InterpNEWS Sep/Oct 2018 Issue

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InterpNews

2 Volume 7, #5 - Sep/Oct 2018

The international heritage interpretation e-magazine.

Where did summer go anyway? Wow – they are already stocking candy for Halloween in the shops. This is one of my favorite issues in selecting our “Day of the Dead” covers.

Thanks to our Regional Editors for their amazing articles and support of InterpNEWS. I’m now starting to prepare for the November/December issue to finish up the year and thinking ahead for 2019. If you’d like to be part of the InterpNEWS Regional Editor team let me know. You’re able to list InterpNEWS on your resume or on your web site page, and get some free advertising and promotions as well.

We have also been expanding and adding new courses for the Heritage Interpretation Training Center and created new training manuals and textbooks as well. We’re also offering some of our courses through Museum Study (see their ad copy in the Interpretation Marketplace at the back of the issue), and working on other surprises for 2019 too.

So lots of things going on and I invite you to be part of the many ways we are working to support and advance the interpretive profession. Cheers, John V. jvainterp@aol.com In This Issue:

-Meet our regional editors -Interpreting the Day of the Dead - 3000 years of cultural heritage.

-Interpreting Halloween. The History Channel Staff.

-Why Leaves Change Color in the Autumn – USDA Forest Service -Don’t Have the “Real Thing” at Your Site? So What! Chris Brusatte, -Shining a positive light on beacons. Dan Boys -New Media Technology – Helping Museums & Cultural Sites Navigate Funding Challenges Van Hoose -Writing the World - Judy Fort Brenneman - Inclusive Design - Accessible Interpretation -Kate Lindley -Exhibition Development – the (Most Important) Basics - Patricia Grimshaw -Sound from the Ground -East Perth Cemeteries Perth, Western Australia - Sarah Murphy -Interpreting Deep-water Sandstone -Origins of the turbidity current concept - Edward Clifton -Let Your Passion Show Speaking Tip 45 - Eathan Rotman -The Special Interpretive Magic of “Living History” .by Ron Kley -It was Wright, right? Wrong! by Ron Kley -“Remembering a Christmas Party” . Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald -Using interpretive programs and media to help accomplish management objectives. John Veverka -Interpretation Marketplace.

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InterpNEWS is published six times a year as a FREE John Veverka & Associates publication and published as a service to the interpretive profession. If you would like to be added to our mailing list just send an e-mail to jvainterp@aol.com and we will add you to our growing mailing list. Contributions of articles are welcomed. It you would like to have an article published in InterpNEWS let me know what you have in mind. Cover photo: Day of the Dead costume. www.heritageinterp.com , jvainterp@aol.com. SKYPE: jvainterp.

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Our newest Regional IN Editor - Patricia Grimshaw. Having enjoyed museums and history for as long as I can remember, I am a self-professed museum nerd, with an equal interest in both medieval and military history. I received a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University in Medieval History, and an MA in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. Finally, I completed a Master of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto before beginning my museum career. I have lived and travelled all over Canada and Europe, and any chance I get to visit a local museum, I take, whether the institution is national or niche. I am always looking for new and interesting ways to interpret and display history. "I also run my own museum consulting business, museologik."You can contact Patricia at: grimshawp@msn.com.

Call for articles for our Nov/Dec 2018 Issue.

Have you completed some interesting interpretive research or developed an innovative interpretive program or exhibit? IN is the place for you to share what you do and what you’ve learned. IN reaches over 300K in 60 countries.

Deadline for our Nov/Dec 2018 issue is the 15th of October. If you’re interested in contributing an article to this issue, or like to advertise in InterpNEWS, please feel free to contact me. We are also always interested in adding Regional Editors to our team too. jvainterp@aol.com

Want to be one of our regional or specialist editors. This space is reserved for you. Your photo and bio will appear in every issue. Great way to advertise yourself if you’re a interpretive consultant too.

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Interpreting the Day of the Dead - 3000 years of cultural heritage.

The Arizona Republic

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now central Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjALosg3 It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.

A ritual known today as Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico and certain parts of the United States, including metro Phoenix.

Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls.

Today, people don wooden skull masks called calacas and dance in honor of their deceased relatives. The wooden skulls also are placed on altars that are dedicated to the dead. Sugar skulls, made with the names of the dead person on the forehead, are eaten by a relative or friend, according to Mary J. Adrade, who has written three books on Dia de los Muertos.

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The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual.

The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.

The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the month long ritual.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjAGNQEd The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the month long ritual.

Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life.

Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.

"The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic," said Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University. "They didn't separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures."

However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.

In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual.

But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.

To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.

Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth, Andrade said.

Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.

"It's celebrated different depending on where you go," Gonzalez said.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

In Guadalupe, the ritual is celebrated much like it is in rural Mexico.

"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated real pretty by the people."

In Mesa, the ritual has evolved to include other cultures, said Zarco Guerrero, a Mesa artist.

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"Last year, we had Native Americans and African-Americans doing their own dances," he said. "They all want the opportunity to honor their dead."

In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.

"We honor them by transforming the room into an altar," Guerrero said. "We offer incense, flowers. We play their favorite music, make their favorite food."

At Guerrero's house, the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well.

"We pay homage to the Mexicans killed in auto accidents while being smuggled across the border," he said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjA8CMH5

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Interpreting Halloween The History Channel Staff.

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.

ANCIENT ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

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HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-ortreat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

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TODAY’S HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS The American Halloween tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

HALLOWEEN SUPERSTITIONS Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly

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USDA Forest Service. f you are lucky, you live in one of those parts of the world where Nature has one last fling before settling down into winter's sleep. In those lucky places, as days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the quiet green palette of summer foliage is transformed into the vivid autumn palette of reds, oranges, golds, and browns before the leaves fall off the trees. On special years, the colors are truly breathtaking.

How does autumn color happen?

For years, scientists have worked to understand the changes that happen to trees and shrubs in the autumn. Although we don't know all the details, we do know enough to explain the basics and help you to enjoy more fully Nature's multicolored autumn farewell. Three factors influence autumn leaf color-leaf pigments, length of night, and weather, but not quite in the way we think. The timing of color change and leaf fall are primarily regulated by the calendar, that is, the increasing length of night. None of the other environmental influences-temperature, rainfall, food supply, and so on-are as unvarying as the steadily increasing length of night during autumn. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature's autumn palette.

Where do autumn colors come from?

A color palette needs pigments, and there are three types that are involved in autumn color. 

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Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for their food. Trees in the temperate zones store these sugars for their winter dormant period.

Carotenoids, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.

Anthocyanins, which give color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.

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Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in the chloroplasts of leaf cells throughout the growing season.

Most anthocyanins are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells.

During the growing season, chlorophyll is continually being produced and broken down and leaves appear green. As night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that are present in the leaf are then unmasked and show their colors.

Certain colors are characteristic of particular species. Oaks turn red, brown, or russet; hickories, golden bronze; aspen and yellow-poplar, golden yellow; dogwood, purplish red; beech, light tan; and sourwood and black tupelo, crimson. Maples differ species by species-red maple turns brilliant scarlet; sugar maple, orange-red; and black maple, glowing yellow. Striped maple becomes almost colorless. Leaves of some species such as the elms simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drab brown.

The timing of the color change also varies by species. Sourwood in southern forests can become vividly colorful in late summer while all other species are still vigorously green. Oaks put on their colors long after other species have already shed their leaves. These differences in timing among species seem to be genetically inherited, for a particular species at the same latitude will show the same coloration in the cool temperatures of high mountain elevations at about the same time as it does in warmer lowlands.

Does weather affect autumn color?

The amount and brilliance of the colors that develop in any particular autumn season are related to weather conditions that occur before and during the time the chlorophyll in the leaves is dwindling.

Temperature and moisture are the main influences.

A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions-lots of sugar and lots of light-spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.

The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring, or a severe summer drought, can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.

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What triggers leaf fall?

In early autumn, in response to the shortening days and declining intensity of sunlight, leaves begin the processes leading up to their fall. The veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf gradually close off as a layer of cells forms at the base of each leaf. These clogged veins trap sugars in the leaf and promote production of anthocyanins. Once this separation layer is complete and the connecting tissues are sealed off, the leaf is ready to fall.

What does all this do for the tree?

Winter is a certainty that all vegetation in the temperate zones must face each year. Perennial plants, including trees, must have some sort of protection to survive freezing temperatures and other harsh wintertime influences.

Stems, twigs, and buds are equipped to survive extreme cold so that they can reawaken when spring heralds the start of another growing season. Tender leaf tissues, however, would freeze in winter, so plants must either toughen up and protect their leaves or dispose of them.

The evergreens-pines, spruces, cedars, firs, and so on-are able to survive winter because they have toughened up. Their needle-like or scale-like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid inside their cells contains substances that resist freezing. Thus the foliage of evergreens can safely withstand all but the severest winter conditions, such as those in the Arctic. Evergreen needles survive for some years but eventually fall because of old age.

The leaves of broadleaved plants, on the other hand, are tender and vulnerable to damage. These leaves are typically broad and thin and are not protected by any thick coverings. The fluid in cells of these leaves is usually a thin, watery sap that freezes readily. This means that the cells could not survive winter where temperatures fall below freezing. Tissues unable to overwinter must be sealed off and shed to ensure the plant's continued survival. Thus leaf fall precedes each winter in the temperate zones.

What happens to all those fallen leaves?

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decompose and restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layer of the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also become food for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.

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What happens to all those fallen leaves?

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decompose and restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layer of the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also become food for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.

It is quite easy to see the benefit to the tree of its annual leaf fall, but the advantage to the entire forest is more subtle. It could well be that the forest could no more survive without its annual replenishment from leaves than the individual tree could survive without shedding these leaves. The many beautiful interrelationships in the forest community leave us with myriad fascinating puzzles still to solve.

Where can I see autumn color in the United States?

You can find autumn color in parks and woodlands, in the cities, countryside, and mountains - anywhere you find deciduous broadleaved trees, the ones that drop their leaves in the autumn. Nature's autumn palette is painted on oaks, maples, beeches, sweet gums, yellow-poplars, dogwoods, hickories, and others. Your own neighborhood may be planted with special trees that were selected for their autumn color.

New England is rightly famous for the spectacular autumn colors painted on the trees of its mountains and countryside, but the Adirondack, Appalachian, Smoky, and Rocky Mountains are also clad with colorful displays. In the East, we can see the reds, oranges, golds, and bronzes of the mixed deciduous woodlands; in the West, we see the bright yellows of aspen stands and larches contrasting with the dark greens of the evergreen conifers.

Many of the Forest Service's 100 plus scenic byways were planned with autumn color in mind. In 31 States you can drive on over 3,000 miles of scenic byways, and almost everyone of them offers a beautiful, colorful drive sometime in the autumn.

Thanks to the USDA Forest Service for this contribution to InterpNEWS.

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Don’t Have the “Real Thing” at Your Site?

So What!

Chris Brusatte,

Taylor Studios designed a stagecoach for visitors to climb into at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Taylor Studios, Inc. Museums and interpretive sites are known for having the “real thing” – objects, artifacts, and specimens that are authentic and original primary sources. Nothing quite matches the associative power of seeing the gun that killed Abraham Lincoln or viewing an original fossil of an animal that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.

These resources are one of the many ways that museums and interpretive sites separate themselves from other educational tools, such as books, websites, and documentaries.

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But what if your site does not have the “real thing”? What if you are a history museum without original artifacts or a natural history institution without an abundance of fossils or wildlife specimens? This is the reality for many interpretive sites, and many often wring their hands over such a dearth in their collections. But these sites should not be so pessimistic. There are many successful – and powerful – ways that sites can create top-notch interpretive experiences even without having the “real thing.”

