Launched in 2004, the Gallery Guide Program offers museum visitors immediate availability to educators with extensive backgrounds in the arts and extensive training in ways to engage with visitors in interesting, meaningful, shared conversation. Certified by New York State in museum security, the Gallery Guides are also responsible for protecting visitors and works of art. Posted throughout the museum on the ramps and in the galleries, the Gallery Guides are dressed in black clothing with “Gallery Guide” badges, colourful scarves and ties, and blue or orange pins printed with “Ask Me about the Art.”

As a group, they represent fluency in a range of foreign languages and are trained to provide Verbal Imaging descriptions to visitors with low vision and blindness.

The Gallery Guides provide a human presence in the galleries, offering a unique opportunity for museum visitors to explore art through individualized attention to their own, personalized inquiries about the art on view, the Frank Lloyd Wright building, the Guggenheim Museum or any other art- or museum-related matter. The Gallery Guides represent the Museum’s ongoing commitment to a wide range of programs which promote public education through collaboration and dialogue.

Please feel free to approach the Gallery Guides and ask questions!

“I loved that I was not embarrassed to ask a question – that no one else could hear how silly I sounded asking such a simple question. I loved that the Guide was not in a rush to get me to see more art without understanding any of what I had seen. Instead he was on my time explaining…what I was personally curious about. I don’t feel so naïve anymore….I had a much better experience than I’d hoped for."
—Museum Visitor

Photo: Enid Alvarez