The Guide Life

Anna Bonavia gives us an insight into the life of a Dulwich Picture Gallery volunteer guide.

The Gallery has a huge pool of volunteer guides, mainly for the Education Department which organises school visits to the Gallery. We’re trained by the Gallery and also learn by shadowing each other, as everyone has different styles and approaches to the pictures. The trips are split by age, I do the youngest, from reception to year 2, known as ‘First Steps to Art’ - the earlier name ‘ABC’ was known as ‘ankle-biters coming‘….

There are normally three guides and beforehand we whip round the gallery to check if pictures have been moved (saves embarrassment later!) and work out where we’ll each start. We know the name of the school, the children’s age and whether they want a theme to the tour, like portraits. ‘They’ve arrived’ starts the tour and after the coat hurly-burly, the class is split into three groups and off we go.

We walk slowly into the Gallery, often to a chorus of ‘oohs ‘and ‘wows’, settling in front of the start picture. Sadly my favourite has gone on tour for a couple of years - Pynacker’s Italian landscape with game. This has loads in - wonderful blue leaves, huntsmen, beautiful silver birch trees and the coup de grace for small children, a dog settling down to do what now needs scooping…

Usually we try and cover each main type of picture - portrait, landscape and narrative, then look at pictures which suit the group’s interests best. It’s all about getting the children to really look at pictures, sometimes they act them out, pretend playing the instruments, choose a pose for their own portraits, sway about as if on a boat in a storm - not good straight after lunch. Had a classic when looking at Rembrandt’s picture of Titus, who looks bug-eyed and as if he has a streaming cold, little boy with big grin said “‘E looks lahk ’e’s bin smoookin’ “, teachers trying not to collapse laughing - got round it by saying Rembrandt based in Amsterdam, a town famous for smoookin, then his friend (not Rembrandt) dropped his trousers - he had an itchy bottom!

After each picture, the children do a quick sketch of the thing that’ll remind them most of that picture, which warms them up for a big colourful drawing at the end. Once when we were doing the quick sketch an adult burst into tears, it turned out that a child had special needs and used a pencil independently for the first time ever.

We head back for the coats and thank them for coming as they’ve concentrated for nearly two hours, no mean feat for small children. After that we head for the café!