Behind the scenes at M: the museum guides

BEHIND THE SCENES AT M

the museum guides

There are sixteen of them, M’s museum guides. They are not volunteers, but top-notch professionals who guide visitors around, some days several times. Like Els Bloemmen and Maïteh Magnus: two guides with more than twenty years of experience between them.

The best compliment is when visitors ask: oh, it is already over?

Els Bloemmen

Museum guide at M

Els Bloemmen

"I started in 2005, when M was still called Stedelijk Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens. I had seen an ad in the Streekkrant, so I cut it out and kept it (laughs). I applied, and I they took me on."

"Soon after, the museum closed for a few years to be rebuilt into M that we know today. In the meantime, I did a training course for guides and when the museum reopened in 2009, I got back to work. I also guide in other museums, so I keep pretty busy. But the pandemic certainly made life tricky."

Maïteh Magnus

"I am a part-time guide - I also run creative workshops. Up to about five years ago, I was a teacher teaching non-native speakers. I came into contact with M via a colleague and they were looking to develop an offer for non-native speakers at that point. They could put me to good use, as it turned out. I still give tours to non-native speakers, but these days I also guide all the other groups: cultural associations, schools, families..."

Two weeks' study

Els: "On average, we give a few tours a week. There are several formulas: a temporary exhibition, the highlights of the permanent collection, a mix of the two... On average, a tour takes 90 minutes, but for us, of course, there is a lot of preparation on top of that."

Maïteh: "For every new exhibition, we get a tour from the curator and artist beforehand. These are also recorded, so you can watch them at your leisure afterwards. We also get readers for target groups: children, schools… There is no reader for the short adult presentations but M provides us with all the info we need. We also pick up things from the magazine (laughs)."

Els: "For a new exhibition, I start studying two weeks in advance - not full-time, but still quite intensive. I also write down all my tours."

Maïteh: "We get to fill out our guided tours in our own way. I always focus on the works that appeal most to me personally. That way, you can talk about it with the most inspiration. That makes it nicer for the visitors too."

Looking for the opening

Els: "As a guide, you are the connection between the artwork and the visitor. I always look for a some kind of connection, an opening into the work through which the visitor can see inside, so to speak. That could be a colour, an object, a story, a link to the present..."

"I really enjoy guiding NT2s, foreign-language newcomers taking Dutch classes. For them, the threshold to the museum is high, and I am happy to help reduce that. They also often look at art with a different, non-Western lens. In Wael Shawky's exhibition, there was a work where the artist had based himself on a Persian miniature. It shows a group of men sitting in a circle. A visitor of Kurdish origin saw that and said: 'That's my village.' That immediately makes such an artwork a whole lot more personal."

Maïteh: "A guide should do much more than simply impart knowledge. My impression is also that people ask for that less than they used to."

"I didn't do any guide training, nor did I do art history. In the beginning, I was sometimes afraid of failing, but now I think that all I can do is tell people how I look at this exhibition. If they ask me a question I don't know the answer to, I just say so. A major exhibition has an average of a hundred pieces: you cannot possibly know everything about every piece."

"But sometimes it is still a bit of a shock. I remember once when they asked me to guide a fourth grade class, but it then turned out it was a fourth year secondary class. There I was with my assignments and colour pencils (laughs)."

Utopia is here

Els: "I prefer to guide contemporary art, or a mix of old and new. But I certainly don't say no to a big classical expo with real masterpieces."

"The very best exhibition I did was 'In Search of Utopia', in 2016-17. Not the least because the visitors were so enthusiastic. One even said to me: 'Madam, utopia, that's here! This exhibition is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!''

Maïteh: "I always try to find that which appeals to visitors and build on that. I usually start by introducing the artist and then I let the visitors loose so to speak. I listen to their reactions, and I then pick up on that. I used to work with keyword cards, which I handed out at the start of the tour. If visitors felt that the keyword was applicable to a work, we went into a little more detail. That worked well. I really should go back to doing that (laughs)."

Through the armour

Els: "The reactions are in fact always great. It is rare that I am not completely satisfied myself. Occasionally, it is difficult to get through to a group. Then you stand there chatting for an hour and a half without much reaction, that is pretty tiring. Guiding is not a one-way street. We are not walking audio guides."

Maïteh: "I once had a class from secondary school. At the end, I asked everyone to describe the visit to M in one word. The teacher then replied by saying 'keeping busy'! I thought that was bad. Not that took it personal, but I did wonder: what message are you giving to your students if you apparently think a museum visit is a compulsory?"

Els: "I actually enjoy doing that, school-groups. Primary school children are always enthusiastic, secondary school students sometimes a little less so. They do sometimes put up a wall you have to get through. But I keep on prodding and challenging them until I capture their attention. The best compliment is when they say at the end: 'Oh, is it already over?'"

Maïteh: "We are very flexible. If visitors say that they want to pop into another exhibition for a while, we do that. Every tour is different."

Els: "Occasionally there is a tour that stays with you for a long time. Not long ago, I did a guided tour for three people: an elderly couple and their daughter. In the past, the mum had attended all the major exhibitions in M, but a brain haemorrhage had left her confined to a wheelchair. But she really wanted to see 'Imagining the Universe', which is why her daughter had booked that tour for her and her husband. She loved it. It was very moving, it felt almost like an honour to do it. At moments like that, I am proud to be a guide."