To begin with, there is the obvious solution: replicas, casts, and reproductions. There is no doubt that these are much less powerful than the original objects themselves. However, they still provide an accurate visual and “feel” similar to the original item, and they indeed have some benefits that the “real thing” itself lacks. Perhaps best of all, they often can be accessed, touched, and even “played with” – something out of the question for most original artifacts and specimens. No museum visitor would expect to be able to get inside the actual stagecoach that Samuel Clemens rode from Missouri to Nevada in the 19th century, but at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri they can climb right into a true-to-life replica stagecoach built by Taylor Studios.

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Similarly, Taylor Studios and many other firms sculpt completely scientifically-accurate (and life-size!) models of animals and plants for museums and nature centers. Many of these models are made durable enough for visitors to touch and even climb upon. A visitor to the zoo knows that he cannot (and should not!) climb atop the ferocious African lion – but at many museums he or she can have the powerful experience of doing just that atop a completely lifelike model. Finally, some of the most powerful paleontology exhibits include touchable fossil casts that visitors can handle, study, and explore. Imagine doing that with an original piece of Sue the T. rex!

Aside from creating replicas and models, sites that lack the “real thing” can also invest heavily in interactive experiences. Interactives provide a visitor-focused, hands-on, participatory learning experience often missing from museums that display only case after case of original objects. Interactives can be high-tech, low-tech, or no-tech: the important thing is not technology, but giving the visitors a hands-on and minds-on experience. At Taylor Studios, we create interactives of all kinds – from simple flip doors and flip books, to immense spinner wheel activities and A/V games. Education is all about the experience – even if a site lacks original objects, it can still engage visitors with important content through creative use of interactive displays.

Finally, there are those sites themselves which are the “real thing.” The Alamo, Ford’s Theatre, Mount Vernon.

What if you are one of those sites, but the “real thing” no longer exists? Imagine the Mount Vernon historical site without the mansion – it may indeed seem hopeless! But once again creativity can save the day. Taylor Studios is currently working with a historic site dedicated to an old Spanish mission – but the mission building no longer exists. In fact, there are no above-ground structures remaining at all. However, the site itself still tells an important story about the cultural history of 18th century missionaries, Native Americans, settlers, and traders. Interpretive exhibits at the site’s visitor center, outdoor walking trails highlighting past archaeological finds, and dynamic programming all combine to make the site a powerful exemplar for interpretation at its best.

And it all has been done in the glaring absence of the “real thing.”

So, yes, it goes without saying that original objects, artifacts, specimens, and even buildings are unmatched in their raw associative power. But interpretive sites that lack such assets need not wring their hands. Education has always been – and is perhaps even more-so today – about experience, and there are many tools in an interpreter’s toolbox to create experiences that are lasting and powerful.

Chris Brusatte, Interpretive Planner at Taylor Studios, Inc.

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Shining a positive light on beacons Dan Boys, Creative Director, Audio Trails / InterpNews Regional Editor.

In last month’s edition of InterpNews Paul C. Thistle posed some interesting points in “Get Noses Pressed up to Vitrines, not Devices”. My article will argue that, when used thoughtfully, Bluetooth Beacons can help enhance a visitor experience by providing navigation and offering a greater appreciation of the artefacts within the museum setting.

Is technology really the elephant in the room when it comes to museums? I believe Paul’s article was very blinkered in its outlook, and I will try to provide another side of the coin with the use of two case studies. I must point out we certainly have no affiliation with the IT company referred to in Paul’s article, but I am approaching this topic from a slightly biased angle; we’ve just launched two beacon-based apps (our first with this technology). In both instances beacons were chosen for the way they could solve a problem and enhance the visitor experience.

Implementing this technology has been an interesting exercise, and I had been reticent to use them until now because most of our projects are focussed on outdoor locations. Satellites, in this situation, provide a very reliable way to trigger content and peel away the layers of history that may lay undiscovered for the majority of passers-by (bear in mind that physical interpretation is not always appropriate e.g. panels can intrude on a natural setting). A case in point is another app we have just launched, ‘Ingleborough Dales GeoTrails’. I’ll perhaps write about that one next time.

Kelham Island Museum A couple of years ago we built the ‘Abbeydale Explorer’ app for the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust (SIMT). It contains fly-through videos of inaccessible areas e.g. the upper floors, and helps mobility impaired visitors reach the hard-to-access parts of the former 17th century ‘factory’. In addition, it contains well-structured interpretation that includes activities for children to learn more and engage with the site. The app has proved an overwhelming success with visitors. As a result, SIMT asked us to quote for an app at their Kelham Island Museum site. Here, staff identified that visitors found it very hard to navigate their way around the museum - often missing whole exhibition spaces! Our usual approach of using GPS triggering from satellites was not suitable for an indoor environment, so we suggested the use of beacons.

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InterpNews We placed one beacon in each of the museum’s nine key zones. When the visitor enters a zone they receive a notification (only one per day per zone). The notification is akin to a member of staff saying “while you are here look at this…” Furthermore, the content displayed depends on which tour they selected when the entered the museum (users can change tours in Settings). Currently there are three tours, focussed on different themes and audiences. In addition the map pin changes colour (orange) to show visitors which zone they are in. Each zone is numbered. Visitors now get to see the whole museum!

Treasure Hunt

Separate beacons are used to facilitate the treasure hunt feature in the app. Obscure close up photos of certain artefacts are the only clues. Young visitors, especially, have had great fun hunting these down and unlocking bonus content.

The feedback for this app has also been very positive (see right). Yes, the app does encourage extra screen time but in return it does make it far easier to find all the different zones. One visitor specifically commented that, “It makes you look at the objects differently”.

Things that you really like about the Kelham Island Museum app: Loved the map, the way it changes colour to show where you are and how far different places are.

Also the focus of different areas – some of these are not obvious to a visitor.

Loved the Treasure Hunt – so many places to choose from and to revisit.

Enjoyed the extra facts too.

Souvenir selfie! Fun great idea.

Tailored to different visitors Additional information to that already in exhibits The ‘current room’ feature is really good – very useful It’s good there’s a map so it’s easier to find.

Nice colours. The stories were good.

It’s intuitive The app looks great and really sleek It makes you look at the objects differently.

Gower Heritage Centre Similarly, having produced the ‘This is Gower’ app on behalf of the City and County of Swansea (Wales), we were asked to provide one of the peninsula’s principle tourist attractions with their own visitor guide app. The former mill dates back to the 12th century and visitors easily lose their way in the labyrinth of corridors. As with Kelham Island we installed beacons at all the key places of interest - each of the small rooms contain a large amount of history that has been carefully curated. Notifications alert visitors to location-specific content (and the map shows their location), and with an international audience to cater for the app is able to deliver the text and images in seven different languages, something on-site panels just couldn’t handle sensibly; and a leaflet of comparable size would be unwieldy and costly to print. In addition, the app contains walking trails to direct visitors to places of interest in the wider area, allowing them to make the best time of their day.

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Signposts

I moved into apps from an interpretation background, rather than as an IT expert moving into the museum field, therefore I may have a different perspective on how we plan out our apps, compared to other companies. In fact, I regularly bang my head against a wall when I see some IT companies touting for business in this sector purely to make a quick buck. Our goal is not to keep visitors in the app (see Paul’s article). Our goal is to provide a fulfilling experience, and in the two examples cited above the apps signpost users to make the most of their visit, and to interact with the scene in front of them. They help visitors find their way and uncover stories that may otherwise go missed. These apps help reveal the stories contained within the vitrines. They give life to objects that, for some, had no interpretation attached to them beforehand - staff can’t always be on hand to interpret their meaning. The apps encourage visitors to look, touch, smell and explore. They are focussed on the visitor experience, rather than the technology. Our clients have welcomed this addition to their interpretive toolbox, and their visitors have been overwhelmingly positive about the benefits. Bluetooth beacons were chosen as the the best tool to solve a problem. Digital is here to stay, and we will ensure that our apps continue to point visitors towards, and reveal the stories of, the place they come to visit.

Dan Boys, Creative Director, Audio Trails / InterpNews Regional Editor.

Contact me at interpnews@audiotrails.co.uk.

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New Media Technology – Helping Museums & Cultural Sites Navigate Funding Challenges Gary Van Hoose

For museum interpreters and operators, the thinking often is: We can’t afford new media technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality.. But when it comes to gaining interest from museum funders, perhaps your question should be: How can we afford not to use it?

In 2018, new media technologies are not only a big attraction for museum audiences, it’s also the thing that puts the “fun” in the experience for funders.

Funders love new technology Funders are always looking for new ways to move cultural storytelling forward, and institutions that are forward forward-looking are more attractive to them. Just consider some of the major Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) funding programs that have been launched in the last couple of years.

At Fledgling, we have an eye towards the impact of stories in whatever form.

Can they engage us in meaningful ways that lead to some change in our attitudes and behaviors? And with VR, I am fascinated by the effect that this technology has on the brain.

Diana Barrett Fledgling Fund

The Knight Foundation1 launched a $1.87 million program in the U.S. last year. Working with 12 major museums, the project is exploring how new technologies like AR and VR can help connect audiences to works of art. In the U.K., the Arts and Humanities Hu 1 Research Council is supporting 32 new research projects, including AR and VR projects, with £1.88 million in funding.

Immersive experiences open hearts and checkbooks

According to Adweek, many types of charitable organizations are discovering VR technology as a great way to fundraise, finding that VR experiences are much more motivational for givers. In a recent event at the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts for a New York nonnon profit, VR headsets were distributed.

The audience then viewed an immersive 3D film, leading to $240,000 in contributions in one night, much more than expected. After seeing the VR experience, a single donor raised his original contribution from $60,000 to $400,000. _______________________________ ___ 1 https://knightfoundation.org/articles/museums https://knightfoundation.org/articles/museums-technology-new-avenues-for-wonder 1

https://ahrc.ukri.org/newsevents/news/ahrc-to to-fund-32-projects-that-will-lead-the-way-for-future-immersive immersive-experiences/

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InterpNews “Philanthropy shouldn’t be out of a sense of obligation. It should be fun,” says actor Edward Norton, founder of the Detroitbased technology company CrowdRise1. “People will want to participate more when they’re having fun doing them.” And the potential to marry immersive experiences has interested none other than Facebook, owners of the high-end virtual reality platform Oculus Rift, which has launched a VR 360° filmmaking lab focused on social filmmaking, VR for Good1. Causes might be leading the way, but museums and cultural sites can learn from their example: moving hearts and minds in an immersive experience leads to greater financial support.

"Our perspective is this area is only getting more interesting for causes, and the companies and organizations investing in it will see awesome returns," Emily Hawkins Director, Partnerships and Business Development

A funder’s perspective Different funders have different mandates and guidelines for awarding grants and funding, but it’s helpful to get a look inside the decision-making process. According to Diana Barrett of The Fledgling Fund1, an organization that specializes in visual storytelling in larger social change efforts, there are several criteria to take into consideration when deciding on funding new technology projects:  

Story: They seek compelling, authentic and timely narrative Approach: Can this story be told as well using more traditional methods? The AR and VR components must add measurable value to the experience  User Experience: Does this project add to a “life experience” that the user already understands and connects with? More likely to become a successful project  Role of our Funding: Can the expense and learning curve be justified? And when in the process should—or does—funding occur? The Fledgling Fund often chooses later in the cycle due to a focus on outreach and engagement. Other funders may have different priorities or guidelines  Value to the Field: Projects can also contribute to the storytelling or knowledge field in some way.

