Michelle Nichols Dock
Gallery Coordinator
City of Tempe Cultural Services
Tempe Center for the Arts: http://www.tempe.gov/tca

I'm honored to be working the outstanding educators of the AVC. Everyone involved has been a tremendous resource of information and support. My thanks go out to the docents at ASU Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and the new charter docents at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Because of them, I learn something new everyday. Ten years ago, I met Mary Erickson as a student and today I am able to call her a colleague and a friend. She is a mentor and inspiration and in my opinion, one of the most influential art educators of our time.

I've been fascinated by the Viewpoints exercise and the ideas behind it for several years. At first I was intrigued that a little 20 minute exercise could tell me so much about my understanding of art. Years later and after training a number of docents and students, I've come to realize that the exercise echoes the critical thinking skills that art museum docents do in tours on a regular basis. Docents ask questions to learn about their audience, instigate discussion and/or teach new ideas. They train for months and years to gain knowledge about art history, art criticism and teaching methods.

For me and my docents in training at the TCA, Viewpoints and Erickson's Inquiry Map Checklist help make the overwhelming amounts of information that docents must absorb, make more sense. It helps to organize ideas, questions and discussion topics into unique patterns that can be manipulated for each tour group. It isn't information that can be absorbed overnight or with one exercise. But used over time and in a variety of circumstances- it can become an internalized framework of ideas from which to teach in a museum.

Mary Erickson PH.D.
Professor of Art Education
Arizona State University
Mary Erickson's Website: http://www.MaryEricksonVentures.com

Professors at several major universities have incorporated Viewpoints into undergraduate and graduate art education courses and into art museum education courses. I have found that Viewpoints provides a conceptual framework that can be used in various situations from art teacher preparation, to museum docent training, to graduate research studies. The Viewpoints theory for understanding art (Erickson & Clover, 2003) builds on the research of Michael Parsons (1987). Faith Clover (University of Minnesota) and I also drew on the work of numerous other scholars who have studied ideas people use to help them understand unfamiliar artworks. Unlike traditional developmental stage theories, we regard Viewpoints as understandings about art that are acquired over time, first spontaneously and later through education or experience. As individuals attain additional Viewpoints, they retain earlier ones, thereby building a repertoire of possible ways of responding to works of art.

Recently, Pat Villeneuve (Florida State University) and I (2006) used Viewpoints to guide our analysis of art education decisions makers' concerns about teaching religious art in elementary and secondary art classes. With the support of the National Art Education Foundation, we are currently analyzing results of a study of the bases preservice art teachers use to judge art, drawing implications for art teacher preparation programs. We are also using Viewpoints to analyze concerns art teachers may have when they make selections of contemporary artworks to present in their classrooms.

I look forward to exploring new applications and continuing to explore research possibilities through the Arizona Viewpoints Collaborative.

Carolyn Robbins
Curator of Education
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art: http://www.smoca.org

The Viewpoints exercise is a valuable tool for docents and museum educators in that it sets forth and clearly describes a variety of approaches that museum visitors bring to works of art. Much was learned during the pilot project, and as a result several worksheets were developed by the collaborative team that will streamline and simplify Viewpoints training. Further experimentation will be critical as we continue to assess the most advantageous use of Viewpoints in the museum setting. At SMoCA, the Viewpoints concept will be introduced to new docent trainees as an initial gallery activity to enlighten them as to what they may expect of visitors when they become touring docents.

Veteran SMoCA docents will also participate in a "refresher" Viewpoints exercise each fall when they return after the summer hiatus, and references to the use of Viewpoints during touring will be incorporated into Docent Self-Evaluation and Docent Performance Review forms. SMoCA docents are highly trained and are rigorously reviewed in a number of aspects of touring strategy (such as tour goals, objectives, theme, use of open-ended questions, transitions, etc.) so Viewpoints will be an additional tool at their disposal. Through Viewpoints, it is hoped that they will better perceive visitors' perspectives and "move" them on to a broader understanding of contemporary art.

Laura Stewart
Curator of Education
Arizona State University Art Museum
ASU Art Museum: http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu

Through my experience with the Arizona Viewpoints Collaborative research project (AVC), I gained a better understanding of the ways in which a docent trainer/educator can use "Viewpoints" as a tool to help novice, mid-level and veteran docent better prepare for, give, and reflect on, tours. I use and will continue to use the "Viewpoints" introductory exercise early in docent training courses as a means to expose a new docent to the ways in which he or she might approach a specific work of art, how different museum audiences might approach that artwork, and how a particular work might affect the "Viewpoint" employed. With intermediate-stage docents (training course graduates, but less than ten tours given), I will revisit the "Viewpoints" exercise by using the "Docent Journal" and "Docent Reflection Worksheet" in order to further reinforce the value of the "Viewpoints" tool as both an audience indicator (pre-tour) and assessor (post-tour). In addition, the reflection and journaling activities assist mid-career docents to consider and analyze their own tour planning, preparedness and performance levels. For veteran docents, I will also employ the "Viewpoints Planning Guide" and "Reflection Guide" for tours as these will further strengthen good docent behavior through the adoption of personal inquiry and discovery skills prior to giving tours, application of visual arts education standards during tours, and exemplary communication about a variety of works of art with multiple audiences and with fellow docents. "Viewpoints" has proven instrumental in the ASU Art Museum's docent program: it provides educators with a method applicable to developing docent training, touring, and evaluation techniques.

Design Team:
Viewpoints Icons: Artist Larry Yanez accentrixart@aol.com
Website: Lisa Sipe and Star Dot Star Star Dot Star