In jan 2015 cover by InterpNEWS

Northern Lights Over The Inukshu

Northern lights over the Inukshuk.

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2 Volume 4, #1, Jan/Feb 2015

The international heritage interpretation e-magazine.

Hi folks. Another new year. Is it just me or did you notice that as you get older time goes by faster? 2014 has been a great year. First, this past November I received the National Association for Interpretation Fellow Award. I couldn't make it to the conference so did a YouTube acceptance speech (5 Minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq7iPNAZqqMA. This is great honor and I want to thank all those responsible for nominating me and for your letters of support. Other news, InterpNEWS has added another 1000+ readers and now reaches 35 countries. We are starting the New Year with one of our largest issues, thanks to our many new authors, and some of our regular authors. It's your articles that make InterpNEWS the most widely received and read of any interpretive publication. And of course, subscriptions are FREE, sponsored by John Veverka & Associates as a service to the interpretive profession. I am planning for the March/April issue now and want your articles. Some of the general topics I look for are shown below. So have a happy and successful New Year and send me your articles please. Isle of Aaron, Scotland.

Looking for articles on: - Interpreting Climate Change - Living History and Costumed Interpretation - New Interpretive Media - Interpreting using Music - Interpreting Food and Role of Agriculture in History - Interpreting Art and Art Museums - Interpretive Research (MS - PhD. Thesis) - New and Innovative Interpretive Exhibits - Interpretation programs for children - Working with and creating volunteer programs - Using interpretation to accomplish management objectives Visitor surveys, research and studies - Economics of interpretation (cost/contact and cost effectiveness) - and any other creative programs, services or activities you want to share with 153,000 readers in 35 countries. Contact me for author guidelines (they are really simple). jvainterp@aol.com

In this issue: - Holistic interpretive guide training enables the institution as well as the guide. Jon Kohl - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Exhibition (Interpretation) - Museum of London - Creating a Zoosical at the Minnesota Zoo. Jennifer L. Warg - A new collection of color digital nature photographs is now available - FREE. Chip Francke - Going Europe - Live Costumed Interpretation Martine Teunissen - A quick review of the Seminario Permanente de Museologia en America Latina. J. Veverka - Advancements in Interpretive Planning...Concepts for What Interpretation "Can Be"! J. Veverka - Interpretive Tip: If it is called a visitor center, how come some of the people working there are not more visitor-centered? Patrick Barry, Certified Interpretive Trainer - A Tale of Two Interpretive Text Passages - Dr Stephen Bitgood.

- Interpreting Minoan Ancient Script Writings. Rita Roberts - Interpreting WW1 for the i-Pad Generation. Jen Newby - Retirement and Interpretation. Iris Schwartz - Amarillo Designer Shows the Way in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Rock Langston -The museum is not as it looks like! Significant experiences in the Museum of Anthropology

of Xalapa (MAX) Mexico. Azminda Meybelli RomĂĄn Nieto - No Such Thing as a Stupid Question â&#x20AC;&#x201C; What are those visitors asking? Matt Villamaino - Interpreting World War One for children and young people... Part II. Nicola Wright

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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: Northern lights over the Inukshuk. www.heritageinterp.com , jvainterp@aol.com. SKYPE: jvainterp.

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Holistic interpretive guide training enables the institution as well as the guide. Jon Kohl Coordinating Facilitator PUP Global Heritage Consortium

Carlos Rosero, Colombian, of the PUP Consortium interpretive team works with interpretive guides to apply site messaging to their tours.

Introduction One-off trainings must end. There is more to successful interpretation than simply training guides. But to make that statement, one must envision what interpretation can accomplish. If managers only desire interpretainment, the system is simple; but, if managers wield interpretation as a management tool, affecting bottom-line measures by which superiors evaluate them, then simply training guides will not do. Systems Thinking Replaces One-Off Interpretive Guide Training We all know stories whereby people purchased high-tech, high-performance tools like high-end computers, automatic clothes presses, fancy digital cameras, and gourmet coffeemakers. After going home and unpacking the new toy, they then suffered low-performance because they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know to use these items. The same phenomenon occurs at work where employees go for training or attend a conference and then return with no Employers who send people off for training often assume that the traineeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience is catalyst enough to implement new workplace ideas. This oversimplification misses other factors that must conspire to gain any measurable result. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consider elements that influence performance improvement in an interpretation program, where managers regard interpretation as an instrument for meeting goals such as conservation, public relations, constituency building, and fund raising.