Lessons a project can offer to others in a common or related field can be considered as value adds  Distribution and Reach: Distribution platforms for AR and VR are still being developed and competitively sorted out, but they look for projects to reach and engage audiences to move an issue or idea forward. Reach is increasing exponentially with “practical” and everyday usage provided by greater functionality and lower costs.

Trending towards non-linear One of the AR and VR trends that museum storytellers are discovering and making an impact with is non-linear, more individually targeted storytelling. In the EU-funded Cultural Heritage Experiences through Socio-personal interactions and Storytelling, or CHESS project, the institutions use visitor profiling to enhance the experience. They match visitors to predetermined profiles developed using data and surveys, visitor studies and ethnographic observations to learn more about a given museum’s visitor base. Each visitor is matched to one of several representative profiles, which influences the personalized experience to be provided at the museum. _____________________ 3

http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-virtual-reality-inspiring-donors-dig-deep-charitable-causes-171641/ https://www.oculus.com/vr-for-good/ 5 https://immerse.news/virtual-reality-a-funders-perspective-8ab369a1e063 4

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“Doing this makes the visitor experience non-linear,” write CHESS consortium members Professor Yannis Ioannidis of University of Athens, Dr. Olivier Balet of Diginext, and Prof Dimitrios Pandermalis of the Acropolis Museum in an article for The Guardian1. “The system constantly adapts to a visitor's preferences.

For example, if a visitor fails in a game or stays longer in front of certain artifacts, the system can adapt the storyline. It makes the experience more dynamic and relevant, so instead of sending the visitor to the X exhibit, the system might instead choose to send them to the Y exhibit, where they will get more information that's relevant to what they've shown an interest in.”

Immersive Technologies and Memory Expect more new approaches to soon come from the UK, as well. The Arts and Humanities Research Council recently announced the funding of 32 new research projects to “explore a mixture of three areas in which the UK has world class creative assets and technology partners.” The three unique attributes that the projects will focus on include Memory, Place and Performance, and the projects will work with brand-new types of immersive experiences, such as:  Bringing together circus, street art performers and directors to create an immersive experience  Providing augmented reality book browsing in historic libraries  Initiating a project of immersive and inclusive music performances by young musicians with a physical disability, who will help co-design the technologies for a unique musical showcase The way forward Museums are only beginning to embrace technology to try to turn around the declines in museum attendance by members of the millennial generation. Declines may be due to the competition for leisure activities, and in part due to a generational expectation for immersive digital experiences everywhere they go.

If a cultural site is interested in incorporating immersive technology into their programming, then recommendations include:  

Don’t overdo it by obliterating the “Real Life” experience. You don’t want visitors to arrive and be bombarded with technology all over the walls, floor and ceilings, overwhelming the objects in the collection Make sure that the technology enhances the visitor’s experience and understanding of the objects. For example, one Met VR experience provided visitors with an up-close micro-CT scan experience of a set of intricately carved 16th-century miniature prayer beads that fascinated visitors7

 So, what is the way forward for many cultural sites and museums? As AR and VR become more common, the costs associated with producing those experiences will drop. But, waiting for the economics to adjust may cost a museum or site a leadership position with their audience. AR and VR are already showing that they can help drive traffic and increase ticket sales across generations.

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https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/apr/04/storyaugmented-reality-technology-museums 7 7

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/6/15563922/museums-vr-ar-apps-digital-technology

agrilife.org/ertr/files/2016/12/RN92.pdf

InterpNews And as audience expectations rise, it could quickly become a must-have feature: think how quickly YouTube has become a dominant influence. And while still early, it’s possible that immersive technologies can help contain some costs for staffing and interpretation over time. Particularly, the content can capture and preserve the knowledge of experts, current staff and volunteers without adding headcount or possibly even reducing such, which helps to offset the funding investment.

As always, the question of using this technology and the related funding issues will be answered once the results are in from newly funded projects.

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The Value of Augmented Reality from a Business Model Perspective7 School of Tourism, Events and Hospitality Management, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom In terms of the value of AR for stakeholders, it was suggested AR would help preserve the knowledge of the existing staff for the enjoyment, education and entertainment of future generations. For instance, G5 commented “as the place evolves, our older members of staff who have knowledge of the place will not be here, so it can preserve that knowledge”. ... AR could help improve the efficiency and effectiveness for staff explaining complex process and descriptions, whilst ensuring visitor engagement and increasing understanding...AR would save time and make the job of the guides easier.

Stakeholders are recognizing many financial benefits of introducing AR: increasing visitors spending and retention, adding value to the visitor’s experience, appealing to a wider audience, increasing visitor numbers, improving revenues, improving job security and improving marketing. It will also demonstrate commitment to improvement, innovation and site advancement to attract more funding from local stakeholders.

Gary Van Hoose (gvanhoose@alterisgroup.com) works at the Alteris Group, a global digital learning and marketing company in Michigan, USA. Their global learning and technology teams stand ready to assist with any event, speaker support, content creation or production of digital multimedia solutions. Mobile: 248.342.2668

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Judy Fort Brenneman Write Anyway I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else, but I spent all my flight time reading. I'd splurged and bought two books at the Tattered Cover Book Store outpost on B Concourse, read the first handful of pages of each, and got so thoroughly engrossed in the mystery mystery-thriller (The Body Reader by Anne Frasier) that I ignored my promise to spend flight time writing. By the time we landed, I was about a hundred pages in.

I'm in town for several meetings and some writing time of my own, at least that's the hope. After lunch with a friend, I settled in at the hotel. I had really been enjoying the book, and the temptation to ignore writing and just stretch out and read is almost overwhelming.

It's lovely here in the solitude of the hotel room, with my travel speaker quietly broadcasting music that I enjoy (which is also so music that usually helps me focus on my work, but at the moment, is simply enjoyable).

Eventually, I will wander downstairs to eat supper.

But first I am going to write. I press the tip of my pen against the paper, nudge the tip up and over, making first marks.

What I want—need—to to do is write the first draft of an article on "Wild Writing" (the topic of my breakout session at the November 2018 NAI conference), but my brain is refusing to cooperate.

I have already spent some unknown (but definitely too lo long) ng) amount of time browsing through old newsletter articles, pretending to look for inspiration. The truth is that I was letting myself be tempted to cheat, to just pull some old piece out and slap it up on the monitor and call it done. As for "inspiration"? "inspiration Well, I have my Electric Lemons book here, so I could just flip it open and pull some ideas from it, if I truly needed inspiration.

No, inspiration is not what's lacking. Even if it were, I'd have to write anyway, so that's what I'm doing. I'm writing, despite the fact that I'm exhausted from the travel, too little sleep, and the shuttle bus arriving early so I couldn't quite finish my breakfast. My stomach is slightly upset, not all the way to sick but enough irritated that it's distracting. My tinnitus is kicking up a fuss, too. Amazingly enough, I do not have a headache, so maybe be the extra water I drank at lunch is fending off my usual travel travel-dehydration dehydration pains.

I know I need to emerge from my hotel room and eat something with protein for supper, and I need to do that early enough that whatever I eat has a chance to settle before I go to bed, which means I have a limited amount of time to write and that I need to pay attention to the clock, especially since I'm in a different time zone. I smile, remembering my call home to let family know I'd arrived safely, and to report that I was w going to have to spend the next morning dealing with a client's project because of stuff that is beyond my control, which made me feel a little panicky about both the project and my own tight writing schedule. My husband's advice was to eat something butt mostly drink wine. Lots of wine.

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And all of this stuff is rolling around in my head, and I am writing anyway. This is one of the things I tell my writing coaching clients all the time: Write anyway. Say to yourself, "Yes, X is happening and Y is happening and I feel like Z and Q. And I am writing anyway."

And then you write.

It's this curious thing. I can have a day like this, when Resistance is so strong that it's nearly impossible for me to open my notebook, let alone get words down on the page. At the same time, I know that if I sneak up on it, write about nothing at all, just keep my pen moving, I am writing, eventually, Resistance eases up a little.

Though Resistance never vanishes entirely. Even with my pen moving (I am not allowing myself to stop, I am insisting that my hand continue to move), she lurks. I noticed it at the end of the previous paragraph, when the part of my brain that recognizes patterns noticed that we were writing about how the realities of life can get in the way of our creative work, and we have to write anyway. "Ah—conclusion!" proclaimed Resistance.

"You've figured out what you're writing about, you made your point, now we're done." With that thought came the thicker-than-molasses feeling that I used to think was fatigue but now know is Resistance trying to get me to quit writing.

But I won't quit, especially not now, because one of the other things I've learned is that it isn't unusual to have the really good stuff show up just as you're about to quit: the cool idea, the surprising turn of phrase, the tangent that you thought was some stupid wandering off into the weeds that turns out to be exactly the right thing, the most important thing, that you and your writing (your story) needed, the thing you didn't know you needed until it showed up in those ink scrawls on the now-filled page. And if you quit (or worse, never begin), you'll never discover that thing, whatever it is.

And now I'm thinking about how do I help my students and clients understand that? And understand it in ways that their bosses and supervisors understand it? Because I think what I'm really talking and writing about isn't just writing and getting around Resistance. I think what I'm really talking about is time: we must allow ourselves the time to let these words rise up from wherever they hide, time to be messy on the page long enough, time to let enough ink flow where it wants to, until those ideas find their expression.

It is the paradox of straight lines and nonlinear solutions. When I think about teaching and how to structure a course, whether it's a short breakout session or a multiday workshop, there's part of me that says, "This, then that": teach this skill first, then teach that one next, so it builds on the first one. At the same time, this process that I'm rambling on about here and trying to articulate is not linear.

Or am I overthinking this? I wrote those last couple of sentences as if believing linear cannot coexist with nonlinear—and that's not true, at least I don't think it's true. Somehow, the concepts I'm playing with are simultaneously both linear and nonlinear, and I need a way to make that okay for my students and clients.

Maybe it's more like pearls on a string. Imagine each pearl is hollow, and within each pearl, we make creative messes, figure out what it is we want to say, whether it's part of an essay, an interpretive theme, or a workshop session. Then we slide that pearl (now filled with whatever cool creative thing the ink delivered) along the string and begin whatever mess we need to make in the next pearl.

The only way for this to happen is to spend the time writing, contemplating, and writing some more.

What we strive to create—stories that persuade, educate, and inspire—is so much more than a fact list or a dry report. It isn't as simple as reading up on a topic and interviewing a few content experts and Alakazam! the polished draft appears.

We need not just the ability to write coherently, but the willingness to spend the time to explore, develop, and discover. We need time.

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And time is the one thing we are always short of. It is the thing we (and often, our bosses and supervisors) think we can do without, or do with less of. Surely it doesn't take that long to write a 75-word label. It can't possibly take eight hours to write an article or all morning to come up with a headline. Interpretive themes are only a single sentence; that can't possibly justify weeks of drafts and revisions and rethinking and...

But it does. Yes, there are days when something beautiful and whole and practically perfect falls out of the sky and onto the page, but those are rare gifts from the universe. And sometimes, those gifts are still just rough drafts.

Every writer has the time. Not every writer takes it.

Resistance is napping in the chair tucked in the corner behind me. I watch as the words trail from my pen: It takes courage and creativity to write the stories that inform, persuade, and provide. Wild Writing helps break through fear and resistance, transforming our writing, our readers—and often ourselves.

I take my time.

And I keep writing.

Keep writing!

