Aldrich Student Docent Program

Marks Its Ten-Year Anniversary

RIDGEFIELD — The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its nationally-recognized Student Docent Program on Friday, April 24, from 6 to 8 pm.

The innovative program is a collaboration between The Aldrich and participating schools, which allows students and their peers to interact with the museum and its educators first-hand to stimulate adept visual thinking. Hailed as a national model in museum education and used as a standard for museum student docent programs across the country, The Aldrich Museum’s Student Docent Program began through collaboration with just one Ridgefield school in 1993 and today accommodates students from fifth to twelfth grades in over 45 schools in 16 surrounding towns.

Founded by museum director Harry Philbrick while he was the director of education in 1993, the program has forged important relationships between the museum, teachers, and students. The Student Docent Program promotes an intimate, friendly and supportive environment where conversation flows freely with no right or wrong answers.

Trained by a Museum educator using open-ended and observation-based techniques, students are encouraged to share their ideas, opinions, and excitement as they learn about the artworks.  Following five training sessions with an educator, the student docents guide their class in small groups through the museum while engaging them in discussions of the exhibition.

Mr Philbrick based the program on a study completed by the Museum of Modern Art, which concluded that classroom teachers were more effective in communicating about art with students than museum professionals due to the rapport they already shared and the teacher’s ability to relate the artwork to topics studied in school.

Taking this one step further, Mr Philbrick decided to place students in the center of the experience by making them the teachers.  Thus the other students would learn about the exhibitions and artworks directly from their peers. The creation of this learning-friendly environment in the museum’s galleries has enabled students from as young as fifth grade to as old as twelfth grade to relate the art to their everyday lives, and to share that learning experience with their peers.

The future of Aldrich’s Student Docent Program has been ensured by two generous grants received in 2002 from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Smart Family Foundation.  With over 200 inquiries from other institutions on how to set up a similar program, these grants will enable The Aldrich Museum to aid institutions throughout the country to develop their own student docent programs.  This initiative will include the development of materials and events designed for a national museum education audience.

A training video currently being filmed, complete with tool kit and the practical details necessary to run the program, and the formulation of a national institute on student docent programs, involving educators from a variety of museums and schools, are planned.  In order to increase awareness of this program throughout the museum community, Aldrich educators will present the program initiative at national and regional museum conferences – and ultimately at the projected Student Docent Institute –over the next two years.

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art is at 258 Main Street in Ridgefield. Regular museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 pm.