Teen Tour Guides – Irma Lerma Rangel

If you have visited the Dallas Museum of Art recently, you may have noticed our newest (and youngest) tour guides! Teen Tour Guides is a program run in partnership with middle schools in DISD. During the last school year, 8th grade art students from Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School visited the DMA 10 times. By the end of the year, students had created their own tour stops for 6th graders at their school, who visit the Museum annually on a field trip! 

First, the 8th grade students learned how to look at art and how to identify different ways that museums share information and engage visitors in the galleries. Students participated in group discussions and scavenger hunts designed to introduce the girls to the Museum’s permanent collection.  

Then, students shifted from formulating their own opinions about art to learning how to convey information about art to others. Rangel students focused on museum labels and audience. The teens were given a shoe box and a different prompt—to write a wall label for a kindergartener, middle schooler, teacher, or grandparent. Opening their shoe box revealed the artwork that would be the subject of their labels. 

Students from Irma Lerma Rangel creating a museum label for a plastic banana. 

One by one, students revealed the contents of their shoe box. Students were shocked to see they all had the same “artwork”—a plastic banana taped to the shoe box! The banana was based on Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork Comedian, which sold for $6.2 million in 2024. This activity allowed students to consider the question “what is artwork?,” and see the many ways in which one thing can be interpreted or taught to different people and across audiences. 

Teen Tour Guides have a unique insight—they know their peers and what they’re interested in. Even if that’s describing a banana as “skibidi yellow.” 

In the spring, students spent three visits developing and practicing their tours. In pairs, students chose a work of art to focus on. They practiced their tour stops and interactive gallery teaching activities for staff and docents. For many of these students, it was their first experience with public speaking.  

Finally it came time for Rangel 6th graders to tour the DMA. The Teen Tour Guides spoke with confidence, asked engaging questions, helped the younger students develop their own personal insights into the art, and even persevered through quiet audiences. One group of tour guides even brought prizes to encourage students to talk and be active participants on their tours! 

^{8th grade Teen Tour Guides presenting their tour stops for 6th graders at their school.} 

A special program highlight is our Teen Tour Guides even participated in a workshop with exhibiting artist Cecily Brown.  She gave a tour of her exhibition and talked with the students about careers in the arts. Students learned about her mantra of embracing mistakes, practicing with consistency, and trusting your gut. They carried these lessons with them as they developed their tour stops. Cecily made it a mission to have one-on-one time to draw with every student. 

^{Cecily Brown getting hands on with Teen Tour Guides in her exhibition “Themes and Variations.”} 

As a previous McDermott Intern for School Programs, my favorite program was Teen Tour Guides. I loved getting to see students try something outside their comfort zone and think about education in new and creative ways. It was also inspiring to see so many volunteers and staff across many departments come together to provide a comfortable and encouraging space where students could practice. By the end of the program, students were accomplished tour guides.  

DMA docents, you’ve got competition! 

Abby Drake is the 2024–2025 McDermott Intern for School Programs.