Judy judyb@greenfire-creative.com,

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Inclusive Design Accessible Interpretation Kate Lindley, AHI trustee and Events coordinator and Cassie Herschel-Shorland, inclusive museum design consultant.

Touch tour experiences.

As part of the Association for Heritage Interpretation (AHI) focus on sharing best practice and supporting professional development, we run one-day events, which are a great opportunity to showcase innovative work and help interpreters develop their skills.

With increasing demand to consider diversity and sensory inclusivity in heritage interpretation, we have teamed up with Cassie Herschel-Shorland, inclusive museum design consultant, to develop a workshop which would offer practical advice and information on inclusive design and accessible interpretation, as well as give opportunities to discuss the challenges and creative opportunities diverse audiences may bring.

Timely, last year, the British Museum’s Egyptian Sculpture Gallery Touch Tour was awarded the winner of the AHI Discover Heritage Awards in the Interpretation for a target audience category and this workshop provided an opportune moment to showcase one of the best inclusive approaches to interpretation.

We began with setting our individual objectives for the day, with Cassie setting the scene and opening a conversation on inclusive interpretation in practice.

Case study – Egyptian sculpture gallery touch tour Stuart Frost, Head of Interpretation & Volunteers at British Museum, talked about the long journey of the Touch Tour from its inception to delivery.

The museum is a challenging place in terms of accessibility with the audience mostly from overseas, dwelling time in permanent galleries relatively low and over 60% of audience being first-time visitors. The most popular display is the Egyptian Gallery.

Working closely with museum’s curators nine large objects were chosen for the touch tour. Alongside the tour other resources were developed; a large print book guide, an audio descriptive guide for an enhanced audio tour and a Braille guide with raised tactile drawings. A special training for volunteer tour guides was developed to enhance their skills in leading the touch tours, but also provide support and assistance to visitors.

The touch tours are easily identifiable by visitors having badges and lanyards to inform the security that the visitors can touch the exhibits.

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We have benefited from the experience of Ferelith Hordon, a volunteer guide who told us that the touch tour is very much about a dialog between the guide and the participants as opposed to telling the history of an object.

Often you must be creative, more descriptive and sensitive to your audience requirements.

As the touch tour became popular, it sparked an idea for this approach to be adopted across all galleries. The aim is to have at least one object in each gallery available for a touch tour.

What makes a visitor experience or interpretive journey inclusive and accessible?

Cassie posed a question to the participants and a lively discussion followed. Participants brought their own experiences into the discussion. We have come up with five key ingredients:  Inclusive welcome – to all visitors  Involvement – staff, volunteers, visitors -ideally right from the start of your project  Finding the right balance - what you can or can’t do and being flexible  Creativity - Considering a wide choice of inclusive format options for interpretation (such as clear print and descriptive audio information)  Providing an immersive experience without spoiling the offer Liz Porter, Access and Equality Manager, British Museum talked about inclusive design and multi-sensory experiences at Lewes Castle, Fort Brockhurst and the British Museum.

Liz started her presentation with a ball of string being weaved in and out across the room, to get the participants thinking about ‘how long is a piece of string?’ to provoke a conversation about the tensions that can arise when talking about accessible design and interpretation. She stressed that practical logistics versus aesthetics of the design must be well balanced.

Liz compared the approaches to inclusive interpretation at the three sites. Although the approaches varied, there were common practical steps that needed to be considered: 

Planning – building in access requirements into the contractors / consultants’ briefs, asking for demonstrations, and considering practical logistics and costings as far and early as possible.



Being creative - thinking about how to attract new audiences by using other forms of interpretation and trying out something new such as poetry, art, photography, music, performances, storytelling, assistive technologies.



What does access and inclusion mean to you / your organisation? – and developing your diversity strategies. Every audience can engage however, we all engage differently. Take yourself out of the comfort zone and think about different disabilities.



Consult and have conversations - co-curate and collaborate, work with the community, staff, volunteers and capture feedback from visitors – it keeps the conversation going.

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Integrating inclusive design was a practical session where participants, split into groups, got to explore the galleries and encouraged to think about opportunities for inclusive design solutions.

The afternoon kicked off with John Wilson, Historian, Lecturer and a Tour Guide, talking about integrating British Sign Language (BSL) and encouraging Deaf community to enjoy museums and galleries. In his inspirational presentation, John re-capped on a difference between a Deaf and a deaf community. Whilst the Deaf community has its own history, culture and language (BSL is a native language of the Deaf community); deaf with a lower case ‘d’ means to talk generally about those with a hearing loss during their lifetime.

John gave practical tips on how to create opportunities for greater involvement of d/Deaf audiences:         

Put on special events - but beware that Deaf people prefer a native Deaf presenter and / or a good quality BSL interpreter. You can develop a bespoke training for your Deaf guides.

Multimedia panels are great if within your budget, but can be costly Subtitling! – often gets overlooked, but it’s easy and simple to do Publicity – for example some museums and galleries run access events run by Deaf people for Deaf people. Others have their own BSL pages – you can use BSL in your marketing programme – videos are easy.

Keep it simple – use plain English language – remember this is not a native language of Deaf people If your event is for Deaf people, make sure you say so, there is no need to label it accessible or inclusive Organize deaf awareness training for your staff Involve Deaf people – in publicity, in project / event development, in interpretation and ask Deaf people for feedback (e.g. to see if your Deaf interpreter is good) Explore Deaf history locally; are there stories you can develop / interpret?

As only about 2% of Deaf community in the UK are employed in the museum sector there is a need and opportunities to be explored around training provision for Deaf guides nationally.

Cassie Herschel Shorland rounded up the day with her presentation on guidance and resources available for inclusive and accessible interpretation. She delved in the access and inclusive design definitions and regulations, giving examples of some best practice guidance available.

Overall, the day was a good mix of theory and practical experiences, with thought provoking presentations and expertise from our speakers. The day sparked off conversations around inclusivity and access within heritage setting and the many opportunities that lie ahead for museums and heritage attractions to open up to new audiences. We hope these conversations to continue in future as well as at the AHI annual conference in Chester, taking place this October. For more information please visit www.ahi.org.uk

Kate Lindley, AHI trustee and Events coordinator and Cassie Herschel-Shorland, inclusive museum design consultant. (Photo – Kate presenting for the workshop.) kate.lindley@ahi.org.uk

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Exhibition Development – the (Most Important) Basics Patricia Grimshaw Museum Consultant

Exhibition Development – the (Most Important) Basics I love being a Project Manager. I mean, I really love it. I am involved in all aspects of an exhibition from initial ideation to working out the storyline selecting artifacts, from plans to fabrication, and from installation to opening. When an exhibition opens, I feel like I’m sending it off into the “real world” for visitors to see, experience and, ultimately, judge.

I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I’ve worked with and for a national institution for over a decade. I have a team that includes interpretive planners, programmers, artifact experts and technicians, not to mention a fabricator, designer and marketers. I have the support of my bosses, and my fellow colleagues from whom I can draw inspiration or simply bounce off ideas. The exhibition development process at this level is pretty complex, and can take several years from the original proposal to opening day. However, the same principals that are used at the national level can easily be applied on a smaller scale, and with great success.

The Big (but short) Idea.

One thing I learned from the last exhibition on which I worked was to have a solid Big Idea. All exhibitions start with an idea, but if it keeps changing, or if it’s too fuzzy, it’s like trying to shoot a moving target. For example, I had a conversation with an Interpretive Planner who was frustrated that the designer just “didn’t get it”. Granted, our exhibition idea was complicated. We were trying to put forth a concept as opposed to an event, but that concept needed to be hinged on a specific event. I asked her to explain to me what she had told the designer. A couple of minutes later, I stopped her. What we needed was an elevator pitch, a tweet. We needed the exhibition idea in 140 characters or less. If we couldn’t get our concept across like that, we didn’t have a hope of displaying it in a cohesive way for visitors. So we worked on it, broke it down to its essence, and ta da! It made sense, and it worked, very well I might add.

What is in your collection and how are you going to use it?

Unless you’re hosting a travelling show from someone else’s collection, use what you have. And if you don’t have it, don’t try to build an exhibition around it. Sounds simple, right? It should be, but it isn’t always. A lot of exhibitions start with a general idea: we’re going to do an exhibition for the anniversary of x or this person’s impact on the community, etc. So you start going through your collection to discover that you have some great stuff, but not really enough to hold the idea together. So it starts expanding, and getting bigger, and fuzzier.

Now the exhibition is still essentially about That Thing, but it also includes items that are only tangentially related, because you’re trying to fill out your display cases.

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A few years ago I worked on an exhibition on women in the military. Originally we wanted to cover 100 years of service. We had fantastic stories, great items, and some real gems in terms of artifacts. Only the exhibition was lop-sided. We had lots of artifacts from the First and Second World Wars, and almost nothing from the modern era. Sure, we had “characters” and lots of information, but nothing to physically show for it. Visitors like to see stuff. So, we made the decision to cut the exhibition back. We focused solely on what we had in house, or what we already knew we could borrow, and we let those items and those stories really shine. And I’m happy to say the resulting exhibition was a success.

Proofread like your life depends on it.

Visitors will always, always find a typo. Trust me. Proofread your text several times, and then proofread it some more before sending it to print. Don’t make changes to the overall text every time (this drives designers crazy, by the way), but do make sure that everything is correct. And then check it again, just to be sure. I like to read the text out loud, as you’re more likely to find errors than when reading it in your head.

Trust your designer If your exhibition budget allows you to hire or even consult with a designer, trust that they know what they’re doing. I don’t mean that you should blindly put the entire exhibition in their hands, but you hired them to do a job: let them do it. I have certainly had disagreements with designers before, and have asked them to change colours, layout, etc. to make the storyline and exhibitions flow better. After all, we (the museum folks) are the subject experts, and ultimately it is our exhibition. However, the designer knows that a particular colour of blue will work better than another colour. Or that a slightly artistic layout of text and graphics will still work well, over something more “traditional”. While it’s ok to keep a firm hand on the overall exhibition layout and flow, not to mention visitor accessibility, it’s also necessary to realize that, unless you have a background in graphic or interior design, you are not the expert.

Fabrication & Installation This is where the exhibition process can get quite intimidating, and where delays are very likely. A good fabricator will ask lots of questions to make sure that what they’re producing is what you need, but don’t be afraid to make a site visit to the shop to ensure that everything is going well. Likewise, during installation it is necessary to be on site and available. The team installing (if you have one) won’t be as familiar with the layout as you are, and may need clarification with regard to plans, placement and the like. There are always amendments that need to be made on the fly, and if you’re readily available to answer questions, it ensures that delays are kept to a minimum.

If you are the one doing the installation, make sure your volunteers are well versed in artifact handling, or at least have a crash course before assisting you. Text panels can be repaired or reprinted; artifacts cannot. Leave yourself plenty of time for installation so that you’re not rushing. When I plan my exhibition schedule, I always “pad” my calendar with a few extra days each for text writing, design and installation. It inevitably gets eaten up in the exhibition development process, but at least I’m not cutting into time I didn’t have in the first place.

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Now open those doors!

It’s finally here: opening. You’ve dusted, you’ve proofed, you’ve leveled and straightened, you’ve fretted over every detail. Now the public is allowed to come in a see it. For me, this is both the most exciting and the scariest part. Complete strangers, who don’t necessarily have any connection to the material whatsoever, are going to critique and comment on my work, and that of my team. I get butterflies every single time.

