Experiencing the art of volunteering
By Giselle Maund
April 4, 2007 9:37 p.m.
When Shannon Safino, a volunteer at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, showed up at an exclusive opening of the museum’s “Architecture of the Veil” exhibit in January, she thought she was there just to set up the refreshments. Moments later, however, she was speaking to the featured artist, Samta Benyahia, who then led her and a group of museum donors on a private tour of the exhibit.
The number of perks that come with volunteering at an art museum in Los Angeles are as significant as the wide variety of reasons why UCLA students such as Safino choose to volunteer in these museums. Students’ reasons for volunteering, beyond a shared love of art, are numerous: Volunteering can be a resume-builder, a stepping-stone to the art world or simply something to do for fun.
Safino, a fourth-year English student, decided to try her hand at volunteering when a friend who was also a Fowler Museum volunteer went abroad, leaving the position up for grabs. Safino jumped at the chance to gain experience working on the business side of the art world.
“I’ve recently become involved in the art community, and I think that when I graduate I’ll do something in marketing for an art museum,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about what went on going into it, but now I’ve learned a lot about how things work in the museum.”
After filling out an application and completing a successful interview, Safino landed the gig. She currently volunteers for the Fowler Museum’s development department twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays and is now a devotee of both the museum and pursuing her future career.
Safino cites the museum’s size as one of its best qualities.
“It’s a smaller museum, so I get a lot more hands-on experience,” she said. “And because it’s a cultural museum, there are so many ways to incorporate the artwork of the museum into the community.”
One of Safino’s responsibilities is to do just that: establish relationships with community figures, small companies and corporations to create a mutual benefit. They can help by sponsoring events, getting good publicity while supporting the arts.
Though Safino has a more formal volunteer position at the museum, there are many other ways to get involved.
Sarah Gilfillan, the museum’s assistant director of development, said more spontaneous help is always appreciated, and that she is open to all student inquiries about volunteering. She says that most Fowler Museum events call for four to five volunteers.
“One-time volunteers who come to events do anything from checking people in to working directly with caterers or musicians,” Gilfillan said.
While short-term commitments are beneficial to all, Gilfillan said the benefits of being a long-term volunteer are numerous. The more regular and long-standing the volunteer work, the more of a mentor program it becomes. Gilfillan usually has two or three volunteers that come in for up to three hours twice a week.
“It’s a less stressful opportunity to explore a career path and a really great way to discover new things that you can do with your major,” Gilfillan said. “You can make connections across campus and in the professional world that are hard to make sometimes … and you get to go to lots of fun things at the museum.”
Another museum that offers opportunities like these is the UCLA Hammer Museum on the corner of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards. Here, Hilary Ellenshaw, a UCLA student volunteer-turned-intern, has also enjoyed perks like rubbing elbows with renowned artists.
Ellenshaw, a fourth-year art history student, has been a student educator at the Hammer Museum since September. After hearing from some classmates about the student educator program, she contacted the museum to find out how she could get involved.
“I didn’t know how to get involved until May of last year when I heard (the Hammer Museum) was recruiting for educator positions and the Student Advisory Committee, which is students who do promotional work for the Hammer on campus,” she said. “So I went to a little informational meeting about it, applied and interviewed, and got in last May.”
Though her primary responsibility is to research, write, and give her own tours of the Hammer Museum’s permanent collection and temporary exhibits, Ellenshaw also helped at the museum’s annual gala.
“A lot of big names in the art world have come to the gala, like John Baldessari and some celebrities like Anjelica Huston,” she said.
“All I had to do was show people to their tables after cocktails, but when the person organizing the event told me to ask people to sit down, I thought, “˜Oh yeah, like I’m going to tell Mr. Baldessari to sit down.'”
Giving tours at the Hammer Museum is a perfect way for Ellenshaw, an aspiring art history professor, to teach lots of different people about world-class art, leaving them with a newfound appreciation for what they’ve seen.
“I want to go to grad school and be a professor eventually, so I really like the idea of talking about art and teaching,” she said. “We give tours in the permanent collection. … The collection represents a vast variety of different times in our history, so it’s pretty much like giving an art history lecture.”
UCLA students can also volunteer at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which is just minutes away from campus off the 405 Freeway.
Sandy Regan, assistant manager of visitor services at the Getty, says that she has 600 volunteers of all ages coming to the Getty Center and the Getty Villa in Malibu week after week.
There are two volunteer programs at the Getty Center: the docent program, which gives tours of the garden and architecture at the Getty Center, and the school-group program, which helps up to 600 children every week.
“Our goal is to provide a positive experience for the visiting public. So how can we do that? Answering all their questions. … We provide whatever information visitors need,” Regan said.
Though some volunteers are only scheduled for three hours a week, working at any of these prestigious museums is a real job, demanding responsibility and, above all, an appreciation of art ““ but the response is worth it.
“Because (volunteers) are so hospitable, there will be people from Europe that want to tip them,” Regan said. “At one of our family festivals, one of our volunteers was complimenting a little girl from Korea on her art and started talking to her mother. The family was here on a Fulbright scholarship, and they invited (the volunteer) to come visit them if they ever come to Korea.”
Volunteer training for 2007 is already underway at the Getty Center, but applications for 2008 will be available in September. Regan expects to fill 70 to 100 positions, either three-hour per week or six-hour per month commitments.
Museums in Los Angeles are as diverse as the art they celebrate, and the same goes for volunteering opportunities. Whether focused on corporate relations or engaging elementary school children, the museums in Los Angeles have opportunities for every volunteer.
“I feel like I’m doing something for the museum, like I’m helping to get the word out there,” Safino said.
“I feel like I’ve actually been contributing, and that is really exciting.”