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1. Philosophy Back Home. How often do we return from a conference with a great idea and our colleagues simply nod their heads? Our staff lacks the motivation, experience, and understanding, stranding us in an environment that remains exactly as we left it. Managers who send away guides must understand the techniques and theories guides learn in order to support them. If managers believe, for example, that information is interpretation or the only measure that matters is visitor enjoyment, then whatever the guide might have learned will not be supported and the status quo will dominate. Likely the guide will become depressed. 2. Creation of Support Systems and Interpretive Frameworks. Or maybe managers do support the idea but say, “We don’t have a budget for that.” Or “We have no way of tracking visitor behavior once they leave.” Or “We can’t be that specific about our conservation needs, that’s an entirely other department.” Or “Use whatever interpretive message you want for your programs.” In other words, guides need certain administrative systems to function in order for interpretation to contribute to management objectives. If those systems aren’t in place, their learning may be lost. 3. Interpreters as Decision-Makers. Often managers exclude interpreters from management decisions. They feel that guides are front liners and should stay that way. With this attitude, however, interpretation cannot effectively interact with conservation programs, the development office, or public relations people. Decisions will be made ignorant of interpretation’s role and thus without benefit of interpretation’s potential. To make interpretation relevant to management, someone with interpretation experience needs to be a decision-maker. 4. On-going Support and Mentoring. One lesson learned of adult education theory is clear: simply participating in a workshop outside of the real work environment, without facing consequences of real-life errors, and the chance to improve techniques, and then repeat techniques under diverse conditions, will not likely lead to positive and permanent behavior change (which is what we want). So if protected area managers don’t continually invest in learning, likely learning will be pre-empted by habit and habit leads to ineffectiveness. A systems approach, then, deals with all these factors, realizing that if anyone lacks, the system will not improve. Dealing with just guides, for example, is to re-enforce interpretive status quo. PUP Global Heritage Consortium’s Principles on Training and Performance-Building The PUP Global Heritage Consortium is a non-profit, non-incorporated global network that unites people and organizations across the globe dedicated to introducing emerging paradigms in heritage planning and management in order to stem the crisis of management plan non-implementation and to promote a more holistic form of management. The PUP Consortium has within its membership a program called the Heritage Interpretive Development Program that uses a holistic form of training that focuses on performance-building more than capacity building of interpretive guides (or planners or managers, etc.). The idea is simple: capacity building refers only to capacity or potential which if unused is wasted. We don’t want capacity, we want improved performance which puts that capacity to use.

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Thus when we train interpreters, we actually train the institutions where they work. We work with supervisors and the organizational infrastructure so that it will support the interpreters. We don’t just give one-off, isolated trainings, rather students must pass through a mentored relationship where they must produce a market-ready product or program that the organization is committed to actually offering the public. We then try to integrate those guides into a support network where resources allow.

Jon Kohl, in blue jacket, evaluates guide performance in El Cocuy National Park, Colombia while a National Parks employee films the presentation for later film study.

This approach has grown out of the PUP Consortium’s larger, 15-year PUP Process which mentors heritage sites to facilitate their own plans and implement them. It is a threeyear-long relationship as learning to create an adaptive, continuous planning process requires working with the technical team, the organizational culture, and the stakeholder community.

For implementation to occur — whether interpretive guide training that improves performance or a plan that continuously is updated and contributes to site management — requires far more than the traditional one-off trainings, which as well known organizational consultant Peter Block says, are usually of more benefit to the trainers than the trainees. References PUP Global Heritage Consortium. 2014. Training and Performance-Building Principles of the PUP Global Heritage Consortium. Request a copy. Kohl, Jon. 2007. Holistic Training: Putting Trainees Back Into Context. Reflections, journal of the Society for Organizational Learning.July.www.jonkohl.com/publications/a-m/HolisticTraining-SoL.pdf Kohl, Jon. 2007.“Putting the Ecotourism Guide Back Into Context: Training Guides with Systems Thinking.”Chapter in Quality Assurance & Certification in Ecotourism, edited by Rosemary Black and Alice Crabtree. London: CABI Publishing. Jon Kohl is coordinator of the PUP Global Heritage Consortium and a leading writer about interpretation, especially its role in international development. See his blog on international heritage interpretation at www.facebook.com/heritageinterpretation . For inquires about the PUP Consortium, write to info@pupconsortium.net

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle portrait to make public debut at the Museum of London - alongside rare manuscripts and Cumberbatch costume.