On opening day, I love to just sit quietly in the exhibition space and watch. I see how people read the text (are they reacting? Are they even reading it at all?), and how they move throughout the space (do they understand the flow, or are they confused by it?). I watch to see if they’re perhaps looking for somewhere to sit while watching an AV, or if they are bored and uninterested (hopefully not!). I watch to see if they call a friend over to see a particular object or read a specific story. Do they share their own experiences in relation to what they’re looking at?

Not everyone is going to enjoy the exhibition, and that’s ok. It is impossible to put on a display that appeals to every person who walks through the door (unless you’re Walt Disney, but wouldn’t we all like to have his budget!). So take what you’ve observed, and any comments that you night receive, and use this to make your next exhibition that much better. That’s what I love about the museum world: we are always learning, not only from the objects in our care and the people who once owned or used them, but also from the exhibitions themselves, and the visitors who are our bread and butter. We are in the business of public history; we are providing a public service. And it is up us to give the public the best experience that we can.

Patricia Grimshaw Museum Consultant - museologik grimshawp@msn.com

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Sound from the Ground East Perth Cemeteries Perth, Western Australia Sarah Murphy National Trust of Western Australia.

East Perth Cemeteries looking west.

One warm English summer’s evening a harpsichord could be heard in a very unusual heritage place - a 17th century grandstand. The music, originally written for the hunt, was being played in a place designed and built specifically for deer coursing, gambling and entertaining.

This moment is what inspired Sound from the Ground Ground.. The performance had such an impact imp on Sarah Murphy, she resolved to create an experience, equally compelling and memorable, centred on one of the heritage places in the care of the National Trust of Western Australia.

The site of the first gazetted burial ground for what is now the city of Perth, was the unexpected place that enabled contemporary audiences to connect to some of the thousands of lives that played out for better or worse in the formative years of the colony.

Sound from the Ground was an interpretation focussed artist in re residence sidence project that culminated in sell-out sell performances at East Perth Cemeteries.

The East Perth Cemeteries From tuberculosis, brought to the colony from the Old World, to typhoid, a fever that struck Perth at the same time as gold fever, the graves of East Perth Cemeteries are a record of the first 70 years of European migration to Western Australia.

Uniquely Western Australian stories are embodied in the collection of graves, reflecting the experiences of over 10,000 separate and interconnected lives. They reveal stories of commerce and government, family and relationships, exploration and change, faith and community, hardship and struggle, love, and ultimately of loss.

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From its establishment as a general cemetery in 1829 to its closure in 1899, almost all the people who died in Perth, from the wealthy and prominent to the poor or unknown, were buried on “Cemetery Hill�, a setting that today provides a rare experience of isolation and tranquility in the midst of a busy city.

Initially it was a general cemetery. The earliest colonists were mainly Church of England but Methodists arrived as early as 1830 and large numbers of Roman Catholics in the 1840s. Subsequently land was granted for independent denominational cemeteries: Church of England (1842), Catholic (1848), Congregational and Wesleyan (each in 1854), Jewish (1867), Presbyterian (1881) and Chinese (1888). An eighth cemetery was assigned for the burial of felons in 1867.

There is no doubt the individual grave markers at East Perth Cemeteries provide an invaluable resource for people tracing their family histories. The stone, slate, iron and marble are visual prompts for making connections with the people of the past. However the significance of this heritage place has not been generally considered in the context of its intangible values.

Gaps and absences also tell stories. There are areas of the Cemeteries that appear empty due to the loss of grave markers to fire, decay, and well intentioned clean ups of the site. Others never came to be as scarce resources were needed for the living as opposed to the dead. There were doubtless cases where the deceased had previously requested the anonymity of an unmarked grave. Then there are the spaces where the absence of grave markers tells of the shame surrounding those who died but were never spoken of such as illegitimate children or suicides.

The East Perth Cemeteries has been closed now for 119 years, twice as long as it was in operation. The history of its development and use, and context as a burial ground during a period of deprivation and hardship, lies at the heart of its heritage values.

The Residency From its inception, Sound from the Ground was underpinned by aims that included enhancing awareness and understanding of the graves and their relevance to contemporary society, and to interpret some of the stories they represent to new, non-traditional audiences. In addition the project was to challenge notions of how heritage places and collections may be understood and what they might mean.

Classical guitarist Dr Jonathan Fitzgerald was the artist in residence for the project. He was given total artistic freedom to develop a music narrative based on the powerful themes and stories represented by the collection of graves.

As his thinking about the graves matured Jonathan saw enormous potential to enrich the project further by recommending the commission of a piece of music. Local composer Duncan Gardiner was brought into the project and was later joined by fellow classical guitarists Melissa Fitzgerald and Jameson Feakes, rounding out the team to a nicely balanced quartet.

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Melissa Fitzgerald, Jonathan Fitzgerald, Duncan Gardiner and Jameson Feakes,

Jonathan spent many hours wandering the Cemeteries and immersed in diaries and books while pondering the stories the graves represent. He himself a migrant to Australia, Jonathan was interested in the circumstances that prompted the migration of people to the Swan River Colony. He was intrigued by the general optimism that prompted the migration to the colony that was all too commonly met by sorrow, hardship, pain and loss.

The story of the Hester family was one that particularly moved Jonathan. In 1829, tthe he Hester family of seven arrived. The following year Sophia Hester became one of 35 women buried at the Cemeteries known to have died through childbirth. She was followed days later by her sixth child - a staggering 32% of those buried there were infants. Works by contemporary Australian composers Richard Charlton and Nigel Westlake and an evocative selection of Mass movements dating from the 16th to 20th centuries, including one by Bishop Salvado of New Norcia, were chosen to narrate these difficult stori stories.

However within the seemingly impenetrable darkness Jonathan also found joy, happiness and optimism, and the perhaps unexpected realms of courtship, passion, flirtation and romantic love. George Fletcher Moore wrote of his infatuation with the Meares ddaughters aughters (who were later buried at the Cemeteries as was Moore’s housekeeper Letty McDermott). George Fletcher Moore also wrote music and his enthusiastic song Western Australia for Me,, written in 1831 for the first ball held in the Colony, was arranged by Jonathan for the guitar performance.

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Stone, Shell, Bone and Feather

A highlight of the residency was the piece commissioned during the project as a contemporary response to the graves. Its title Stone, Shell, Bone and Feather was taken from the material evidence observed by composer Duncan Gardiner as he explored the grave gravess in their unique landscape setting. He interrogated newspapers of the time for obituaries and detailed accounts of funerals, and consulted with members of the Jewish and Chinese communities as music related to their mourning practices was not readily accessible. acce Duncan explained in the performance program ““As As part of my composition process for this project I looked into old funeral music as inspiration for my new work. It was my intention to interweave the old and the new.

The new being my contemporary response to old music. Old music, being precisely music that was heard at the funerals of those who were buried in the East Perth Cemeteries Cemeteries.”

Graves encircle St Bartholomew’s Church, the performance venue

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InterpNews The first seven movements of Stone, Shell, Bone and Feather begin with direct quotations of the hymns that were performed at funerals, or music associated with mourning, for each of the seven faith traditions represented in the Cemeteries. The piece continues, inspired by the musical themes and emotions inherent in the pre-existing existing works. Duncan’s piece concludes with an eighth movement as an offering to the Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land.

On the Ground

The sold-out out performances were held in St Bartholomew’s Church and audience members were encouraged to wander the Cemeteries by moonlight during intermission. Specific graves that inspired the music narrative were gently illuminated to draw people towards them for closer engagement.

Noongar man Olman Walley opened with a Welcome to Country and an emotive didgeridoo performance that embedded all that was to follow in the hearts and minds of the audience. It was a powerful reminder of the layered nature of heritage eritage and the shared human experience.

The opening night performance was filmed and can be found on the National Trust’s website along with the program, artist vlogs and other footage developed through the course of the project. The quality of the musicianship ianship and the consideration given to the music selection is clearly evident. This content enables ongoing access to the project by the community and continues to extend the reach of Sound from the Ground.

Ground The project was highly successful in creating com community munity interest and engagement. There was no promotional budget for Sound from the Ground but radio and media interviews, National Trust’s publications and social media, and word of mouth around the music community resulted in capacity audiences. Audience evaluation undertaken at each of the performances revealed that 73% of those who attended had not visited the Cemeteries before and all intended to visit again.

Audience members in grave discussions during intermission. intermission

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The guitarists did not come from a heritage background and had never previously encountered a brief of this sort. While initially daunting, the project inspired them to explore new ways of considering music and its possibilities for storytelling. They relished the complete artistic freedom and the unique and immersive nature of the project. Playing at the Cemeteries surrounded by the graves that inspired and supported the music narrative was the type of opportunity many could only dream of.

For audiences it exposed them to a heritage place they had never previously given much consideration to and undoubtedly increased their understanding of East Perth Cemeteries and the myriad stories it represents. The project resurrected and reinterpreted individual pieces of music and shifted the focus within this significant heritage place while engaging audiences in unexpected, provocative and challenging ways.

This unique and unusual interpretation project has highlighted how intangible values associated with heritage places and collections may be unexpectedly revealed and brought to the attention of new audiences. Similarly it has served to enhance understanding of why heritage is important by making connections between past lives and contemporary society. This is key to the work of the National Trust of Western Australia in encouraging participation in heritage based experiences.

Sound from the Ground exemplifies innovative interpretation of a heritage place. It left no physical impact on the place but made a substantial impact on those privileged to have been involved.

For more information please visit: www.nationaltrust.org.au/initiatives/sound-from-the-ground/ In 2017 Museums and Galleries Australia recognised Sound from the Ground with a national award for Interpretation, Learning and Audience Engagement. The judges’ comments: A complex and multi-layered project which unearths much early WA colonial history through the gravesites.

The innovation displayed by the musicians in undertaking research, composing music, threading old musical scores and then producing a quality performance night shows a commitment to excellence and innovation in this new National Trust environment. The filming, tv exposure, blogging and very professional program ensures the project is well documented and hopefully the music will be used again in some other context. An impressive and original public program to enhance and promote the stories associated with an unusual collection.

About the author: Sarah Murphy BA, Grad Dip Museum Studies, MLitt Museum Studies, M.ICOMOS Sarah is Manager Interpretation and Collections with the National Trust of Western Australia. She has a particular interest in quirky and unexpected twists that can challenge perceptions of heritage and heritage practice. For Sarah, contemporary approaches are vital to removing obstacles to community interest, engagement and understanding.

Contact: sarah.murphy@ntwa.com.au

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INTERPRETING DEEP-WATER SANDSTONE Origins of the turbidity current concept Edward Clifton Geologist InterpNEWS Regional Editor

The year was 1940. The petroleum geologist stared at the report. “Well, they have done it again!”, he growled at the colleague with whom he shared the office. “When are these paleontologists going to learn?

They say these sandstones we drilled accumulated in 2,500-4,000 feet of water. Can’t they get it through their thick skulls that here is absolutely no way sand can get carried into water that deep!”.

That was pretty much the consensus of geologists in the first half of the 20th century (about sandstone, not necessarily paleontologists). They knew that rivers carried sand and that it was a fixture on beaches and in shallow water near the shore. They were well aware that wind shaped sand into stately dunes. But the deep waters of the ocean were deemed a quiet place where only mud and the remains of plankton could drift to the bottom — no storms, floods or tempestuous winds there. Or so most of them thought!

Mysteries persisted, however, that defied conventional interpretation. Some geologists were pondering the origin of thick successions of interbedded sandstone and shale in which the layering was more or less uniformly parallel over thick intervals of strata (Fig. 1). The sandstone layers uniformly displayed a persistent upward decrease in grain size that geologists call “graded bedding” (Figs. 2-4). Graded bedding is not uncommon is sedimentary rocks deposited in a wide range of environments, but the persistence in bed after bed was striking.

