Museum Docents
Tour guides in Syracuse’s Everson Museum of Art and Erie Canal Museum add a new dimension to visitors’ experiences By Carol Radin
W
hat to think when staring at a three-foot high sculpture of sharp ceramic webs and cloud-like shapes punctuated by spikes of common appliance parts? Mysterious — until docent Ellen Hardy points to the structure’s center and peers inside. “There’s actually a heart inside there. Do you see it?” Then she straightens and sweeps one arm outward toward the gallery’s expanse of sculptures by Raymon Elozua. “Each one has a heart in the center,” she said and suddenly we are intrigued and engaged. Hardy, 76, has been a docent, or tour guide, for the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse for 14 years. She volunteers about 25 hours a month. A retired vice principal in the North Syracuse School District whose teaching discipline was French, she applied when the museum was looking for someone who could lead tours in French during the French Impressionism Artists’ exhibition in 2008. “I like that I can stay in touch with
teaching,” Hardy said. “It is lifelong learning.” The same could be said for Henry Zucker, 80, a volunteer guide at Syracuse’s Erie Canal Museum. The retired librarian from Rome loves facts and knows a lot of them. The museum building itself? “The Weighlock Building—circa 1850—was nothing but a tollbooth!” The barrels?—They carried Lake Erie water to the Hudson River water for a ceremonial blending called the “Wedding of the Waters.” He will even quote classic American writers Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote of their experiences on the canal packet boats back in the 1800s. Many retirees make up the volunteer docent groups in both the Everson Museum of Art and the Erie Canal Museum. It is an enriching relationship for all concerned. The museum staff and the volunteers learn much from each other, and they pass on a quality experience to museum visitors and to the Syracuse APRIL / MAY 2023 – 55 PLUS
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