The minneapolis institute of art will merge its existing docent and guide programs and implement a new training program for volunteer guides that supports audience-specific learning needs, enhances…

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts received a $142,819 Project Grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the National Leadership Grants program to merge and expand its docent and guide programs. The museum will implement a new volunteer guide training program to support audience-specific learning needs, enhance guides' cultural fluency skills, and introduce new tour topics. The training will help guides incorporate greater cultural responsiveness and an anti-racist lens into virtual and in-person tours for PreK-12 students and adult learners. By request, the museum will also develop new school tour topics around social-emotional learning, identity, empathy, and social activism. The grant aims to diversify the makeup of museum guides and include more diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion and belonging resources across programs and services. The one-year project period extends from November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022.

The minneapolis institute of art will merge its existing docent and guide programs and implement a new training program for volunteer guides that supports audience-specific learning needs, enhances guides' cultural fluency skills, and implements new tour topics. The museum aims to diversify the makeup of its guides and include more diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion, and belonging resources in its programs and services. Informed by a programmatic pivot to virtual learning as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the new guide program will serve pre-K through 12TH-grade students and adult, university, and multigenerational audiences through in-person or virtual tours. The new training will help guides incorporate greater cultural fluency and responsiveness into their touring using an anti-racist lens. By teacher request, the museum will also introduce new tour topics for school audiences when in-person tours reopen in 2022, including social-emotional learning, identity, empathy, and social activism.