Connie Thornton, Hospitality Specialist

Those attending this month’s Prepare for the Fair lectures are finding large containers of hot coffee on the buffet table thanks to Hospitality volunteer Connie Thornton.

Connie comes into the kitchen the day before a meeting to start the coffee. Three years ago, when she began with Hospitality, Connie says, she needed instruction for making coffee in the large urns. “One scoop equals 10 cups, 50 cups to a pot,” she says.

Connie does the preparation, including the shopping, for all the Guild meetings and special programs. In addition to coffee, she says, “we need plates and cups and flatware” to set up a buffet table. Each occasion “is a two-day project.”

Various Guild committees are assigned responsibility for providing food. Connie sends emails to remind the members before a meeting and, she says, they always come. “They put the food on the table and arrange it. I have nothing to do with it,” she says.

Connie takes over again after a meeting to clean up. “I’ve learned a lot being in charge of Hospitality,” she says. “How to organize, what to buy and setting up the tables.”

Connie has been a member of the Heard Museum since the mid 1970s. She retired as a social worker in 2011 and started volunteering right away. In addition to Hospitality, she contributes time to many other Guild activities. “I’m almost a full-time volunteer,” she admits.

Guild Member Profile: Marlene Scholsohn 

“You should spend 10 minutes in front of a painting. Read it. Don’t just look at it,” said volunteer Marlene Scholsohn.

Marlene was instructing about 15 guides—the Heard Museum’s Las Guias—who will be conducting tours of the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition all summer. They had stopped in front of Rivera’s “Calla Lily vendor.”

Marlene is co-chair with Linda Hefter of New Exhibit Training. After the curator has completed the introductory tours of an exhibit, she and Linda do make-up and supplemental walk-throughs, as well as their own tours.

Being a guide is a serious commitment, says Marlene. “We are required to work two scheduled half days each month or 30 hours a year.” she says. “And we have to be able to conduct tours of everything in the museum. We can’t pick and choose.”

Marlene, a volunteer since 1999, admits to a few personal preferences, though. “I gravitate to any new exhibit that is contemporary. I have a special feeling for contemporary art,” she says. In guiding, “I look at the art from a fine-arts point of view.” The Rick Bartow exhibit, which opened over the weekend, is high on her list.