This year, I’ve started a new role as a tour guide for the Zilkha Gallery, leading groups of local fourth graders through the new exhibit, DFT 2025. The show engages with how danger, power, visibility, and hiding interact in our social world. My colleagues and I delved into literature, scholarship, and concepts associated with the show to assemble a tour aimed to 11-year-olds rather than educated adults.
This task came with unique challenges. As an Art major and after a summer of cultural mediation as an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, I’m used to dialogue with other educated adults about complicated ideas transmitted through visual art. At the Zilkha gallery, our goal was to guide fourth graders through the contemporary art exhibit. That meant getting on their level. Quickly, I noticed behaviors, speech patterns, and vocabulary that were ill suited for and inaccessible to my young audience.
My colleagues and I used this opportunity to fine tune our message to be digestible for kids. Beyond giving us a chance to teach, we also have the ability to increase local students’ cultural capital. By asking the student’s questions and listening to their thoughtful responses, we make them feel more belonging in the museum space. I look forward to dedicating my career to this cause and I relish the opportunity to get started now.
