansas for five years, having moved to the region six years ago when her husband went to work for Wal-Mart.

“I don’t have a museum background at all,” she said after the session. “My directive and my challenge is in identifying these people and finding what their strengths and interests are.”

For instance, she has found volunteers who are fluent in languages such as Spanish, French and Portuguese. But if and how these skills are put to use for the museum will depend on what the volunteers are interested in contributing, she said.

Dunham recalled that the first two volunteer information sessions drew about 60 and 65 people each, and that was in addition to the 90 that turned out Saturday.

“I’m mostly just blown away by the volunteers here,” Dunham said, adding that she also gets calls weekly from interested people.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 10/31/2010

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