No shallow marine or non-marine environment was known to produce such a deposit, which geologists (who must have a name for everything) called “flysch”, a term introduced in 1827 for alternations of sandstone and shale in the foreland of the Alps. (The name comes from the German word fliessen which means to flow, because the rock was initially thought to have originated in rivers).

Fig. 1. Steeply-tilted classic “flysch”, an accumulation of interlayered sandstone (light) and shale (dark) in which the bed thicknesses are remarkably laterally uniform. Zumaia, Catalan, Spain. Photograph Elvira Oliver

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Fig 2. Schematic illustration of graded bedding in sandstone beds whereby the coarser graipins are concentrated in the lower part of the bed, and the sand grain size decreases upward into mud at the top.

Modified from a USGS illustration Fig. 3. Set of seven upward-fining (normally graded) medium- to fine-grained sandstone beds, Eocene Carmelo Formation, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve California.

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Fig. 4. Graded bedding in a thick coarse sandstone bed. Carmelo Formation, Point Lobos.

Another problem in the early part of the 20th Century was the origin of submarine canyons, large steep undersea valleys carved into the slopes of the continents. Conventional wisdom at the time held that the valleys had been cut by rivers when the margins of the continents were subaerially exposed. But some geologists balked at this interpretation: how could you subaerially expose something as vast as the margin of a continent? A prominent North American geologist, R. A. Daly, offered in 1936 a different explanation: that the canyons were cut by sand- and silt-laden undercurrents in which the density of the suspension drove the downward flow. In 1938, a Dutch geologist, P. H. Kuenen had published a paper entitled “Density currents in connection with the problem of submarine canyons” and in 1939, the American geologist D.W. Johnson published a book on the “Origin of Submarine Canyons” in which he named such a flow a “turbidity current” a turbulent mixture of suspended sediment and water that could theoretically flow at high velocity down an undersea slope. (Fig. 5 – left, Fig 6 Right)

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The hypothesis that turbidity currents were instrumental in transporting and depositing sand in deep water was largely ignored until 1950, when Kuenen and a colleague published a paper demonstrating that turbidity currents in a laboratory tank did indeed deposit graded beds. Shortly thereafter, one of Kuenen’s students, Arnold Bouma, recognized that the flysch sandstone beds were not only graded, but many contained a succession of sedimentary structures (features in the rock produced as it was being deposited) that reflected a progressive loss in energy as the sediment accumulated (Fig. 6), (a predictable consequence of turbidity current deposition). (Bouma, 1952). These “Bouma sequences” were found in flysch-like deposits worldwide and became a standard for recognizing turbidites, as the deposits of turbidity currents came to be known.

Still, the only natural observed turbidity currents in the 1950s were in lakes or reservoirs where they moved slowly across the bottom, capable of transporting only fine silt-and clay-sized sediment. Many geologists doubted their effectiveness for transporting significant volumes of sand into deep water. In 1952, two giants of the nascent field of marine geology, Bruce Heezen and Maurice Ewing, published a paper that described the sequential breaking of 12 transatlantic telephone cables a few minutes after the 7.2 magnitude 1929 Grand Banks earthquake. They concluded that the cables were snapped by a turbidity current or landslide moving at a speed on the order of 100 km/hr (60 mph). The image of a perpetually tranquil deep ocean floor was no longer tenable.

The field of marine geology, the systematic study of the ocean floor, came into its own in the 1960’s. Much of the research was focused on deep-sea fans: giant cones of sediment at the base of the continental slope, typically lying off the mouth of a submarine canyon fed by a major river (Fig. 7). Sediment cores from the fans demonstrated a close resemblance to the strata of flysch and other onshore deepwater deposits, and turbidity currents have since been documented in submarine canyons.

Figure 7 – Deep Sea Fan.

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The geologic occurrence of deep-water sandstone, however, remained a problem. Some of the most spectacular outcroppings of flysch were in the world’s highest mountains, and those that doubted a deep-water origin argued that such uplift was impossible. Plate tectonics theory, developed in the 1960s, showed how the collision of giant slabs of the earth’s crust could elevate sedimentary rock from the deep-sea floor to thousands of meters above sea level. Deepwater deposits and other rocks caught between the merging plates were compressed and shoved upwards into the mountains created by the collision.

Today, the existence of turbidity currents is no longer questioned; they are generally accepted as the primary mechanism for carrying sand into the deep sea. It has also become clear that, not only are turbidity currents complex and variable, but other processes, such as deep-ocean currents and submarine landslides, can mobilize, transport and redistribute sand in the deep sea.

Recognizing turbidites How does one recognize turbidites in outcropping rock? Fossils, of course, can be very helpful to a paleontologist for recognizing a deep-water origin, particularly where they occur in the associated fine sedimentary rock. Fossils in the turbidite itself may include misleading shallow-water species that were swept along with the sediment into the depths.

In the absence of paleontological evidence (or supporting it), the geological interpretation of deep-sea sandstone derives from the observation of sedimentary structures, features in the rock generated by physical and biological processes at the time of deposition. Graded bedding remains a fundamental criterion.

Although it can be produced in other environments by floods (in rivers) or storms (in a shallow marine setting), both of these have other associated characteristics that help identify their origin.

Repetitive sets of Bouma Sequences are essentially diagnostic of a turbidite, but in many deep-water sandstones, they are incomplete or non-existent. Even there, any upward succession of sedimentary structures that indicates deposition from a waning current is consistent with deposition from a turbidity current.

The passage of sand ripples across the bottom as a turbidity current deposits its sediment lad as it flows across the bottom is recorded by “ripple lamination” which commonly forms an interval in the middle of a Bouma Sequence. Specific to turbidites are ‘fading ripples” produced as the sand load is depleted and ripples disappear in the upper part of a bed. (Figs. 8, 9)

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Fig. 8. Sketch showing the origin of “fading ripples� deposited in the waning phase of a turbidity current.

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Fig. 9. “Fading ripples” (arrow) that climb and disappear into overlying mudstone.

Turbidity currents also produce distinctive features on the underside of sand beds. A turbidity currents traversing a muddy sea floor can sculpt the surface in a variety of ways. Turbulent flow scours asymmetric depressions in the mud: steep on the up-current side, tapered on the other (Fig. 10). Objects borne by the current can gouge into the bottom as they drag, roll or skip along. The filling of the resulting depressions by accumulating sand creates “sole marks”, features that characterize the base of many turbidites (Fig. 11) and are particularly useful in identifying direction of flow and paleoslope.

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Fig. 10. Origin of “flute casts.� a: passing turbidity current scours into a muddy sea bed. b: subsequent filling of the scours with sand produces flute casts at the base of the bed.

Fig. 11. Flute casts at the base of a steeply-dipping sandstone bed on the Ards Peninsula, New Zealand. Current was flowing toward the upper left. Photo by Alan Cooper, courtesy of the Geology Department University of Otago, New Zealand.

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A layer of sand deposited rapidly from a turbidity current is typically more dense than the underlying soft sea-floor mud and the sand can sink in bulges into the mud. Such bulges are recorded on the underside of beds where they are called “load casts’ (Fig. 12 ) and wisps of mud injected into the sand are “flame structures”. If the sand layer continues to creep down-slope after deposition, the flame structures will point in that direction (Fig.13). Such post-depositional creep may result from an excess of water trapped within the accumulating sand. Water-escape structures are fairly common in turbidite sandstone (Fig. 14) Today, deepwater sands are recognized as important components of the sedimentary record, forming thick successions of rocks in many parts of the world particularly at the margins or former margins of continents.

Classic flysch is but one example of deep water sandstone, but all the various types bear the similar characteristic of graded beds or other evidence of a waning current. It does not take a geologist to recognize such deposits.

Figure 12

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Figure 13.

Figure 14.

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References Cited Bouma, Arnold H. (1962). Sedimentology of some Flysch deposits: A graphic approach to facies.

Interpretation. Elsevier, 168 p.

Daly, R.A., 1936, Origin of Submarine “Canyons”: American Journal of Science, v. 31, p. 401–420.

Heezen, B.C., and Ewing, M., 1952, Turbidity currents and submarine slumps, and the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: American Journal of Science, v. 250, p. 849–873.

Johnson, D. W. (1939) The origin of submarine canyons; a critical review of hypotheses: New York: Columbia University Press. 126 p.

Kuenen, P.H., 1938. Density currents in connection with the problem of submarine canyons: Geology Magazine, v. 75, p. 241–249.

Kuenen, P.H., 1951. Properties of turbidity currents of high density. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 2, p. 14–33.

Kuenen, P. H., and Migliorini, C. I., 1950. Turbidity currents as a cause of graded bedding: Journal of Geology, v. 58, p. 91–127.

Nichols, G., 2009, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy: Wiley and Sons, New York, p. 225-246.

Edward Clifton Geologist InterpNEWS Regional Editor eclifton@earthlink.net,

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Let Your Passion Show Speaking Tip 45 Eathan Rotman We often feel being “professional” requires being sterile – keeping emotion and passion out of our work and out of our talks. Yet heartfelt stories of personal tragedy, drama, discovery, loss, and triumph are universal experiences that help build rapport with audiences.

Audiences feed off enthusiasm, passion, desire, and confidence. Share these with your audience; allow your audience to feel the exuberance you have for your work. Share with them the struggles and accomplishments that have brought you to where you are today.

A good story from the heart can result in the entire audience being silent and rapt with attention.

Audiences love stories and more so when they include human drama. All ears will be on you and there will be few, if any, side conversations or other distracting behaviors.

You have a reason for doing the work you do. You chose to be here. Use this reason to help get your point across. If you have a compelling story of why you do what you do, share it.

This is the meaning behind your work – it is what brought you here. This story will be a stronger motivator than mere product information. When you tell personal stories, your audience will want to listen, they will lean forward, and the room will fill with silence: a complete silence that allows each of your words to land strongly in the ears of your listener.

Your audience will feel you are real and will want to support you or your business.

If you have a heartfelt true story – tell it. If you are excited about your topic – show it. If you have a belief – share it. Make yourself vulnerable. Tell your audience who you really are – they will admire and respect you for it.

Fill your talks with passion and emotion. Use your stories to captivate your audience and help them understand why you do what you do. They will then be more likely to listen to you and to follow your suggestions.

© 2009 - This speaking tip is one in a series provided to you by iSpeakEASY. Call for information on individual coaching or group training.

ethan@iSpeakEASY.net or (415) 342-7106. Visit our webpage at www.iSpeakEASY.net

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The Special Interpretive Magic of “Living History”

by Ron Kley

As a founding member, past president and enthusiastic advocate of ALHFAM, the (international) Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums) I’m particularly fascinated by the potentials of Living History methodology, both as an interpretive approach to historical subject matter and as an opportunity for experimental research.

The concept of “Living History” might be illustrated by such familiar examples as a film or video in which actors portray people in physical settings and scripted situations based upon researched realities representative of some time, place and circumstance prior to the familiar here and now. The origins of this interpretive approach might be traced, at least conceptually, to prehistoric cave-dwellers retelling a hunting experience to an audience of their peers gathered around a campfire, or to later Greek or Roman theatrical portrayals of events (historical or mythological) in their cultural past.

Living History is also practiced at many international historical sites where people and activities of times past are represented by the demonstration/reenactment of period-appropriate practices, processes or events, using tools, techniques and physical settings that are as close as possible to their historical antecedents. This interpretive presentation is sometimes provided by individuals garbed in clothing representative of the interpretive focal period, who may approach their subject matter from a “third-person” perspective (“this is how they did it”) or even in a “first person” mode (“I’m George Washington’s gardener, and this is how I prepare rutabagas from his Mount Vernon estate for use as cattle feed.”)

