Services

Laurel's area of expertise is coaching museum educators and volunteer staff in creating or refining interactive, inquiry-based experiences with art. She has worked with major museums across the country to create or retool their visitor experiences. Laurel is an essential part of the annual new docent boot camp in some museums. But she also provides professional development for established educators and docents, such as the hundreds of volunteers who guide tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even veteran docents, drilled in the stand-and-deliver method, consistently respond to the creative potential of having an authentic conversation with museum visitors while sharing their expert knowledge.
After one session with Laurel, docents can confidently tackle squirmy kids, bizarre comments, visitor-experts who try to hijack the tour and worst of all — silence. And she does it with passion, energy and humor. During her highly-engaging sessions participants learn to:
Teaching with Art is Teaching for ExcellenceLaurel is a nationally-recognized teacher trainer who speaks teacherese fluently. She knows the challenges educators face from personal experience so they trust her when she says that teaching with art is teaching for excellence. Each year she works with teachers from around the world during the Connecting Collections program jointly sponsored by MOMA, the Guggenheim, The Whitney and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. She is the co-author of Contemporary Art Start (CAS), the signature art education curriculum of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. Her workshops for primary and secondary teachers are designed to: