‘Everything Is Beautiful at the Museum’

They’re some of the first people visitors see when they walk through the door. They’re answering questions at the information desks, organizing collections with researchers, and helping run summer camps for children. Others assist behind the scenes.

And though they’re not paid, the hundreds of volunteers who serve the Carnegie Museums in Oakland, the North Shore, and the Laurel Highlands at Powdermill are essential to the functioning of the institution.

“We could not do it without our volunteer community,” says Ashley Brandolph, manager of volunteer and internship programs. “They bring with them a wealth of experience and different perspectives, and different contributions and skill sets.” 

Volunteering has been a part of Carnegie Museums since the organization’s inception in 1895, but the program didn’t become officially established until 1974. Last year was by far the strongest year on record for volunteering, with a total of 900 volunteers contributing over 50,000 hours among the four museums and Powdermill. 

A handful of these volunteers, ranging from people in their teens to their 90s, spoke with Carnegie magazine about their experiences. The following are their stories, in their own words.

Carolina Rodriguez Guerra | 31, Shadyside

Information Volunteer, Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, since 2022

When I moved to Pittsburgh from Mexico, I knew I wanted to go someplace where I could volunteer because of my status [as a non-U.S. citizen]. I can’t work professionally. So I wanted to do something, and I figured that working in a museum would be a good idea. 

I’ve definitely learned a lot. For example, once they took us on volunteer day to the PaleoLab [in Carnegie Museum of Natural History]. It was really interesting because just coming to the museum and seeing the dinosaurs, we don’t really see the actual work that’s behind that. It was really impressive to know all the things they do, from searching for the bones, doing the cast, assembling it to look like an actual dinosaur. 

I get surprised every time that I learn something new from a visitor. When they ask me questions and they get chatty and talk to me about some of their experiences. That’s something that I’ve really been appreciating, to know the visitors and their experiences and their lives. On one occasion, a woman came and started telling me about how she used to come to the museum when she was in college here in Pittsburgh and that this was her first time coming back since then and how excited she was.

I think it was a great decision that I made in trying to get into the museums. I’ve found an amazing team that makes you feel welcome and appreciated here at the Volunteer Office. Being here has brought so much learning about art and history that otherwise maybe I wouldn’t have learned.

Millicent Smith | 71, Oakland

Docent, Carnegie Museum of Art, since 2019

When I was in my 30s, I was in my aunt’s kitchen and I told her that when I retired I wanted to become a docent. I didn’t even know what it meant. I had to look it up. So, 30 some years later, in 2019, I was looking through Carnegie Museum Art’s website because I decided to take an art history class, and in the description it said it was a prerequisite to becoming a docent. I thought, “Oh, there’s that word again.” So I enrolled in the class, loved it, and I applied to become a docent. 

There’s a lot of artwork that most people just walk right by because it doesn’t look attractive. And I’ll use a piece that most people walk by because I want them to understand where the artist is coming from. We have a piece by Isa Genzken, and it looks like it was made with trash. But she made it because she was in New York City when the [World Trade Center] towers fell. She uses found materials, and that was her response to living in the city at the time the towers fell. I wanted to understand where she was coming from so that I could help the visitors see the work in a different manner. The role of the docent is to help visitors see artwork differently. Because when they can identify with whatever the artist was going through, they can be inspired by what an artist does. 

I want to be of service. I want to help visitors enjoy the time they’re here in the museum. I don’t want anyone to come to the museum and not have an experience where they find something that just really inspires them.

Alizmare Reinert | 19, Forest Hills

Demonstration Theaters volunteer, Carnegie Science Center, since 2021

I started here through an internship program through my high school. I am stationed in the theaters department right now. We do live demonstrations out on the floor and they had me doing some of that during my internship and I really got into it. 

I’m a baker at LeoGreta in Carnegie. It’s also nice getting better insight about food science from here because you think a little more about why different things happen. For example, I know what to do so that the cookies don’t get really flat. 

I’m actually learning Science in a Scoop right now, which is our ice cream show. I love doing that show. I really love working with nitrogen. Nitrogen is also really, really cold. Negative 321 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s really dangerous, but once you know how to use it, it’s really fun. You can make ice cream in three seconds. There’s a part of the Freeze show where some demonstrators put balloon animals in the nitrogen. I love doing that. It’s fun seeing what it does to other things and how it makes things really crispy. It’s crazy. Flash freezes everything. 

I am actually hoping to go back to school and become a pastry chef, so I can definitely see this aiding in that. This gives me a good background for my work. Also, I’m not the most outgoing person in the world, but as I’ve been here more, I’ve gotten used to it. Doing super huge shows with a hundred people is still a little bit harrowing, but it’s a worthwhile experience. It’ll teach you some things. You’ll get used to public speaking. The staff are really supportive, and they give you a lot of leeway when you need it. It’s just a really good place to be.