The world of the greatest fictional detective of all time will be illuminated at the Museum of London this autumn, in the Sherlock Holmes exhibition. Highlights include:

 A rare oil on canvas portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle painted by Sidney Paget in 1897, which has never been on public display in the UK  Original pages from Edgar Allan Poe’s manuscript of The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) never before seen in the UK  The original manuscript of The Adventure of the Empty House (1903) and The Adventure of the Illustrious Client (1924), and the first manuscript page of The Sign of Four (1889)  The iconic Belstaff coat and the Derek Rose camel dressing gown worn by Benedict Cumberbatch, from the Sherlock BBC television series The exhibition will be the largest of its kind for over 60 years*, drawing on the museum’s fabulous Victorian and Edwardian collection and bringing together Sherlock Holmes material from across the globe, including several key world class loans. The rarities will be on show in the city that inspired the stories and is - in all its fogs, populous streets, criminal underworld and celebrated landmarks – like another character in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s prolific canon. Visitors will re-trace the literary beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, from original manuscripts to first copies of The Strand magazine in 1891, examining how the consulting detective has evolved from Conan Doyle’s early concepts and his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. The American literary great, Edgar Allan Poe, was a formative influence on the Sherlock author, and the exhibition will include a rare loan of hand-written manuscript pages from The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), the seminal crime fiction story of its era, on loan from the Free Library of Philadelphia and in the UK for the first time.

JVA InterpNews Joining this is Conan Doyle’s own manuscript of The Adventure of the Empty House (1903), the story which sees the return of Sherlock Holmes after his confrontation with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls (on loan from The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia). Original drawings by Sidney Paget, who illustrated the stories in The Strand magazine, will appear alongside a unique oil on canvas painting by the same artist, which is being displayed to the UK public for the first time. The painting, which is kindly on loan from the Conan Doyle Foundation and is currently undergoing conservation in Switzerland, conveys a compelling psychological portrait of the author at the height of his literary fame in 1897. Painted by his friend and illustrator, we are able to see close up the man who created Sherlock Holmes. Alex Werner, Head of History Collections at the Museum of London and lead curator of Sherlock Holmes said: “Peeling back the layers of Sherlock Holmes, we will reveal the roots of this global icon who has continued to enthral audiences for over 125 years. It is fitting that it be hosted here, in the city which shaped the stories and created such a rich source for its success.” The evolution of Holmes and his portrayal in popular culture will be considered from stage to screen, including the performances of William Gillette, Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett. Each actor offers clues to why he has endured, reinvented for generation after generation – an underlying theme of the exhibition. Bringing the stories into the 21st century, costume from the recent television series starring Benedict Cumberbatch will go on display, including his famous Belstaff coat and the Derek Rose camel dressing gown, worn by Cumberbatch himself, on loan from Hartswood Films. Paintings, drawings, illustrations and photographs will examine how Victorian London and the cultural climate of the day informed Conan Doyle’s stories and characters, interpreting renowned artists and photographers through the prism of Sherlock Holmes and identifying key locations. The stories and images reinforce each other to create the seminal views of Holmes’s London embedded in our cultural memory. Painting highlights include Westminster Bridge, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey (1872) by John Anderson, The Regent Street Quadrant at Night (1897) by Francis Forster and the atmospheric prints of William Wyllie and Joseph Pennell (courtesy of the US Library of Congress). Each one offers an artistic insight into the London of Sherlock Holmes. A remarkable collection of 19th century photography will bring the city into even sharper perspective, depicting familiar scenes from the stories such as Piccadilly Circus in the work of George Washington Wilson and the evocative landscapes of London seen in Alvin Langdon Coburn’s photographs.

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Through exploration of late 19th century London, the imperial capital and nexus of empire, the defining characteristics of Holmes will be placed under the microscope. This includes Holmesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analytical mind, his forensic and scientific approach to solving crimes, his ability to go undercover as a master of disguise, and his characterization as a Bohemian drug taker yet model English gentleman. A vast collection of objects from the period when Conan Doyle was writing, including costume, will intertwine with the stories of Sherlock Holmes to provide a further understanding of these traits. The exhibition will explain where the ideas originally came from, and their real-world precedence, including the instantly recognizable symbols of the magnifying glass, pipe and deerstalker. Sherlock Holmes opens at the Museum of London on Friday 17 October 2014 until Sunday 12 April 2015. The exhibition is sponsored by Shepherd and Wedderburn and the technology partner is NEC.

