Real cases
A case · you decide
The Close Look at the teapot
The Close Look — a teen docent preparing a three-minute talk on a silver teapot
Visitors walk past the teapot in about four seconds. The docent has three minutes of facts about the silversmith.
Museum educators often use slow looking: stop at one object, point at one detail, let people notice before explaining.
Here the detail is a tiny dent near the spout, left by someone who used this teapot every day.
How should the talk begin?
Twelve people crowd around the spout. The dent becomes the story, and the talk runs one minute over because nobody wants to leave.
A case · you decide
The Story and The Open Question
The Story & The Open Question — a docent choosing what to say about the teapot, working with the closing question
The teapot carries two true stories: the silversmith's rise, and the family that sold it during a hard winter.
There's time for only one story, and the docent's rubric wants the talk to end on an open question.
Both stories are accurate. They teach different things.
Which story does the talk tell?
The docent tells the family's story and ends by asking what the group would have kept that winter. People are still arguing about it at the exit.
A case · you decide
The Hook and The Close Look open the coin talk
The Hook & The Close Look — a 16-year-old volunteer giving her first gallery talk
Priya has three minutes to introduce a Roman coin to a school group. Most of them have already walked past it. On the coin, the emperor's nose is worn almost flat, while the rest of the face is sharp.
The Hook's job is to make a stranger stop. The Close Look's job is to point at something they would otherwise miss.
Priya has about one sentence before the group drifts on.
Which opening should Priya use?
The best hook is not a fact about the object. It is a reason to look at it.