About the Volunteer Docent Program

You Can Help Us Tell Our Story

The National Portrait Gallery opened its doors in 1968 with a unique mission chartered by Congress: to honor the history of the United States through the lives of the wonderfully diverse people who have made—and who are making—their marks on our country and our culture. Docents make our history come alive for our diverse audiences, helping them to fully experience the faces of our past, present, and future.

The National Portrait Gallery welcomes volunteer docents of all backgrounds and those who speak different languages, especially Spanish. People from all walks of life visit us every day, with some traveling here from abroad. The Museum’s volunteer docents are flexible, adapting their guided tours to our visitors’ interests and needs so they can better connect with the collection and the history it represents.

Docents learn about our collection, gallery teaching, and audience management through workshops and training sessions with curators and educators. Our volunteer docents must complete an initial 20-week course and be able to commit to the program for two full years. Tour schedules vary according to both Portrait Gallery and docent needs. We require a minimum of 6 hours per month, to be distributed across various tours and training sessions.

Requirements:

• A two-year commitment to the program, facilitating at least 2 tours each month.
• Completion of the 20-week volunteer docent training program.
• Attendance at monthly in-service docent training sessions upon completion of the initial program; these sessions are designed to keep you up to date on current and upcoming exhibitions.

Our docents are:

• Great communicators who are enthusiastic about the collection.
•  Multi-lingual: Some speak different languages, including Spanish.
• Lifelong learners: They enjoy learning new things and are willing to study the portraits in our collection in depth, so they can share the exciting stories behind these works.
• Able to work with people of different ages, levels of education, and backgrounds.
• Flexible, creative, and organized problem solvers.