Association of Volunteer Guides



Are you interested in becoming a Volunteer Guide?
Would you like to join a team of 150 Volunteer Guides?

This terrific team provides high-quality guided tours that are greatly appreciated by visitors.

  • The guided tours provide an overall view of the Museum or focus on specific topics, such as the silver collection, Inuit art or the Middle Ages, to name a few.

  • For school groups, four different tours are offered, based on the grade level (elementary to secondary) and the teacher’s interests. These tours are scripted by the Education and Community Programmes Department (ECPD).

  • For adults, college and university students, guided tours of the permanent collection or temporary exhibitions are offered to organized groups or individual visitors. These tours are prepared by the Guides.

  • The Guides are entitled to attend ongoing training sessions on Mondays from September to April each year. The Education and Community Programmes Department organizes lectures on various topics pertaining to upcoming exhibitions or subjects that could help them perfect their skills.

 

Qualities and skills:

  • No previous experience required

  • Must be highly motivated and enthusiastic about acquiring and sharing knowledge

 

Training:

Becoming a Guide at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a course offered by Concordia University’s Centre for Continuing Education in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Courses are held Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to noon.

The next English training will begin in the autumn of 2009.

 

The course is available in French at the Université de Montréal. Courses are held Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

$ Cost: $625 (FRENCH only)
From September 14th to November 16th 2010 and from January 11th to March 15th 2011
Information:
Université de Montréal, 514-343-6111, ext. 2851
formationcontinue@fep.umontreal.ca

 

  • Candidates who pass this course must then sign up for the Museum’s intensive training programme, which includes practical exercises, discussion groups and observation of guided tours. These courses take place at the Museum on Tuesdays in May (1 day/week).

  • Candidates then have until December to finalize their school or adult tour, after which they are accepted as members of the Association of Volunteer Guides of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at the annual meeting. Guides become part of the team and officially assume their duties in January.

 

 

Association of Volunteer Guides

In 1961, the members of the Museum’s Ladies’ Committee began providing guided tours for adults and school groups. The Association of Volunteer Guides of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts came into being in 1965 and began offering guided tours of temporary exhibitions and the Museum’s collections to visitors.

The Association of Volunteer Guides of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is under the responsibility of the Education and Community Programmes Department and is represented by an executive that includes French- and English-speaking co-presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries and a treasurer.

The Association also organizes exclusive lectures, tours of private collections and cultural trips for its members. Past trips include Chicago, Amsterdam, the Hudson Valley and Rhode Island.