This methodology relies upon the well-documented power of a multi-sensory immersive experience in which visitors are surrounded by sights, sounds, tangible objects and olfactory stimuli that reinforce one another and contribute, both individually and collectively, to a combination of cognitive, kinesthetic and affective understandings, and to a visitor’s willingness to suspend disbelief and to imagine him/herself in the time, the setting and the circumstance being portrayed. This is especially true in the relatively rare situations in which visitors are invited (with appropriate regard to present-day safety and health considerations) to step in and play an active role in the process/event being represented.

I can vouch for the fact that such a presentation, if well done, generates a powerful and lasting impression – one that can persist for a lifetime and even be transmitted through re-telling to future generations.

IF WELL DONE – now there’s the rub. Living History, if it’s to be done well, requires a great deal of background research, staff training, procurement or creation of period-appropriate “stuff” and appropriate visitor orientation – investments of time and expense that many institutions can’t, and others won’t, incur for the sake of “getting it right.”

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The power inherent in Living History is subject to intentional or unwitting abuse. It can convey bias and falsehood as easily and as convincingly as it can portray reality. And, unfortunately, it seems that there are no legal restraints to limit or to punish such abuse. Schlock sells, especially if it’s offered at a bargain price and marketed to a gullible public, while quality costs, and that cost can easily exceed what prospective consumers are able and willing to pay.

As a specialized subset of practitioners within the broader community of historical interpreters, those of us involved in Living History must learn to do a better job of educating our present and prospective visitors about what we do, and why, and about the background efforts and costs involved in getting it right. It’s sometimes necessary to educate the administrators or governing boards of our own institutions about the professional and ethical responsibility to do it well if we do it at all, and about the investment of research, training and procurement of appropriate tools/equipment/clothing etcetera, that must be accomplished behind the scenes in order to present an interpretation of the past that is not only credible, but as accurate as possible.

We also need to do much more about sharing what we (as a professional and institutional community) know and what has been learned through long experience, so that we’re not squandering limited resources through repeated re-inventions of the wheel. At the same time, however, we must be cautious in accepting ready-made research findings of others that may be accurate, but not representative of the specific time and locality that we seek to portray, or of the socio-economic, political and/or religious context that that we hope to depict.

We need to recognize, appreciate, document and take advantage of the experimental value of experiential interpretation. Such acts as planting or cultivating a patch of corn with hand tools, weeding a kitchen garden, hitching a horse or ox to a cart, forging a nail, weaving a yard of cloth, baking a loaf of bread in a horno oven or spinning raw fiber into useful thread or yarn can provide much valuable quantitative information about how long it took for these tasks to be first learned and then accomplished, and how a day’s worth of waking hours might have been apportioned in order to accomplish the tasks required for a comfortable life…or for mere survival in times past and among people who rarely had the time or the inclination to document the minutiae of their daily existence. Even where diary or journal entries do exist, they abound with such matter-of-fact references as “cut hay,” “mended nets,” “shelled peas” or “baked bread” and are essentially devoid of descriptive detail regarding the implements and procedures employed, the yield achieved or the time required.

Through a hands-on re-creation of such tasks we can not only provide visitors with a valuable interpretive experience but we can gain, and share, details knowable only to those who’ve “been there and done that.”

Living history interpretation in the context of museums and historic sites had its origins in 19th century Europe – an origin well documented by Dr. Sten Rentzhog in his encyclopedic “Open Air Museums: the history and future of an innovative idea.” The idea and the methodology has spread globally and has taken on many different forms in different environments – rural, urban, agricultural, industrial, military, maritime…and more.

Although most often associated with outdoor settings, and with preserved or replicated historic structures, it can be and has been adapted to the interior environments of more conventional museums. It is a powerful interpretive tool IF DONE WELL, and there is no better partner/mentor for its successful implementation than ALHFAM, an organization with nearly 50 years of practical experience in “bringing history to life.”

Check out the organization’s web site (ALHFAM.org), Look over the range of services offered to members at a cost that’s affordable to even the smallest of organizations. Then come and join the “ALHFAMily” in our efforts to keep history alive.

Ron Kley ronkley@juno.com

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It was Wright, right? Wrong!

by Ron Kley

Some years ago (soon after the 2003 observance of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic “first flights” at Kitty Hawk on the coast of North Carolina) I surprised, and perhaps annoyed at least some members of an aviation history group with the news that Wilbur and Orville Wright were not the first persons to fly an engine-powered powered heavier-than-air machine.

I didn’t intend to offend anyone, nor to detract from credit legitimately due to the Wrights, but “first heavierthan-air-flight” had not been one of their accomplishments. That distinction had been captured nearly a decade previously by a prolific inventor from the little town of Sangervlle, Maine, who is credited with something like 250 U.S. and British patents ranging from a mousetrap to a coffee percolator, a hair-curling iron and a devastatingly efficient machine gun.

In 1894, that gentleman, Hiram Maxim, turned his creative mind to the challenge of achieving powered flight in a manned heavier-than-air machine. And he succeeded! Well, sort of.

With the goal in mind of proving and demonstrating this possibility, Maxim set about designing and fabricating an enormous contraption that he christened the “Test Rig.” Others applied the more dramatic and more descriptive term “Leviathan.” Its wings, which Maxim referred to as “aeroplanes” (quite possibly the first use of that term), spanned 104 feet (110 by some accounts). By way of comparison, the wings of a Boeing 737, one of the most widely used passenger aircraft in the skies today, span only 93 feet.

Propulsive power for the Test Rig was provided by a pair of huge two-bladed propellers, each 17 or 18 feet in length, and each driven by a remarkably efficient and lightweight 180-horsepower naptha-burning steam (yes, steam!) engine. The power system, including the two engines, boilers, water reservoirs and fuel weighed just 11 pounds for each horsepower of output – a remarkable achievement in its time.

The Test Rig weighed nearly 8,000 pounds, including its three-man crew with Maxim himself at the controls.

He had carefully calculated, based upon wind tunnel tests with scale models, that if the machine could achieve a forward speed of 40 miles per hour its aeroplanes would generate a lift of 2.5 pounds per square foot – more than enough to raise its ponderous mass off the ground.

For the purpose of his initial experiments, Maxim mounted the Test Rig on rails, with a second set of rails mounted above the first, so that the altitude of a successful “flight” would be limited to about two feet.

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Well, it worked. In fact it worked better than had been predicted. On July 31, 1894 the boilers were fired, the throttles were opened and the propellers began to turn. The machine rolled forward, gaining momentum as it thundered along the rails…and then lifting off the lower rails to ride along the underside of the restraining rails.

The thing was flying!

The Test Rig is shown here mounted on its rails, with Maxim standing between the rails in front of the machine

Hiram Maxim

Then disaster struck. Either the power of Maxim’s engines, the efficiency of his aeroplanes or the structural integrity of his restraining rails must have been miscalculated. The upper rail broke -- a piece of it striking and damaging one of the propellers. Nevertheless, the flight continued for several hundred feet beyond the point where the crippling damage occurred, and Maxim was able to decrease the engine power so that the Test Rig landed with relatively little damage. He and his crew were able to walk away with only minor injuries.

The ponderous machine had flown under its own power – covering nearly as much distance, (even after being damaged) as the first two flights of the Wrights at Kitty Hawk, and proving the validity of Maxim’s vision, his calculations, his engines and his aeroplanes. But no further development was ever pursued.

Perhaps Maxim was satisfied that he had accomplished his objective of proving the possibility of powered flight, or perhaps he was simply unable to convince prospective investors that the demonstrated ability had enough practical economic value to justify the risk of their capital. As the Wrights were to discover nearly a decade later, it was one thing to prove that heavier-than-air flight was a possibility, but quite another thing to convince buyers or investors that this novel experiment had a marketable value. It would be quite some time after their “first” flight that the Wrights’ airplanes would be seen as anything more than a source of novel entertainment for earth-bound spectators.

As a final note about Maxim’s experiment, it might be mentioned that the flight of his Test Rig covered a total of 1,924 feet from lift-off to landing – nearly half of that distance being covered after it tore loose from the restraining rails and suffered damage from the resulting debris. In contrast, the Wrights’ longest “first” fight covered just about 200 feet, and the total length of four Wright flights on that same day was about 1,350 feet – almost two football fields shy of the Test Rig’s 1894 flight.

To give credit where credit is due, there is no evidence that Maxim ever addressed a key problem of flight that the Wrights had recognized and had dealt with in a rudimentary fashion – the ability to execute banked turns. In fact, photos of the Maxim “test rig” offer little or no evidence that it was capable of turning at all. Absent that ability, Maxim’s flying machine would have been an ungainly bird at best – confined to straight-line flight and helpless to compensate for any crosswind. Moreover, it’s hard to imagine how it could ever have carried enough fuel to sustain steam-powered flights of useful length.

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So – what does this story have to do with interpretation?

If you read beyond my first paragraph (and you did, didn’t you?) you had been “hooked” by a narrative that contradicted something that you knew, or thought you knew. You were consciously or unconsciously in both a receptive/curious mode, wanting to learn more, and a skeptical/defensive mode, reluctant to abandon what seemed like well-established truth and daring the narrative and the narrator to convince you of something new and different. In short, you were poised and receptive to encounter new information, and to make a critical assessment of its validity in comparison to what you thought you knew. What more could one ask of an interpretive audience?

When interpreting any subject matter, it’s often possible to find and to exploit just such a “hook” involving some little known fact that challenges the reader’s or listener’s presumption or expectation, piques their curiosity and makes them want to know more. If they feel a bit defensive and skeptical about the information being presented, that’s healthy critical thinking that should be encouraged – and it gives you, as an interpreter, the opportunity (and the responsibility) to point to sources other than yourself that they can access in order to learn more.

It was axiomatic among old-time vaudeville performers to always leave an audience wanting more of whatever they were offering. The same goes for interpretation. It’s far better to have your audience want to know more about your subject matter than to have them go away feeling that they’ve been overloaded with more than they wanted to know.

If I’ve left you wanting to know more about Maxim and his Test Rig, just Google “Hiram Maxim Aircraft” for a wealth of information and photographs.

Ron Kley ronkley@juno.com

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“Remembering a Christmas Party” By Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald

Although it is the first day of summer, I find myself looking again and again at the invitation for a Christmas party which my identical twin sister, Mary, and I hosted nearly fifty-seven years ago at our home---325 College Avenue---on December 26, 1961, when we were freshmen at Erskine.

As always, even in college, we had a curfew: 11: 00 p.m. After all, as Mamma said when we questioned her decision, “Your father needs his sleep; he is operating in the morning.” And to our embarrassment, if people had not departed by her magical hour, she whistled from the upstairs hall. I never learned to whistle.

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I still love to entertain, but I miss Mary who died in 2001. We had fun times at our parties, despite the curfew.

Everyone else did, too. I think we learned the art of hosting parties from Mamma and Daddy who often entertained.

What intrigued me about this invitation which a high school friend recently mailed to me was the envelope itself which showed the cost of a stamp: 3 cents. In addition, the envelope was small. Moreover, my twin’s script fascinated me. Like Daddy’s, it was a blend of cursive and print, so different from mine which was slanted with scrolling for certain letters. Mary was far more technically minded than I if that serves as an explanation. At least, that’s what I said to a colleague who was curious about identical twins: their personalities, habits, looks, and penmanship.

