Volunteer Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in volunteering at the Columbus Museum of Art, where 1,400 volunteers help the Museum to fulfill our mission of creating Great Experiences with Great Art for Everyone. Our volunteer program is varied and flexible. You have the option of being part of one of our many auxiliary groups or volunteering on your own.

Auxiliary Volunteer Opportunities

Museum Auxiliaries support the Museum through their fundraising, service, and outreach activities. They also provide social and educational opportunities for their members, Museum visitors, and the children of central Ohio.

Museum Auxiliaries have specific application procedures, membership requirements and financial obligations. Each has its own mission, and all are self governing. All Auxiliary members must maintain a Museum membership.

If you are interest in joining an auxiliary, the Museum's Volunteer Manager will ask the group's membership chair to contact you to provide additional information and an invitation to a meeting or event to familiarize you with the group and determine if this is the right fit for you.

To receive additional information contact Volunteer Manager, Nancy Johnson at 614-629-0307 or nancy.johnson@cmaohio.org.

Beaux Arts

This primarily women's group sponsors the annual Art in Bloom exhibition that features arrangements by more than 60 floral designers who interpret the Museum's masterpieces in live flowers. Three days of a gala, luncheons, and programs surround the event. Each year members operate a special gift shop that features unique garden and specialty items. Members also volunteer at the Columbus Winterfair fine arts and craft show during the holiday season. Members can attend monthly meetings that often have art-related programs, as well as social and cultural activities planned by the group.

The Contemporaries

For more information about this group which is interested in collecting contemporary art, please click here.

Docents

Year round Docents provide Museum tours to visitors and school children. They are the primary educational outreach to students, visitors, and the Columbus community. Docent volunteers undergo an extensive, thirteen-month training period that focuses on critical thinking skills, museum education principles and practice and the Museum's permanent collection and special exhibitions. Docents agree to serve for at least one year as gallery educators following their training. They also enjoy social events as well as local, national, and international art trips.

Learn more about becoming a Docent» (including information on the responsibilities, expectations, training, etc.)

Download the Docent Program Application»

Docent Alums

This group is open to Docents that have fulfilled a four year commitment and want to retire from active duty as a gallery educator. They have social and art-related events for their members and through their dues, support the active docents by sponsoring lecturers for trainings. They also are invited to attend Docent trainings.

Garden Club

Members are dedicated to the restoration and maintenance of the Museum's noted Russell Page Sculpture Garden and support it by sponsoring lectures featuring noted speakers in the field of horticulture and landscape architecture. Many also enjoy hands-on gardening work in the Page garden throughout the season. Members attend regularly scheduled meetings, garden events, and field trips to private gardens.

Sessions Society

This group of volunteers provides an opportunity for members to expand their knowledge of art, design and fine living and encourages connoisseurship. Sessions Society presents four social and art related events annually. These events include tours of museums, artists' studios and personal collections. In addition, they host informal Friday evening soirees in the homes of local collectors and area galleries. Each year they plan and produce the "Art of the Grape" wine auction that features fine wine, fine art and fine food in the Museum's beautiful Derby Court. The proceeds from this event benefit the Museum.

Art netWork

Young professional men and women support the Museum through social outreach and fundraising activities. Each fall they sponsor the YART Sale featuring art and decorative-art items donated by artists, galleries, and community members. Many of the most desirable items are for sale at a Preview Party before the YART Sale. Art netWork supports the ArtFusion portion of the annual Museum Art Ball that is specifically designed for Columbus area young professionals. They have meeting and social events, which include exhibition openings and special programs for networking and exploring the local arts scene.

Women's Board

Women's Board sponsors the biannual transformation of a home into the Decorators' Show House by A.S.I.D. interior designers and talented landscape architects which features public tours during a two-week period in the spring. In the alternate year, they sponsor Chef Showdown, a lively competition between two well-known Columbus chefs who vie for bragging rights as Columbus' Best Chef! Women's Board created the Museum's Palette Café and supports it by staffing it each week day all year long. Members attend Coffees, Teas, luncheons, and art education events.

On Call/Special ProjectsVolunteers

On Call/Special Projects Volunteers support the Museum through their contributions as an individual apart from a group. They assist with Museum events and programs and work within Museum departments.

On Call/ Special Projects Volunteers fill out a form that lets the Volunteer Manager know their areas of interest and the amount of time they are willing to contribute. They are contacted as opportunities in their area of interest develop because of immediate Museum needs. On Call/Special Projects opportunities are often short term and varied.

There are opportunities for a small number of On Call/Special Volunteers to work on a regular basis within the various Museum departments. The department manager and the volunteer work together to structure times and select tasks.

Museum membership is not required, nor is there a financial commitment or amount of service required. On Call/ Special Volunteers must be 16 years of age.

On Call/ Special Projects Volunteers meet and greet the public and promote membership during special Museum exhibitions, assist in the Palette Café on weekends, help with special family programs, represent the Museum at the Columbus Arts Festival booth, assist with mailings and computer data entry, and register guests at adult lectures and events.

To receive additional information contact Volunteer Manager, Nancy Johnson at 614-629-0307 or nancy.johnson@cmaohio.org.