September 10, 2013 started a new year for the Junior Docents of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Thirty members, 7th thru 12th graders, and their five adult Docent mentors, have started the new season with making ceramic bowls to contribute to the 29th Annual Empty Bowls Luncheon. This is a project that provides support for food banks, soup kitchens, and other organizations. In Jacksonville the efforts of the project support Second Harvest which in turn distributes millions of pounds of food annually through more than 500 member agencies to hungry people in a 17 county area.
The Junior Docent program is a way to engage middle and high school age students in their museum and community. They don’t have to be artists, just curious about art and the way museums work. This program invites those students to meet at least once a month to work on a major project that offers art interpretation to museum visitors. The members learn about oral presentation, methods of observation and interpretation, and gain specific knowledge about the collection of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.
This year the Junior Docents will be curating an exhibit of their own original artwork inspired by one of the upcoming exhibits. Stay tuned to find out more and look for them as they give of their time within the Museum.