The picture on the invitation intrigued me. I’m not sure where Mamma found these cards: perhaps at Nancy Findel’s “The Lamp Post,” a charming shop on North Wilson, just a block from our house, or at one of the old pharmacies down town, perhaps one of the Ten-Cent stores: McCrory’s, Woolworth, or Newberry’s, each different, but each special. The amazing thing was that Mary and I agreed on the card. It’s the kind of picture I might sketch. It is folk art, and I loved the expressions on the faces of each character.

We agreed on the guest list, too: friends from Winthrop Training School, from which we were graduated, and friends from Rock Hill High School we’d met through the Palmetto Drama Festival offered at Winthrop (that was such fun). Mary had also met others through the Youth Symphony at Winthrop. She played violin.

Thank you for indulging me and allowing me “to walk down Memory Lane” with you.

Martha Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald doctorbenn@gmail.com,

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Using interpretive programs and media to help accomplish management objectives.

John A. Veverka

YMCA – Corps teaches water safety to young swimmers.

Interpretive Communications?

The idea of using interpretation to help accomplish management objectives is relatively new, but gaining in use.

Originally interpreter’s main jobs were to serve as "entertainment directors" for parks, historic sites, etc. Most of the early photographs of interpreters or "naturalists" usually had them pointing at something - flowers, geological features, historic structures and so on. And in most professional job settings we were expendable.

Whenever there was a budget problem, the interpreters in the agencies were the first to go. After all, they didn't do anything "essential". The agencies, or the interpreters themselves hadn't realized the true potential and value of interpretive communications.

Interpretation as a management tool?

To look at how we are/can use interpretation to help with management issues, it is first important to remember that interpretation is an "objective based" communication process. We usually have three kinds of objectives interpretation focuses on accomplishing: * Learning Objectives * Behavioral Objectives * Emotional Objectives The Learning Objectives are designed to provide basic topic information or understanding, such as "The majority of the visitors will be able to describe three reasons protecting archaeological sites benefits all visitors".

But the real reason or most important reason the manager may have in mind for interpretation to accomplish is to prevent visitors from picking up "souvenirs" at archaeological sites, such as pottery shards. So the behavioral objective might be "All visitors will leave any artifacts they may find at the site alone and not pick up any artifacts to take home with them".

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It is the job of the emotional objectives for the interpretation to get the visitors to appreciate the value of artifacts left in place, and feel that they are doing a good thing by not touching anything. So an objective of this kind might be "The majority of visitors will feel a sense of responsibility for not touching any artifacts they may find on the ground". Or "The majority of visitors will feel good - a part of the resource protection by not touching any artifacts they may see on the ground".

The relationship between the behavioral objective (the results oriented objective) and the emotional objective is that the behavioral objective is the thing you, as a manager or interpreter what to have happen as a result of the interpretation (how you want the visitor to USE the information you are interpreting to them). The emotional objective forces you to plan how you will get the visitor feel that the behavioral objective you have in mind is something they should want to do. This is the same basic strategy used in modern advertising today. The advertisement in a magazine wants you to do or buy something. The "presentation" of the ad – the graphics, the way the ad relates to different market groups, the evidence the ad portrays as to "why you need this product or service", follows this same format. The emotional objective of the ad is to make you FEEL you want or need this particular product. The behavioral objective is for you to actually go out and buy it.

What kinds of management issues can interpretation help with?

The US Army Corps of Engineers has embraced interpretation into its day-to day communication with its visitors. Interpretive programs and services are used to: - Help promote water safety issues (wearing Personal Floatation Devices, not drinking alcohol while boating, swimming safety) and many other safety issues as well.

- Help protect cultural sites or resources from vandalism.

- Help visitors understand various resource management programs and activities.

The US Forest Service is using interpretation in many National Forests to communicate with its visitors about a variety of management issues, including: - Wilderness hiking safety and stewardship issues.

- Understanding ecosystem management and the benefits of this management approach to the environment, communities, and the visitor.

- Reducing vandalism and littering.

- Protecting historical and archaeological resources.

- Helping to instill a sense of ownership and pride in local resources or history to gain community support of various management programs and policies.

- Incorporating interpretation into its general Heritage Tourism planning program.

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Many other agencies are finding that interpretation programs can (and do) help combat problems of vandalism and depreciative behavior in parks and forests. Interpretation is also being used in general recreation management strategies, to help the visitors have a safer and more enjoyable recreation experience. Other studies are finding that interpretation programs can help reduce litter in parks and forests. In general, interpretation can (and is) being used for a number of management areas for parks and historic sites. These main areas of use include: - Pre- visit orientation for visitors.

- Visitor flow into and through areas (via trails, developing other use areas, interpretive directional signage, etc.).

- Serving as part of the forest marketing or tourism plan.

- Reducing litter and vandalism problems.

- Interpreting on-site safety concerns.

- Resource protection (natural and cultural) - Helping visitors " understand and value" resources and the management programs in place to protect or preserve those resources.

- Providing "awareness" of environmental issues or concerns.

- Encouraging visitors to take a pro-active role in site/resource protection.

- Becoming the cornerstone in regional heritage tourism programs.

- Gaining community support for the site/resource.

- Providing structure for tourism planning and program implementation.

- Agency image and recognition.

The bottom line.

Today managers are seeing that interpretation is NOT just the "frosting on the cake" but in many instances, "the cake itself". Interpretation is the most powerful and effective communication process any agency has available to it for communicating any message to its publics. Interpretation is designed to get results!

For example: Let’s say an interpretive program costs $1000 to present (staff time, preparation, materials, etc.) over the length of a summer (90 days) and that over that 90 day period 3000 visitors attended a program on "Litter affects all of our lives!". The cost/visitor contact for that program is 33 cents. To determine if the program is cost effective you have to look at what is being accomplished for that 33 cents. If your main behavioral objective was to have visitors litter less, or pick up other litter, you might look at your maintenance (litter pick up) costs for the past year. Lets say that last year your litter pick up costs for your site/agency is $5000.00 for your same 90 day period. But at the end of this years 90 day period for which you had your antilitter programs going, the cost of litter pick up is only $3000.00. Making the assumption that all variables are the same except for this years anti-litter program , the reduced costs for litter pick up were probably related to the interpretive program. The program saved the agency total of $2000.00 in maintenance costs.

The program cost $1000.00 to present for the 90 day period and helped the agency save $2000.00. So for the cost of 33 cents per visitor contact for this management related interpretive program, the agency "made" 33 cents/visitor contact in reduced litter pick up costs. This is an example of how to 1.) use interpretation as a management tool, and 2) illustrate cost effectiveness of the cost per contact in using interpretation to help you get more funding for other types of interpretive programs.

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This is the kind of "business" thinking that interpretation is beginning to generate in the best resource managers and interpreters. Interpretation can really work for them!

The need for research.

While this is a growing area for using interpretive services, there is very little "documented" results. We know of lots of examples where everyone knows the positive affect of interpretation as a management tool, but few of these programs have been studied thoroughly, and published in academic journals. This became very apparent to me in developing this short article. If you or your agency are using interpretation as a management tool, document the process and results, and share your information with the profession - you may be on the cutting edge of interpretation practice and not even know it!

Summary For the past few years more and more agencies are using interpretation as their first line of communications with their visitors. And more agencies are discovering the power of using interpretation in helping to accomplish their management objectives as well. Interpretive communication is the most powerful communication process any agency has available to it to communicate with its visitors! Using this powerful tool to help communicate with the visitor about management issues is increasing. Its not just a good idea - its good business.

References Bright, Alan D., Manfredo, Michael J., and Baseman, Cem. 1991. Implications of persuasion theory for interpretation. In: Proceedings of the 1991 National Interpreters Workshop. Madison, WI: Omnipress, 40-45.

Dustin, Daniel, Christensen, Harriet, and Namba, Richard. 1989. Designing interpretive messages to combat vandalism and depreciative behavior. In: Proceedings of the 1989 National Interpreters Workshop. Fort Collins, CO: National Association for Interpretation. 214-217.

Hooper, Jon K. and Weiss, Karen S. 1990. Interpretation as a Management Tool: a national study of interpretive professionals' views. In: Proceedings of the 1990 National Interpreters Workshop. Nacogdoches, TX: School of Forestry, Stephen F. Austin State University.

350-357.

Roggenbuck, Joseph W. and Ham, Sam H. 1986. Use of information and education in recreation management.

In: Literature Review: President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. Washington, D.C. US Government Printing Office, management- 59-71.

Veverka, John A. "An Objective Look At Interpretation". John Veverka & Associates, Interpretive Training Division. Occasional paper #1, 1993.

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InterpNEWS Marketplace.

Interpretive training courses and workshops – worldwide. jvainterp@aol.com www.heritageinterp.com

InterpNEWS now offers advertising for interpretive services and media. If you'd like to advertise with InterpNEWS you too can reach our 300,000 IN recipients in 60 countries. http://heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html

Advertisers in this issue: Save the Manatee Foundation International Crane Foundation Museum Study Guide (Formally Studio Graphique) Audio Trails UK Kaser Design iZone Imaging Interprethis John Veverka & Associates Interpretive Planning Heritage Interpretation Training Center Do Interpretation – Will Travel

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September 3, 2018 Moving Museum Collections Writing K-12 Lesson Plans for Museums September 17, 2018 AASLH Leadership and Administration in History Organizations October 1, 2018 Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections October 8, 2018 AASLH Museum Education and Outreach October 15, 2018 AASLH Basics of Archives AASLH Project Management for History Professionals For more information on these and other courses visit the Course Schedule on MuseumStudy.com

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InterpNEWS – what’s coming for the rest of the year (our Nov/Dec and Jan/Feb 2019/Mar/April issues. We have a call for articles, a call for advertisers, and a call for anyone who would like to be one of our regional editors. Reach over 300K in 60 countries. For advertising details and costs visit our advertising web site page at: http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html November/December and our first Jan/Feb 2019 issue and Mar/April 2019 issue.

Contact me for any questions: jvainterp@aol.com, www.heritageinterp.com

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The Heritage Interpretation Training Center The Heritage Interpretation Training Center offers 39 college level courses in heritage interpretation, from introductory courses for new interpretive staff, docents and volunteers, to advanced courses for seasoned interpretive professionals. Courses can be offered/presented on site at your facility or location, or through our e-LIVE on-line self-paced interpretive courses.

Some of our on-line courses are listed below. You can start the course at any time and complete the course at your own pace: Introduction to Heritage Interpretation Course. 14 Units - 2 CEU credits. $150.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/introduction_to_heritage_interpretation_cou rse.html Planning/Designing Interpretive Panels e-LIVE Course - 10 Units awarding 1.5 CEU Credits $125.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_panels_course.html Planning Interpretive Trails e-LIVE Course - 13 Units - 2.5 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_trails_course.html Interpretive Writing e-LIVE Course - 8 Units and 2 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_writing_course.html Training for Interpretive Trainers e-LIVE Course - 11 Units and 2 CEU Credits. $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/training_for_interp_trainers.html The Interpretive Exhibit Planners Tool Box e-LIVE course - 11 Units and 2 CEU Credits. $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_exhibits_course.html Interpretive Master Planning - e-LIVE. 13 Units, 3 CEU Credits. $275.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_master_planning_course.html A supervisors guide to Critiquing and Coaching Your Interpretive Staff, Eleven Units, 1.6 CEU Credits. $175.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/critiquing_and_coaching_interpretive_staff.h tml

The Heritage Interpretation Training Center/John Veverka & Associates. jvainterp@aol.com – www.twitter.com/jvainterp - Skype: jvainterp Our course catalog: http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_center_course_catalogue_.html