Los Angeles Museum Guide fired
Sandberg, Lorna
In our local paper an article about a Los Angeles art museum guide being
fired was published. Apparently, an art exhibit at the Los Angeles
County of Museum of Art had an exhibit depicting a first sexual
experience, and the guide felt it was appropriate to explain the exhibit
to a touring Grade 5 class, as she had been doing for the past 5 years.
My question is, does anyone know whether the museum had a job
description, orientation, training, policy and evaluation process in
place? If so, what was the procedure? Do the guides have a script to
work off of, or cautions when working with children? I am currently
selling the idea in my organization that these things are necessary to
make sure the volunteer knows what are the expectations of the
organization.
Thank you for your help.
Lorna Sandberg
Coordinator of Volunteers
Regina Public School Board
lsan...@rbe.sk.ca
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Channing Hillway, Ph.D.
Channing Hillway, Ph.D.
My original response to you seems to have come through with only the
heading. Since writing it, I have heard the terminated docent on KCRW-FM, the
local NPR affiliate from Santa Monica. I have added the new information below.
Yes. An article in the the Los Angeles Times indicated that the docent had
been following the approved text, with the exception that she answered one or
more
questions of the fifth grade girls. One of the girls asked something like (not
a quote) how the couple depicted (all one can see is feet and legs through the
open
door of an automobile) felt about what they were doing and the docent
responded with something like (not a quote) that they were probably enjoying
themselves.
The docent has had her picture in several newspaper stories and has been
on the local television news. She comes out looking somewhat a victim in the
whole
thing since she was fired. And she was.
Protection for school boards, schools and other public institutions is
needed. The level of sophistication in the general public regarding the arts
and behavior in
general is mixed, with the lowest common factor yelling the loudest when
something like this happens. Most parents, I believe, would have thought
little of it. All
teenagers, I suspect, have some sort of sexual experience in a car, even if
it's just light necking. The problem here is that one parent strongly objected
and the
administration of the museum didn't just refer the docent for education and
reorientation, but fired her.
The administration, in my view, is at fault for not properly warning and
educating its docents to the perils of speaking too frankly to a group of
students from
mixed backgrounds where very conservative values might take offense to even a
rather offhand remark. They protected themselves by firing the docent to make
themselves look better in the face of the criticism.
The appropriate response: "The artist created the picture so that each
person viewing it could form his or her own opinion and respond to it in his
or her own
way. It's up to you to decide what you think."
Yes, she was following the manual. Mainly. Yes, she gave a slightly
inappropriate response, but she did it innocently. Was she properly educated
and supported
by her organization? Definitely not!
From the radio interview: The docent, in describing how she presented the
artwork to the girls, was vital and energetic and provided, probably, too much
information for fifth graders. Yet, her comments were all appropriate to the
work of art and did ask the girls to try to understand what the artist had to
say, pointing out that empty beer cans around the car suggested that the
sexual experience in the car -- the artist's first -- had been a loser since
he and his partner were both plastered. The artist, she said, conveyed that he
felt nothing during the experience because of the overconsumption of alcohol.
Obviously, every family in America will have a slightly different take on
whether such an explanation was appropriate for fifth graders. I take it as a
morality play on the consumption of alcohol. Others will see it as a double
evil portraying the consumption of alcohol and sex in a car as acceptable, or
at least common behaviors in adolescent life. The fifth graders (I know the
age well) will each have their own take on it, ranging from bored disinterest
to wondering just what was going on in the car that was unseen.
She also explains to everyone, even the adults, that the picture was a
scandal to some in the community when it was first mounted in the museum, some
30 or so years ago. She checked with the adults who were escorting the girls,
visually, as she moved through her presentation, to see if their nonverbal
communication suggested she should proceed. I put little stock in such
checking as the most offended often make a great show of being unmoved and
remain totally unresponsive until later when they complain to authorities.
In listening to her, I got the impression that she may not fit in with the
culture of the docents at the museum and that her forthright nature may have
made some others uncomfortable. Her supervisor, according to the interview
host, claimed that there had been other complaints. Her response was that such
a story was simply a lie and that she had never been informed of any other
complaints. Of course, the supervisor may have been saving up complaints
without informing the docent -- an unethical practice in my view -- to have
enough ammo to lower the boom at an opportune moment, which obviously has come
about.
Bottom line is still incompetent management of the docents. The process
that is unfolding in the media is one of very old fashioned management rather
than one of team building. It is designed to keep authority in the hands of a
supervisor and to keep others defensive and on their toes, which is an
invitation to problems such as the one that occurred. My recommendation is the
supervisor should agree to undergo appropriate management training or be
replaced.
Best wishes,
Channing
--
Channing Hillway, Ph.D.
ARISTARCUS COMMUNICATION
• Organizational Systems & Policy, Interpersonal Communication,
Conflict Resolution, Problem Solving & Leveraging
• Educational & Informational Multimedia Productions
• Organizational Development & Grant writing for NPOs & NGOs
Post Office Box 5329, Ventura CA USA
chan...@rain.org
"Sandberg, Lorna" wrote:
Hello,
In our local paper an article about a Los Angeles art museum guide being
fired was published. Apparently, an art exhibit at the Los Angeles
County of Museum of Art had an exhibit depicting a first sexual
experience, and the guide felt it was appropriate to explain the exhibit
to a touring Grade 5 class, as she had been doing for the past 5 years.
My question is, does anyone know whether the museum had a job
description, orientation, training, policy and evaluation process in
place? If so, what was the procedure? Do the guides have a script to
work off of, or cautions when working with children? I am currently
selling the idea in my organization that these things are necessary to
make sure the volunteer knows what are the expectations of the
organization.
Thank you for your help.
Lorna Sandberg
Coordinator of Volunteers
Regina Public School Board
lsan...@rbe.sk.ca
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Timothy Jaques
________________
Timothy Jaques tja...@netcom.ca
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." (J. Danforth Quayle)