The Salvador Dali Teen Docent Program, which includes both Osceola High School and St. Petersburg High School, had rather interesting roots; it all began with The Monkees’ 1968 movie “Head”.
“Me and Peter Tosh, the Director of Education at the Dali, were jammed into a projection booth while he was showing the weird Monkees’ movie Head,” said Mr. Stewart, AP Art History Teacher. “We came up with the idea somewhere between the Monkees falling onto Victor Mature’s head and the cameo by Frank Zappa.”

The teen docents from both Osceola and St. Petersburg will be putting on a tour at the Dali Museum, on April 21st. Admission will be free for high school staff and friends and parents of the teen docents. However, the two high schools that are doing it now were not the two original schools that began the program.

“We started by combining students from my wife’s school with students from Thurgood Marshall. Since then, it’s been primarily Osceola and St. Petersburg,” Mr. Stewart said.

The teen docents are selected through a volunteer basis; they volunteer and then submit an application. This year, everyone who volunteered and submitted an application was accepted.
“You will be impressed by their poise, enthusiasm, and knowledge,” Mr. Stewart wrote in an email to the school.

Mr. Stewart himself has a rather fond memory of a particular painting at the Dali Museum.
“One of my favorite Dali Paintings is the Hallucinogenic Toreador, because it sums up Dali’s entire career as an artist,” he said.  “In 2011, the AP Art History students marched in [the Dali Museum’s] opening day parade dressed as the figures from that painting.”