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Creating a Zoosical at the Minnesota Zoo Jennifer L. Warg Early Childhood Programs Coordinator Minnesota Zoo Education Department

I have to admit, I was skeptical that a group of preschoolers could create and perform a musical during a week of summer day camp. I temporarily regressed to a former state of mind, described best as “Reed”, in Natural Wonders: A Guide to Early Childhood for Environmental Educators. Like most adults, Reed, a naturalist at a community nature center, “tends to react to the nature of young children by placing limits on individual behavior rather than creating supportive situations where they can freely and actively participate.” Fortunately, I was co-teaching with a well-respected and experienced music teacher who had led similar programs before and I trusted her completely, while I still had my doubts. Our first day was spent on character development, anything and everything from stinkbugs to unicornseven Shrek & Fiona make an appearance! There were also several other bugs cast in our musical, which tied in nicely to our Big Bugs! summer exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo. Next we focused on the plot summary and script, and even composed an original song using the Garage Band app.

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Each camper contributed a line to the script, collaborated on the song by making democratic decisions, and we incorporated as many of their plot ideas as possible. Needless to say, the animals of the Zoo find a treasure of ring pops and decide to share it amongst everyone during a dance party to celebrate Shrek & Fiona’s wedding while watching a Circus & Ocean Show! The dancing also eliminates the stinkiness produced by the stinkbugs and skunk, and of course, everyone lives happily ever after! In addition, the campers also created the scenery, props, and costumes for the production using recycled materials, so that their projects were process versus product oriented. Throughout the process, we facilitated by assisting with tape, glue and staples, while also discussing the animals’ physical and behavioral adaptations. These concepts were reinforced when visiting the various exhibits throughout the Zoo, as well as during close encounters with specific animals from our educational collection. By using an interdisciplinary approach, combining the arts and sciences, we were able to reach multiple learners with various learning styles. Rather than make assumptions about what we thought the children couldn’t do, we made program choices that supported both the individual and collective abilities of the children in a developmentally appropriate way. In the end, the campers were more invested in and took ownership of their musical because it was more relevant to them. The more control children have over their own actions and choices, the more hands-on and experiential learning becomes. Relinquishing some control definitely challenged my tolerance for mess, noise, and chaos at times, but it was well worth it I’m looking forward to creating many more “Zoosicals” with complete confidence that it can and will be accomplished!

Jennifer L. Warg Early Childhood Programs Coordinator Minnesota Zoo Education Department 13000 Zoo Blvd, Apple Valley, MN 55124 Phone: 952-431-9485 Fax: 952-997-4838 jen.warg@state.mn.us www.mnzoo.org

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A new collection of color digital photographs are now available for your use on Flickr. And their use is FREE. Chip Francke

Dear Friends, A new collection of color digital photographs is now available for your use on Flickr. And their use is FREE. More on that below. Mike Moran was an amateur naturalist and photographer who loved to take photos of plants and animals, especially butterflies and birds. He spent countless hours observing and photographing at the Muskegon Wastewater Facility, a well-known birding hot spot in Muskegon County, Michigan. Mike died in December 2008, leaving thousands of his 35 mm slides to his family. Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brother approached the Muskegon Nature Club (MNC), where Mike was a long-time member, for suggestions on what to do with the slides. MNC members contacted the Ottawa County Parks Nature Education Center (NEC) and an agreement was made that the NEC would take the donation of the slide collection and make it available to others for a variety of uses. Chip Francke, the Coordinator of Interpretive Services for Ottawa County Parks (OCP) at the time, and Charlie DeWitt, a MNC member and photographer, sorted through the thousands of images and picked out the best ones. Ottawa County Parks had the best slides professionally scanned at high resolution. None of the slides came with any information, so Chip began to identify and label the digital images. Steve Mueller helped to identify the skippers and butterflies and Greg Swanson assisted in the identification of dragonflies. Once the images were identified and labeled, Chip sorted the images into seven groupings (called albums on Flickr) and uploaded all the images to the Flickr site. The albums are: birds, butterflies, skippers, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, plants, and mic. insects and spiders. Nearly 400 digital photos are now available to use for any non-commercial application. We are primarily thinking of staff and volunteers that conduct educational programs through nature centers, schools, colleges, parks and other similar organizations. You can download the images in a variety of sizes. They are great for Power Point programs, newsletters, brochures, displays and many other educational applications. Feel free to crop, filter, or change the photo for your needs. If desired, photo credit can be given to Mike Moran. To access the photos, go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/115941663@N04/sets/ If you have comments or have a problem accessing these photos, please contact Kristen Hintz at khintz@miottawa.org

