ALEX BORTOLOT
Deputy Director
Hood Quarterly, fall 2025
The galleries were humming with visitors on a recent Saturday this spring. Many had come to see the two Monet landscapes and Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light). Others were simply looking for something to do on a rainy day. One young family of three was visiting from Puerto Rico, on a camping trip in the White Mountains. They sought refuge from their cold, damp tent and spent over an hour creating flowers in Make Space before going on a scavenger hunt. Another group requested a wheelchair. The needs of their elder met, they spent a comfortable afternoon in Beyond the Bouquet. Many visitors took advantage of the coat racks and lockers to stow their wet coats and umbrellas. Nearly all had been engaged by knowledgeable visitor services guides (VSGs) at the welcome desk when they first arrived. In brief, friendly exchanges, VSGs asked about their needs and interests and offered options for an enjoyable visit.
From Gallery Guards to Visitor Services Guides
When I first worked at the Hood Museum, in 2008, gallery guards' roles centered squarely on security, and they were trained to protect the safety of both the visitors and the artworks. Though they were among the nicest people I knew at the Hood, their dark pants and blazers said "don't touch that" more than "welcome to the museum!" Things changed when the museum closed in 2017 for its renovation and expansion while opening an outpost on Main Street called Hood Downtown. In this more intimate setting, encounters between guards and visitors began to shift: visitors turned to guards for information about the artworks on view and the artists who created them. The newly reopened Hood's Russo Atrium, with its lounge-like seating, staffed welcome desk, digital signage, and coat room, signaled the complete metamorphosis of the gallery guard position to a more visitor services– focused role. Our VSGs now support visitors' experiences of the museum by understanding their needs and connecting them to helpful information and amenities while also ensuring their safety during their visit.
Visitor Experience: A Shared Responsibility
Visitor Services became its own department this year, a change that signals the emphasis we place on this aspect of our work and the staff responsible for carrying it out. As a museum, our vision is to better integrate our current work to, on the one hand, better understand our visitors— who they are, why they come, and what they experience while at the Hood—and, on the other, offer new opportunities, amenities, and services that are responsive to their needs and preferences. As the team that engages most directly and consistently with the public, Visitor Services collaborates across the museum to provide internal leadership on visitor experience as it is put into practice in our spaces.
For the visitor, the evidence of this deeper integration of our vision can take very tangible and immediate forms, like the rollout of experimental offerings such as the Cara Romero audio tour or Gallery Go Packs for groups visiting with children. Other impacts will be felt more gradually over time as Visitor Services takes a more active role observing, analyzing, and reporting on visitor behaviors and preferences, then helps design and deploy tools like the Hood's Visitor Exit Survey, used to gather and analyze visitor information. The museum's mission calls on us to center art and people in what we do, and our deeper integration of visitor experience in our work helps us stay true to that ideal.