Avant guard

A conjunction of art and social media today got me thinking, again, about gallery guards in museums. We encounter these essential staff on every visit we make to such institutions, but I imagine many visitors are practically oblivious of their presence. Earlier today I saw a re-tweeted article from the Guardian by Kenn Taylor on just this subject, and later at the Whitney Museum of American Art I was struck by the concordances with Fred Wilson’s piece Guarded View. This shows four mannequins in the guard uniforms of four different American museums from the 1990s, including the Whitney itself.

Having worked as a gallery guard/assistant (/insert many other terms here) myself for a number of years, Taylor’s article struck a real chord with me. In many ways these guards are the most important members of staff in the building – they are the face of the museum – and yet also often the least considered and among the worst paid. When I worked at the National Gallery in London, many of the ‘old guard’ viewed their job as essentially security and had come from this sort of background. Those of us who worked on late evenings were often artists, history of art students, or cultural sector workers trying to get a bit of extra money and experience. We represented nicely the transition that seems to be under way in attitudes to gallery staff, from simply security guards to visitor facilitators.

In this role we answered questions ranging from ‘Where are the toilets?’ to ‘Is this really art?’ and everything in between. We helped visitors to engage with the collections, both practically and intellectually, and we also therefore saw this interaction on a daily basis. We saw how visitors actually responded to displays, the kind of conversations they had, and the ways in which they moved around gallery spaces. We, therefore, often knew exactly how to discuss a work of art with an interested but skeptical visitor. I think that this is essential to an understanding of the museum-going public, and has been invaluable experience for me. Too often, as a gallery guard, you are looked through by visitors and curatorial staff alike. All museum staff should have to spend a portion of each year in this role, guarding the displays, but also their own understanding of the point where collection meets public.