We hope that Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and memory will live on through the use of these images. If you know of other non-profit organizations, nature centers, parks, schools, colleges or other organizations that conduct educational programs, please feel free to forward the link on to them.

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Going Europe - Live Costumed Interpretation A new initiative that is looking for partners for European collaboration. Martine Teunissen Beleef Het Verleden Since the beginning of this year I have been working on setting up a new initiative in Live Costumed Interpretation on a European level. After having been involved in different foreign projects as a Dutch historical character and having seen other ‘colleague companies’ who have done the same, I have become really enthusiastic to take the next step and start working internationally with a coherent plan. A foreign character in a local affair who brings different manners, customs, stories and different points of view to the public gives a very rich representation of the past. The public is usually happily surprised by this exotic touch. Not only the regional public who are visiting the historical sites, but also international visitors. In projects of ‘De Pied en Cap’in Normandy I have often encountered Dutch or Flemish speaking visitors who were delighted to meet a ‘real’ historical character of their own nation. The acting of a Dutch character at the 17th century court at the castle of Maintenon, organised by “Le Bosquet” gave a unique flavour in topics as ‘VOC’ (Dutch East India Company), and international trade relations.

The same goes for Hampton Court where amongst others, a French and German delegation have been performed. These projects are delivered by Past Pleasures Limited who are working for Historic Royal Palaces, the leading provider of professional live interpretation in Britain.

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The French cook in the Dutch kitchen of a late 19th century project of “Beleef Het Verleden” (Experience the Past) also impressed the visitors very much. The visitors were able to speak French with him and learn more about the French cuisine of that time. Working on a European level with other companies is challenging because you are working with different languages, different identities and backgrounds (local, regional, national and international). It gives you an opportunity to take your own work to the next level, especially when you combine this with research on what visitors learn from our interpretation performances. In brainstorms with different partners the following initiatives were developed: 1. Creating a team of European Interpreters who will be doing projects in live interpretation. In a 2-4 year program, every three months the team will perform at a European site, focusing on the specific topics and story-lines in an international context. 2. Resources: training (young) people in live heritage interpretation 3. Research: research on visitor satisfaction, learning outcomes / validation of quality standards or criteria. European Live Interpretation Team At the moment we have gathered the following people in our team. This can still be extended with people from different countries, so if you are interested to join us, let us know. • English Past Pleasures Mark Wallis • Irish Footsteps Interpretation Robert Foreshaw • French De Pied en Cap Loïc Benot • Dutch Beleef Het Verleden Martine Teunissen • German Freelancers Angela Pfenninger Annette Bӓchstӓdt • Austria Ingo Glückler

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It is our goal to do projectsin live interpretation, focusing on European history from the different perspectives of the participating countries, showing a broader, unique and coherent view on European history. For the programs in different countries we now have several museums and historical sites that are connected to our initiative and at the moment we are working on developing programs for the different sites. This includes the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism, the Estonian Open Air Museum, Les Invalides in Paris and Historical Royal Palaces in England. To throw some light on our programs: we’re planning on a pilot project in spring 2015 in France and the first projects of the whole concept starting in 2016 in both England and Estonia. For 2017 plans with Germany and Holland are developing, working towards 2019 with a final project in Versailles. Resources We would like to establish a training program in live costumed interpretation. The courses can be taken before the start of the different European projects by the different live interpreters and museum staff involved. It will include a general training and an applied training for the specific historical topics and related activities on site (museum or castle). For the general training we will be working with Past Pleasures Ltd. This UK based company holds the single largest contract for live interpretation, in their daily work across the Historic Royal Palaces in the UK(including the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace). Past Pleasures Ltd have analysed and identified the skill-sets required for best practice effective live interpretation. This covers everything from historical costuming, posture and stance to the importance of placing the modern visitor front and centre of any attempt to understand past attitudes and ways of life.Using interpersonal communication techniques, participants of this training will gain practice in monitoring the visitors, empathising with their experience and ensuring the best use of live interpretation to enhance the visit of everyone – whether the child with a limited attention span, or the expert who has written a book on the topic being investigated. They will gain an intimate perspective on the challenges of inviting the heritage visitor to participate in the ‘game’ of interpreting the past, how to tackle difficult topics, how to be responsive to visitor needs and how to transition the visitor seamlessly from passive observer to willing active participant. The applied training will focus on getting to know the local history of the site, the site itself and it will give the historical background needed to execute the performances. This training will be provided by the museum and heritage sites themselves, speakers from local Universities that are involved and by members of the European Live Interpretation Team, depending on their specialisations. Research In 2008 I finished my research thesis: ‘Representation of the Past in Public Spheres. Experiencing the Past: The Reconstruction and Recreation of History at Colonial Williamsburg”. In this research I looked at the performances in a historical theatre program called: ‘The Revolutionary City’ and conducted interviews with visitors to examine what they learned from this and what message they took home. These insights help to understand the workings of live costumed interpretation and how people learn from it.

