Bill Sitzer (he/him) is a docent at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Prior to his retirement and becoming a docent, Bill was a lawyer and had dedicated himself professionally to developing evidence in his work based on careful listening and observation. As a result, the VTS method was for him just a seamless and natural extension of something intuitive he had been doing all of his professional life. In addition, Bill is a classically trained violinist and life-long amateur chamber musician, and music taught him early on the importance of collaboration and listening, concepts fundamental to VTS practices.

In his time as a docent Bill has had the opportunity, along with members of the Saint Louis Art Museum staff and community academics, clergy, and leaders, to participate in the development of an interfaith tour initiative and tours program at the museum. These tours are conducted by pairs of docents from different faith traditions and draw on the museum’s encyclopedic collection. They focus on recurring themes of shared fundamental beliefs across history and cultures and provide an innovative touring model of listening and engagement that uses VTS and promotes open and respectful discourse and our common humanity.

Bill is currently a director of the National Docent Symposium Council and the Docent Council of Metropolitan St. Louis. He serves as a board member and museum liaison to Arts and Faith St. Louis, a local nonprofit organization committed to community interfaith dialogue and understanding. In 2022, he coauthored and published an article in the Journal of Museum Education about the Saint Louis Art Museum’s interfaith tour initiative. He is a peer reviewer for that Journal. 

Bill is deeply committed to VTS engagement as a path to enhanced learning, visual literacy, meaningful communication, collaboration, deep listening, respectful dialogue and community building.