Visitor Services

In the last year, the composition of the visitor services team underwent a major transition from five security guards to eight highly engaged visitor services guides. As frontline communicators, these individuals welcomed over 40,000 visits to the Hood Museum galleries and helped countless students, community members, and other visitors have meaningful, transformational encounters with the collection. The visitor services area now employs digital platforms to keep demographics and share information, and the guides' appearance and conduct are shaped to invite engagement at whatever level the visitor desires. Gone are the days of itchy wool blazers and large walkie talkies, and, most importantly, of watching but seldom speaking. The guides are now encouraged to let the students and guests know that we are here for them.

To make sure the guides are equipped with the tools and information needed to engage in meaningful conversation with our visitors, they started training sessions with curators and attended docent training with the education staff. To enhance their institutional knowledge, they have enjoyed a direct liaison to the external relations area in the form of the visitor services coordinator, and they have started lending a hand in the work of other areas in the museum, including external relations (publications inventory and website updates), registration (public art checks, file labeling, data entry), education (prepping art-making materials and maintaining studio conditions), and curatorial (courier delivery). They also spent a lot of project time escorting construction workers throughout the building, allowing them to develop a different perspective on the facility that is valuable in their everyday responsibilities.