Mike Mykita (aka “Conductor Mike”) | 60, Middlesex Township

Volunteer with the Miniature Railroad & Village®, since 1986

I graduated in 1985 from the University of Pittsburgh and had been putting myself through school by working as a stock boy and salesman at a lumberyard. I was used to coming home at night and having homework to do and being busy on the weekends. And suddenly, I felt like I had a lot of time on my hands. Back then, the miniature railroad [at the Buhl Planetarium] was seasonal. It opened for Thanksgiving and closed at New Year’s, but they were doing a special viewing in the spring. I took my two young nephews to see the railroad and there was a flyer about becoming a volunteer. Again, I just felt like I had so much time on my hands after getting a degree in computer science that I thought, “Oh, four hours a week, I can do that.”

I just like meeting people. Years ago, I used to volunteer Sunday mornings and there were two people that came in. They were father and son lighthouse keepers from Nova Scotia. It was February, and the ice floe had got to the point that there was no navigation. So they thought, “Hey, we’re allowed to leave the lighthouses.” And what did they do when they were in the lighthouse? Well, they both had a model train set. So they came down here to see this one, and they spent my entire four-hour shift here. They asked me about it, finding out everything they could. And then they left business cards. How often do you get a  business card from a lighthouse keeper? 

For a while we used to have a book and we would ask people to sign their name and where they were from. And you would expect cities all over the United States. But when you started seeing foreign countries, or the writing was in the Cyrillic alphabet, you realize people from all over the world are coming in here. I never know who I’m going to meet on a given day. 

I’ll give you a personal note: The last year for the railroad at Buhl Planetarium was 1990, and it opened in the current building in 1992. In ’91, at the age of 28 with a 2-year-old son, I was told I had leukemia. I was fighting cancer. They told me at the time that I had a 50-50 survival chance. I’m 60 now. Surviving something like that is a great attitude adjustment, and I learned not to take things too seriously. So I come here for a few hours a week and have fun. 

I don’t know the numbers, but my impression is that a lot of people reach retirement age and then decide they’re going to volunteer. So I’m finally catching up to the age where most people start volunteering and it’s like, boy, I am coming up on 40 years. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here as a volunteer, but I’m still enjoying it, so I imagine I’ll be here for quite a while.

Zach Lyons-Weiler | 22, North Hills 

Volunteer, Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, since 2016

I originally started as a volunteer as a teen docent. Then, in college [at University of Pittsburgh], I became a volunteer in the vertebrate paleontology department. I’m now a senior.

I’ve always loved museum work. It’s just something that I have wanted to do ever since I was very small. My mom worked as an educator in a little local museum from where she’s from in Troy, New York. So I was brought into the museum all the time. That’s what I wanted to do with my time. If I wasn’t spending time outside, I was at the museums.

Being able to spend time learning [as a teen docent] how to educate at the age of 15 and 16—having conversations with the public—was teaching me how to be an educator at a very young age. It was really a place where I felt that I could expand my knowledge outside of the classroom. 

My research [as a student at Pitt] focuses on local fossils from Pittsburgh, including some fossils from my backyard. In 2021 and 2022, I spent a lot of time in fossil preparation because I was bringing in a lot of specimens. I spent most of my time up in the PaleoLab. And then, over the past year, I’ve been organizing everything in the [vertebrate paleontology] collection, identifying it, and making sure that it’s modernized, because the fish collections have not had the same amount of focus as, say, our dinosaurs. There’s a lot of unknown stuff in there! 

I view my role, whatever position I’m in, as a conduit through which the mysteries and the vagaries of the natural world can speak to people. I can take things—these really strange and obscure concepts that people might not necessarily grasp when they’re just looking at rock strata or a forest—and interpret it as a story for people. Through all of my experiences as a volunteer and being so up close with these specimens, I’ve been able to get a really good understanding of the natural world that I can share with people.

Billie Kissel | 92, White Oak

Information Volunteer, Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, since 2002

I began volunteering after I had been widowed. I was sort of at loose ends and decided I wanted to really get out of my home in White Oak and expand my lifestyle. 

Most of the volunteers I started out with are gone, but the one I remember the most was Anna Cunningham. She was a beautiful woman, tall and gracious, and I just fell in love with her and we kept in touch. There were so many volunteers with whom I just formed casual friendships. It was so nice and we would do a few things together. Most of us were older ladies that were retired from our jobs, and we just wanted to increase
our lives.

White Oak is on the perimeter of McKeesport. When I moved to this area, it was a booming mill town, but I’ve watched it decline. But going into Pittsburgh, you become revitalized. You see that things are happening [at the museums and universities] and you are surrounded by young, growing, enthusiastic people. The people are bright and interested and intelligent and asking questions. It’s just wonderful to be here. 

My son Mark is a world traveler. He’s been in the foreign service for years. When I come to the Carnegie Museums, I feel like I’m a world traveler, too. I enter the museum and I visit the whole world. Everything is beautiful at the museum. Right now, I’m in love with the botany area. And then I went down last week and there were the Christmas trees, and it was just beautiful. It’s ever changing. And it makes you grow with it. You grow with  the museum.

I play a very small role as a volunteer, but I feel as though I’m giving something back to this beautiful city. I’m glad to do that. And I think it just keeps me current and interested and makes me a more
interesting person.