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This background gave the idea to merge entrepreneurship with a similar kind of (academic) research, in order to get our projects to the next level. We would like to establish a research group who will do visitor satisfactions surveys and research on visitors’ ways of learning, so that we have input on the spot to improve the quality of our work. In addition to that, these reports will serve for putting up quality criteria. The research results will be published as well. We are very happy to have Tony Jackson, emeritus professor of educational theatre at the University of Manchester, and experienced in the uses of theatre as a learning medium, on our advisory board. He could help in developing a research methodology for gauging visitor response and advising on principles and possibilities for individual variation. Every local University that participates can contribute to cultural diversity and hopefully we can work with local students who understand the local culture and so can develop a deeper level of trust with the public, which is important for the effectiveness of the research. We are also thinking about training students in their own country (via workshops) and then letting them conduct the research within the structure of courses at their different Universities. For this, we are looking for universities who would like to cooperate in this. Interpret Europe is willing to be our partner to bring together the academics and the practitioners. We are hoping to create a special interest group in costumed live interpretation within Interpret Europe. This group can examine funding opportunities and prepare a funding proposal. Also, a link with the more generic InHerit project is suggested to work with in parallel, as this InHerit project defines areas of competence for the entire professional field of heritage interpretation. There are synergies to be found in such a collaboration. Interpret Europe will also serve as a professional network within European collaboration. Interpret Europe will help finding partners, giving space to workshops during conferences, helping publishing articles in the newsletter and on the website. If you are interested to participate within the IE structure, please let us know. The Katholisch-TheologischePrivatUniversität in Linz is offering a framework in which we can spread the research results: (1) The International Bibliographic Database of Living History (http://www.livehistory.de/interpretation/) which could serve as a central point of sharing data in the field of living history, (2) Living Book: ‘Open Collaboration Interpreter’s Guidebook: aiming to pool existing research information, adding insights and making the result freely available for reuse and (3) Open acces Publications: using an already existing tool ‘KiDokS’, an online archive that enables research results to be disseminated more quickly and widely than was previously possible. The online publications on the website of Interpret Europe could be linked with this.

These are just a few examples of the partnerships that are being established. In order to make the project work it is needed to apply for European and local funding and to find more partners.

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We are looking for: •

Members for the Interpret Europe special interest group

• Museums and historic sites which have an international audience and who could benefit in their exhibitions / story-lines that are being told from an international European perspective using live heritage interpretation. They should be willing to contribute in a part of the necessary budget as well as cooperating in the funding application in programs such as the ‘Culture Program’ and ‘Horizon 2020’ + local funding. • Universities who are willing to cooperate with a course / program in which students will get the opportunity to do research on the different European projects. It would be helpful if this University has already experience with the program Horizon 2020. For travel costs individual students can apply for the Erasmus Plus Program. • A lead partner who is able to take upon the role for the funding applications. This may be several lead partners per part of the project, forming a coherent plan. • People who would like to join the advisory board. We need advisors for the research part and for the funding applications.

