Jeanie Mack-Powers says her work as a volunteer docent at the U-M Museum of Art (UMMA) compliments her job as a clinical nurse helping cancer patients.
“I do see sick people and some are dying. I go the museum and my cup gets filled up about life,” she says. “The art can touch your soul and spirit.”
Mack-Powers, who has worked as a U-M nurse 22 years and has volunteered as a docent for 10, says her patients have helped her taste in art evolve.
“My favorite medium is sculpture which I wasn’t aware of until I started as a docent,” says Mack-Powers, who is one of 65 docents who volunteer five-10 hours a week at UMMA. “What I love about it is it’s an art form you can see from all sides, like patients I work with — you can see their lives from all sides.”
The Boulder, Colo., native earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1973 from the University of California, San Francisco. When a good friend in Michigan told her about a nursing job in primary care at the former U-M children’s hospital, Mack-Powers took it.
In 1975 she briefly returned to Colorado then moved to Michigan to attend graduate school at Wayne State University from 1975-77 while working part time as a nurse at U-M.
In 1979 she married Dennis Powers, an attorney who lived in Ann Arbor. The couple moved to Andover, Mass., where he joined a law practice and she worked as coordinator of a child development team at Emerson Hospital.
In 1990 they returned to Ann Arbor and she was hired as a staff nurse in otolaryngology (ear/eye/nose/throat) and urology surgery, performing bedside nursing, before moving on to the Hematology-Oncology-Bone Marrow Transplant unit.
A typical day for Mack-Powers begins at 7 a.m.; she works three 12-hour days per week.
“When I go in to meet the patient in the morning … I give them a choice of how they want to spend their day — simple things like when would you like to take your shower? I have patients stay in their own clothes if they possibly can. You see a lot of bravery; people rising to an occasion they never thought they were going to have in their lives.”
She heaps praise on fellow staff ranging from nurses to those offering spiritual care and volunteers.
Mack-Powers’ interest in being a museum docent was sparked by a visit to the Salvador Dali Museum in Sarasota, Fla., and a terrific guide.
“I had a friend who was a UMMA docent, they said there was going to be a new docent class. I felt the University Museum of Art was a small but in-depth kind of place, so I applied.” Mack-Powers particularly enjoys heading children’s tours. “It was like this serendipity that was offered to me, you want them to love it the rest of their life.”
She says art tours for children celebrate creativity along with teaching about art. One exercise asks children before they take a tour to recall portraits and choose their favorite. “The whole goal is to tell us what they’re seeing and what they like about it. You don’t have to know everything but you can learn through your own eyes.”
She plans to be back heading tours when the museum reopens in the spring.
The weekly Spotlight features staff members at the University. To nominate a candidate, please contact the Record staff at [email protected].
