16 March 7th–March 13th, 2019 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | mUsIC | CAFe | FILm | CULtURe | nIght+DAy | FEATURE | neWs | oPInIon | FeeDBACK | Contents | membership saw no drastic change. But are things really so dire in docent land? It certainly seems that way, though we may never know. Asked to discuss what’s good about their program since it was folded into the museum’s education pro- gram in 2017, the Phoenix Art Museum do- cent leadership team declined, expressing “concerns about being a part of something that they felt was aimed at presenting a negative view of Phoenix Art Museum and a docent program that they treasure dearly.” The group’s current past presi- dent, Judy Steers, had already weighed in during a phone conversation monitored by the museum’s assistant director of market- ing, Margaree Bigler. “There were more docents who did not renew their membership this year than usual,” Steers admitted. “But I’m not aware of why that might be.” Steers claims she “hasn’t spoken to any one individual” about why so many do- cents are running for the door. She speaks of leaving as “an opportunity.” “People need to go to the happy place,” she offers. “The adjustments made in mu- seum protocol may offer an opportunity for docents to feel they have served the community.” Bigler interrupts to suggest that many docents may have left because more docent tours are being given these days. “Maybe increased activity is not what they are looking for at the moment.” There are so many reasons docents might be leaving in droves, according to Bi- gler. “Maybe there’s a health issue,” she suggests. “Or maybe they have recently moved.” “That’s bullshit,” Cathy Swan says. “One hundred people didn’t get sick, 100 people didn’t move, and docents don’t leave be- cause the workload increases. This wasn’t an opportunity to leave. We were marginal- ized, treated like servants, and no one was listening to our concerns. So we went else- where to find ways to contribute.” Among those concerns was how the docent training has been whittled away at, a point echoed by docents and defended by Cruz. The old training lasted two years and offered a crash course in art history which, many say, was the equivalent of a master’s degree. “That first year was very intense,” Mill- man says. “You had mentors, consultants, you went from doing a five-minute talk to a 10-minute talk, then a half-hour. You were reviewed, and the standards were very high. The second year you wrote and re- searched and presented outside the mu- seum. You learned PowerPoint and how to tour a classroom of kids.” Today, the docent training has been simplified and trimmed by a third in its du- ration (though it’s still longer than most similar trainings at other big-city muse- ums) and is geared more toward engaging museum visitors and less about educating them. The new docents are trained, Sáenz Oriti says, to ask what patrons think of the art, rather than only imparting information about it. “It’s a great model when you’re working with kids,” Swan admits. “But adults take our tours. And they ask questions. Deflect- ing implies you don’t know the answer.” So the docents fell back on their exten- sive knowledge of the collection, Swan says, and kept on answering questions. The people running the museum, she believes, saw that as rebellious. Is it better for docents to know less about art history, to ask questions rather than answer them? Madelyn Mayberry, vice president of the National Docent Symposium Council, wouldn’t say. “It is not in keeping with our mission to ana- lyze the administration of individual do- cent programs,” she wrote in an email, “nor to collect data with regard to admin- istrative practices.” There are currently 16 enrolled in the museum’s docent trainee program, ac- cording to Bigler; trainee groups are capped at between 25 and 30. Longtime master docent William Lykins isn’t wor- ried that these trainees are learning less art history. “I’ve heard docents aren’t using a text- book anymore, but the new docents I’ve worked with the last two years have been really good,” he says. “They’re doing good work.” Sure, Millman says. They’re just not do- ing much art educating. “I am so embarrassed to be at the center of all this,” she confesses, wiping away more tears. “I was just the first. They sin- gled me out for challenging them. But I look like a meek little old lady, right?” Millman wonders why Cruz thought it was a good idea to target a beloved docent for challenging the system. Swan says she’s not at all confused by Cruz’s action. “She was sending a message,” Swan says, indignantly. “She was saying, ‘Get out of my way. I’m in control.’ She didn’t just disrespect us. She spat upon us.” O n a recent rainy Thursday, a group of mostly out-of-towners visits the Phoenix Art Museum for an after- noon tour of the contemporary art wing. Sara, the young docent leading the tour, greets each participant personally, refer- ring to them as “guys” even though most are female. As the tour commences, Sara speaks to this group of 18 in the lilting up- speak favored by many young American women, so that most of her statements sound like questions. “Yayoi Kusama’s You Who Are Get- ting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies is a permanent installation?” Sara tells the group. “And we’re going to walk through it in just a bit?” The museum visitors seem happy, and appear not to care when Sara doesn’t know the answers to some of their ques- tions, like what mental illness Kusama suffers from or whether Cornelia Parker’s Mass, an installation piece made from bits of charred wood, is chemically treated. It isn’t her fault that most of her description of the Kehinde Wylie painting is drowned out by a hydraulic lift on the first floor, and no one notices that she asks more questions of the crowd (“What does James Turrell’s Mohl Ip make you feel?”) than she imparts information. Afterward, a retired couple from Indi- ana named Jen and David waits outside for their Uber. They enjoyed seeing the mu- seum, they tell a man who’d been on the tour with them, especially the armory show and the cloud of black paper moths in the lobby. But aren’t they concerned, the man asks, that the docent who’d toured them through the modern and contemporary collections asked more questions than she answered? “Oh, not at all,” Jen chuckles. “We’ve traveled the world, see, and we’ve been to many museums. This is a second-tier mu- seum, so our expectations were pretty low.” David jumps in. “And anyway, it was nice to see a young person volunteering at a museum. It makes you forget that after people our age are gone, no one is gonna be here to support these places.” I f it’s a lousy idea to piss off a bunch of people who work for free, it’s an even worse idea to go after the volunteer or- ganizations who’ve supported that mu- seum for decades — with artistic and financial goodwill, and community bridge- building, and by purchasing art for that museum. Where the Phoenix Art Museum had, for decades, as many as 11 different art support organizations, it now has two. Most were folded after Cruz arranged for the organizations, long autonomous, to be overseen by the museum staff. The Women’s Art League was among the first casualties, followed by Friends of European Art; In Focus, a photographic art group; Friends of Latin American Art; the Men’s Art Council; Friends of Asian Art; and Contemporary Forum, perhaps the best-known of the groups. French Thomp- son was its past president. “They’re all gone now, those and oth- ers,” Thompson says. “Amada and her crew went to each of the groups and said, ‘We’re bringing you in-house.’ They wanted con- trol of our money and were going to use it how they saw fit.’” In a letter dated December 2016, Cruz explained to volunteers that she’d con- sulted with attorneys who recommended the museum corral its support organiza- tions, to bring them in-house for safekeep- ing. All that autonomy was a bad risk, Cruz says. She seemed surprised to learn, upon arriving at the museum, that there so very many such groups. “I thought 11 support groups was a lot of support groups,” she says. “Many of them had been around for decades, which is a wonderful accomplishment, but every- thing has its life cycle.” Cruz appears to have been worried that the creaky old sup- After 20 years of volunteer service, former Phoenix Art Museum docent Nancy Millman was fired—in an email. Jim Louvau Museum from p 15 >> p 18
