Another element of being an Explainer is leading the group tours that book so heavily during the summer months. The majority of these tours consist of school children in programs, and we are one of their visits in a summer of field trips. There are other tour groups that are filled with high school or college chemistry students eager to learn intricate details about glassmaking. Then there is the occasional tour that is filled with foreign exchange students ready to not only learn about the glass, but also learn English. Every tour is unique and a challenge in its own special way. But I also look at it as an opportunity. It’s my chance to present the museum’s collection in the best—and most interesting—way possible.
For so many of the kids I have given tours to, that was their first time visiting CMoG, and it may very well be their last. I consider it a privilege to show them around and shed a little light into the astounding world of glass. So many of the pieces in our collection have extraordinary stories behind them. I love to get the kids involved and ask lots of questions. “What do you think the artist was feeling when she designed this piece?” “Do you have any idea how much this piece weighs?” “What does this piece say to you?”
Sure, I play the games we have for our school tours. We’ve done the “Be a Designer” tour for years to go along with the “You Design It, We Make It” hot glass show. “What did you think about when you drew your picture for the glass show?” I’d ask. “Well, what things does a designer have to think about when getting ready to make a piece of glass?” We talk about color, size, texture, shape and even description. I show cards containing the silhouette of a piece of glass in our Modern gallery and have the kids find it. “Is that what you thought you’d find when I showed you this image?” I ask. Many times, they’ll say no—they thought when I showed them the black image of the tiny rabbit that looks almost stone-like in reality, that it’d be a “large purple bunny.” I have them describe what they see. “So a designer needs to have a lot more than the shape picked out before making his piece, right?” Later on, we play another game where I remind them about the descriptions they gave of the pieces they found in the shape game, and I tell them I will now describe a piece to them and they have to find it. “You found it pretty fast, so was that a good description?” It all works out rather well.
But what I’ve found over the past four years of giving this tour is that the more I put into it, the more we all get out of it. The energy level I put in, and the excitement I have about the glass, makes the kids equally excited and engaged. It’s the difference between having an awful tour (that requires a good fifteen-minute break and time with a stress ball afterward) and a fantastic learning experience for everyone involved. Don’t get me wrong—I speak from personal experience with the stress ball, as sometimes a bad tour just happens. Kids aren’t interested or they’re misbehaving—and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. But I’ve recently discovered that if you’re passionate about what you’re discussing, for kids, the games are just gravy.
For the tours I’ve given already this summer, I really haven’t depended too much on games, like I did the first couple summers of tours. Having worked here so long, I have favorite pieces that always evoke great responses from kids. I tell stories in an exciting way that not only entertains those on my tour, but also helps them retain the information. Many times, at the end of a tour, I’ll ask everyone to give me one piece of information they learned. It always amazes me when it’s not a typical response like, “Some of this glass is really old.” Six-year-olds tell me, “Glass is naturally green because of iron.” “The big (Tiffany) stained glass window is really not stained glass—it’s colored glass.” “The piece with the man who looks like he follows you does that because he’s engraved on the back.” And one of my favorites is not so much a fact as, in my opinion, a very accurate observation, “Josh Simpson (who made the Megaplanet) is one cool guy.”
All in all, the job of an Explainer may not be the easiest one, but, at least for me, it has been more rewarding than I ever could have dreamed. While some may begin the training program thinking only about having a summer job, it quickly becomes so much more. When I first started working at the museum, I remember thinking how cool it was that I was getting paid to do something I loved. And five years later, I’m happy to say that feeling hasn’t changed a bit.
~Kim Price
kimprice
