National Gallery of Art To Suspend School Tours

Education Programs Will Be Reevaluated

The National Gallery of Art is suspending its school tours for the next academic year as part of a general reevaluation of its educational programs.

The guided tours served 34,000 students last year.

Specially trained docents lead the school groups through the gallery, and the 106 volunteers are being temporarily disbanded. The gallery says the program will resume after being on "hiatus" for the upcoming school year.

The number of children taking the guided tours has been decreasing while the number touring without a guide has been increasing, according to the gallery.

"It is something we have been considering, and what we really are thinking about is how we can better serve our school audience," said Lynn Russell, the head of the gallery's division of education. "Our gut feeling is that there are too many children here we are not helping."

In a letter to the docents, Russell said the museum hadn't taken a hard look at the education programs in a decade, and it was time. "To this end, over the next eighteen months, staff will reflect on our successes, analyze our challenges, and examine best practices in the field of museum education," Russell wrote.

The gallery has had school programs for 55 years and spent $4 million on educational efforts last year.

There are several other intensive education programs at the museum that will continue. The museum received national attention for an initiative called "Art Around the Corner," a program with several District elementary schools that brings students to the gallery for a series of structured visits and sends gallery experts to the schools for classroom instruction. There is also a program of high school seminars and workshops that will continue.

Russell said there has not been any talk of giving other education programs a "hiatus." "The places where we really wanted to make changes have to do with the school programs. The best way was to take a break from the single-visit school tours," said Russell.

On a typical visit, the school docents take a group on a tour that has a particular focus, such as Renaissance painting. The docents discuss the artists, their styles and subjects as well as what life was like in general and for the artists at that particular time. One docent said the training classes were rigorous, and she spent hours preparing for the tours, in addition to the years of classroom experience she brings to her narration.

In the Fairfax schools, about 12,000 sixth-graders take a field trip to the gallery during the school year.

"It provides a museum experience for our students," said Bettyann Plishker, an art instruction specialist in the fine arts office for the county public schools. "In addition, the tour was designed to make connections with what they are learning in school. So while they were exposed to works of art, they were connected to their schoolwork." Because of the National Gallery's suspension of its tours, "I am weighing options and looking at other venues for school tours. I have not made any specific plans," she said.

Rosalie Lesser, a former Fairfax teacher and docent for 14 years, said the suspension leaves a void in the lives of the students. "These children, many of whom are disadvantaged, will be deprived of the experience of coming to the museum," she said.

D.J. Young, a docent for 10 years and a former librarian at Beauvoir elementary school in Northwest Washington, said: "I don't understand why they have to suspend the program while they are looking at it."

The museum plans to create a hot line for teachers who are planning trips to the museum. A National Gallery educator will answer questions about visiting the museum. Brochures for self-guided tours will be available.

The gallery's program of guided tours for adults will remain unchanged.