A shy group of freshmen crowded around a photograph as the question "What do you see?" lingered, unanswered.
After a long, awkward silence, a student finally offered an opinion - then another, and another, while Justin Luna intently listened to his suddenly engaged tour group.
"I actually saw things in that photo I've never seen before," said Luna, a docent for the Wexner Center for the Arts. "By asking 'what do you see?' it levels the playing field of art."
Luna, a senior in photography, has been a docent, or tour guide, since autumn quarter 2006 when the student position first began. Through all his experience, he has learned the ins and outs of being a docent and has been able to personalize his tours to share his love of art.
"I ask, how can I make the art and objects meaningful," he said. "Art is communal, and I want to emphasize that."
The job starts as a class, which is offered every autumn - once a week for three hours - and extends two quarters. The second quarter is where students have the opportunity to co-tour and then lead tours.
"You don't need prior (art) education, just a willingness to be put on the spot and have meaningful, open-ended discussions," Luna said.
"At first it's terrifying ... but in the end it's illuminating," he said. "You realize anyone can have a love of art ... I really enjoy finding that."
The work of a docent, aside from the obvious leading people around the galleries, is to become familiar with all the artwork - themes, background information, genres, etc. - as well as understanding the process of the curator.
"There's a lot of outside work," Luna said. "You really need a love for art."
Luna joined the class not only to gain museum experience, but also to create a worthwhile experience for museum-goers.
"Every tour I have been on have been lectures," he said. "I wanted to be in a position to make art meaningful."
One of the biggest challenges of the job is to accommodate a wide-range of people and interests for each tour. There is no set formula to guiding tours, Luna said. It is all a matter of reading people as they come.
Unlike with school groups, which Luna said are never shy, he has a greater difficulty with adult tours. Instead of looking at and describing the work they see, adults want to be lectured to, which goes against his values of being a docent.
"Description is the first part of interpretation," he said. "It's up to you in the end to find meaning in the works you encounter."
Above all, Luna said he hopes to bring people into the art world with a new sense of appreciation or respect for what goes into creating new works.
"The most important thing is that I hope they walk away less alienated by (art) and hungry for more," Luna said.
With about a year of classes left to take, Luna is not quite sure what he wants to do for a career-whether work as an artist or in a museum. What he is sure of, is that working as a docent for the Wexner Center gave him invaluable experience in the field of art.
"From a studio aspect, I see how work is ill-received and I can act accordingly to make my work better," Luna said. "Even if I don't go into the (museum) field... I hope to enrich the art-viewing experience with anyone who would like to talk about art."
Jessica Simmons can be reached at simmons.244@osu.edu.
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