Photo of Norman Rockwell Museum volunteer Carlton Dodge giving a tour of the Museum’s galleries.

What kind of person volunteers at a museum? Art lovers, and people lovers.

Carlton Dodge has been volunteering at Norman Rockwell Museum for 17 years. He previously served as a high school chemistry teacher in Berkshire County for 36 years, before retiring in 1997. Carlton has had several “jobs” at the Museum over the years. Currently, he is helping out the education department, teaching visiting students in grades kindergarten through post-high school. When working with the younger kids, Carlton focuses on the stories that are told through Norman Rockwell’s artwork; with the older kids, he talks about U.S. history as it is reflected in the paintings; if the children are art students, he deals with the technical aspects of drawing composition and painting. These programs are held right in the Museum’s galleries, and the students are bussed in from schools and camps all over the area.

Since 1997, Carlton has also been compiling and organizing press clippings for the Museum, eventually expanding this service by creating exhibition notebook. He gathers all of the printed materials which are connected with a certain show, including the Museum’s own promotional items; press clippings from local, regional and national media; and photos from the exhibition opening; organizing all of the items of interest in a ringed binder—he has done nearly 50 of these notebooks over the years. What a wonderful asset these items will be in charting the Museum’s history over the years.

Carlton poses with his impressive exhibition notebook collection – on his birthday, September 5, 2014.

Carlton is a wonderful example of the value that volunteers add to an organization like Norman Rockwell Museum.

Interested in volunteering at Norman Rockwell Museum? Learn more about joining our team at www.nrm.org/about/volunteering