Tour de force

The first time I ever tried to lead a tour of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, it was a disaster. The only collection I knew anything about was the Fabergé jewels. (Photos by Katherine Wetzel, (c) VMFA)

I had been at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for three days. I was walking across the lobby after lunch one day on my way to the Café for a cup of coffee.

I heard a voice hail me from the Information desk. "Don! Don! Do you have a few minutes?"

The woman who had called my name was the wife of a museum trustee. She was standing with another woman whom I didn't recognize. The trustee's wife introduced herself to me, welcomed me to the museum's staff, said she would be sorry not to see me on TV any more, and introduced her companion.

"This is Mrs. Simcha Dinitz," she told me. "Mrs. Dinitz is the wife of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and she's in town today as my guest. I had planned to show her around the museum, but something has come up, and I wonder if you'd be kind enough to give her a tour."

Gulp.

Trustee's wife? Israeli ambassador's wife? A tour?

I knew immediately that I was in way over my head. But I didn't see that I had any choice, so I agreed.

My tour was a disaster. The only collection that I knew anything about was the Peter Carl Fabergé jeweled objects, and that was only because I had done several stories while I was at WTVR on the stars of the collection, the five magnificent imperial eggs given to family members by Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.

After we had spent 10 minutes or so in the Fabergé Gallery, I had exhausted my limited knowledge of the museum. Our next stop was the European galleries, where I found myself stuck after I said, "These are our European paintings."

Mrs. Dinitz, who had visited museums all over the world and had a keen interest in art, realized what was wrong right away. "You've only been here a few days, right?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

"You don't know much about the collection yet, do you?"

"No ma'am, I don't."

"Okay, why don't I give you a tour?"

And she did.

Mrs. Dinitz didn't know our specific collections, but she knew enough about the artists whose works we owned to point out the stars as well as the lesser names and their places in art history. We spent a pleasant few hours roaming through the European, American, Medieval, and Asian galleries as she provided an excellent overview of a collection she'd never seen before.

She was completely gracious, expressing sympathy for the plight I found myself in and reassuring me that I'd soon understand why the museum I now worked for was a true gem.

After our tour, she headed off to the lobby to meet up again with her hostess. I went back to my office.

My first call as soon as I sat down behind my desk was to the museum's Tour Services office. "I need a tour of the galleries," I told the woman who answered. And I told her what had just happened.

I spent the rest of that afternoon in the galleries, taking an intense course on VMFA's art. The next day, I went back for more, this time with a different representative of the Tour Services office -- just for a change of perspective -- and when we finished, I was given a copy of a book titled "Treasures of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts."

I studied that book as diligently as any textbook I ever had in college. Next time I was asked to give a tour, I was better prepared.