Every docent who took their complaint to the press knew, or should have known, that this is our political context. We get the appeal of ripping off the Band-Aid, but the resultant optics, not to mention the human cost of supporters feeling devalued, clearly was not fully considered. Not surprisingly, many of AICs docents have been older white women who love art, have the time to be trained, and can afford to work for free. var expirationMinutes = settings.expiration_minutes; , link = document.createElement('link'); You cant rebuild from the ground up without getting rid of the people on the top. } CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced today that Veronica Stein will be the museum's new Woman's Board Executive Director, Learning and Public Engagement. Photo: Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago. // Hide the errors The Federalist uniquely features sharp writing from people from many walks of life who hail from across the United States and world. Californias City of Compton Gets Its Own Museum, These Miniature Artworks Prove That Its the Little Things In Life, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. and the Democracy of Printing, Onassis AiR Invites Applications for 20232024 Tailor-Made Residencies in Athens, The Society Photographer of NYCs Downtown Underground, Call for Applications: Singapore International Foundations Arts for Good Projects, A Crowd-Sourced Archive of Our Oceans Plastics, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. found = true; // Submit the form Thus, in September, Veronica Stein, the executive director of learning and public engagement at AICs Womens Board, fired all 82 docents and abruptly ended the 60-year-old docent program. She is the Womans Board executive director of learning and engagement. Since the AIC presumably doesnt have enough staff to provide the breadth and depth of tours and services that the docent corps did for the last six decades, future visitors to AIC should be prepared for a mediocre experience. if (window.jQuery) { Perhaps the docents should have seen the ax coming in Veronica Steins statement when she took the job on March 19, 2021. Most likely, the Art Institutes docent program was one such ideologically pure bubble. Thanks to the woke Veronica Stein, that bubble just burst. There is no question that the Art Institute of Chicagoand all museumsneed to diversify. In gratitude for their long, unpaid serviceaveraging 15 years eachthe Art Institute offered the involuntarily retired guides a two-year free pass to the museum. Once the docents were essential; now, they were critics. return o; A docent is a trained volunteer guide whose expertise turns a quick museum visit into a meaningful experience. All Rights Reserved.var w = Math.max(document.documentElement.clientWidth, window.innerWidth || 0), Almost all were retired white women. throw Error('onSuccess callback is required'); Not because the museum was closing. // dataType: 'json', while (c.charAt(0)==' ') { Read it. Museum educator Nicole Bond leads a conversation with young people at the Smart Museum in front of Emmanuel Pratt and Sweet Water Foundations, The intention to rebuild from the ground up,, Paulo Freire called the banking concept of education, Earn Your MFA in Studio: Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Launches 50+ Art and Design Summer Courses, Touring San Franciscos Asian Art Museum in Sign Language, London Hospital Removes Gaza Childrens Art to Placate Pro-Israel Group. Each client who comes into our showroom gets personally measured and fit with included styling services. } expiration_minutes: 5 The writer blathers on about your years of dedication to your job, their gratitude for all you have done for all this time, and then hits you with some self-justifying jargon: the need to update systems, maybe, or the need to rebuild or better serve someone or some group. In pursuit of 'diversity,' Art Institute of Chicago fires volunteer staff of mostly white women . + '<\/div>' Veronica Stein's birthday is 07/15/1980 and is 42 years old. script.integrity = "sha256-hVVnYaiADRTO2PzUGmuLJr8BLUSjGIZsDYGmIJLv2b8="; The New York City Independent Budget Office estimated that de Blasios proposal would cut qualified Asian American students enrollment at these specialized high schools by half. Dec 5, 2022, By Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News. According to the anti-racist curricula that Veronica Stein espouses, people like the docents are cultural oppressors. Moreover, these women are actual purveyors of cultural oppressioninstructing the young in fine arts predominantly Western and meritocratic world. Spreading over more than a million square feet, the museum has almost 300,000 works of art. In 2017, the museums Education Department became the Department of Learning and Public Engagement, a change that put it in the mainstream of the field. The intense time commitment, the amount of knowledge and training required to do the job well, and the fact that this is an unpaid volunteer position, mean that being a docent is not suitable or desirable for everyone. Bookmark this page and check back every day to get the latest content. Nothing good comes from judging folks by their skin color. function setNewsletterCookie(cookieName, value) { Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. setNewsletterCookie('closedSignupBar', 1); expiration_days: 5 Docents, the kindly volunteers who give museum tours to school children, may not seem like a group prone to setting off firestorms in right-wing media. Your email address will not be published. Many of my former students, including students of color, have struggled to find paid work that enables them to pursue their love of the arts. signedUp: { }, 5000); She claimed such a change would allow community members of all income levels to participate, responds to issues of class and income equity, and does not require financial flexibility to participate.. Fine. + '' And would you like a free membership? Dec 16, 2021, By Well wager museum lawyers had pointed that out. That service ended on September 3, 2021, when each received a memorandum from Veronica Stein, the museums Womans Board Executive Director of Learning and Public Engagement.. '