Please contact: Martine@beleefhetverleden.nl Martine Teunissen Beleef Het Verleden – historisch evenementen & adviesbureau, www.beleefhetverleden.nl Experience the Past – historical event & advice company, www.experiencethepast.org

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A quick review of the Seminario Permanente de Museologia en America Latina. John Veverka

I recently had the privilege of being invited to present a paper at this wonderful 3-day seminar held in Mexico City, to hear papers on museum education, exhibitions and working with local communities. The seminar drew approximately 400 participants from throughout Mexico and Latin America, as well as speakers from the US and New Zealand.

Dr Manuel Gandara, Seminar coordinator and Alegandra Mosco presented two sessions on museum program and interpretive development in Mexico.

Besides the three days of great papers and discussions, we were also able to visit and critique the Mayan World Heritage Site of Xochicalco a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Municipality of Miacatlรกn in the western part of the Mexican state of Morelos.

On the following and last day we visited two different museum experiences. First was Mide - an "economics museum" that is not what you would think. This museum developed a wealth of amazing interactive exhibits and wonderful technology to interpret how we are all connected to our local and national economy. If you visit Mexico City a visit to this museum is a MUST (some photos below).

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Seminar presenters included: John Falk (USA), Kathleen McLean (USA), Graciela Schmilchik (Mexico), Leticia Perez and Lee Davidson (Mexico and New Zealand), Emilio Montemayor (Mexico), John Veverka (USA), Maanuel Gandara and Alejandra Mosco (Mexico), Camilo Sanchez (Columbia), Diana Bedolla (Mexico), Camilo de Mello (Brasil), Ted Cabel (USA), Sol Rubin de la Borbolla (Mexico); Victor Fratto (Argentina), Ricardo Rubiales (Mexico) and Xatziri Pena (Mexico).

Some of the seminar attendees (left photo). We also had students from the university who were protesting the disappearance of Mexican students (as reported on CNN) have some time at the seminar to express their concerns for that important issue (right photo).

This was an important and amazing 3-days seminar and related field trips to critique heritage sites and museum exhibitions. Congratulations to Dr. Manuel Gandara and his whole team for putting together a really great seminar on museum studies, exhibitions, interpretation and community engagement.

Xochicalco archaeological world heritage site (left), and part of the Codex exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum, part of our site visits and discussions. All are worth an extended visit.

John Veverka - Seminar Speaker/participant, jvainterp@aol.com Seminar details and papers information: manuelgandara.2014@gmail.com

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Conservation Cuisine; the new frontier of conservation messaging. By Keane Amdahl Sustainable Seafood Coordinator, Minnesota Zoo

Historically speaking, food has been used as a way to draw guests into special events as a kind of an added bonus, but at the Minnesota Zoo, food has become more than that; it’s becoming part of the message. The idea that food can help to deliver your messaging in way that connects people to their natural environments can have long lasting effects while encouraging more practical, every day approaches to conservation. Food is fun and you can use it to your advantage. At the Minnesota Zoo, we’re working to incorporate food as an active player in our conservation messaging under a banner that we like to refer to as ‘conservation cuisine’ and the idea is fairly simple. The reality is that our food system is one of the biggest threats to the world’s most vital and sensitive habitats. In fact, the majority of our major conservation efforts are impacted by our food system in some way, shape, or form and getting people to understand that conservation starts in the home with a few minor adjustments can go a really long way. It also doesn’t hurt that this kind of conservation messaging can also be delicious! We’re doing this at the Minnesota Zoo in a variety of ways that are fun, engaging, and educational. Our seafood outreach program, Fish Smart, is designed to work with local chefs and restaurants in a way that helps them to understand the vital role that the oceans play in our lives, not only as a food source, but as a way of mitigating weather related disasters, climate patterns, and as a source of recreation. In turn, we work with the chefs to do fun public outreach events that highlight the importance of sustainable seafood. Participants have shown tremendous amounts of interest and participation in these events and frequently want to know what more they can do at home to help protect our oceans. We’ve also put together a new event called Backstage Bites. This event is a variation on an existing zoo event that gains participants behind the scenes access to the inner workings of the zoo. This event takes it a step further and guests get to explore the kitchens in which the animal’s food is prepared while learning about animal diets from the keepers. To help accent the messaging, we serve hors d'oeuvres that use the same or similar foods to what the animals eat and we discuss sustainable sourcing of the ingredients and how improper sourcing can have dire impacts on the species.

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For example, our latest event focused on our grizzly bears and sea otters. Guests were able to snack on a variety of sustainable seafood items like trout, scallops, and mussels and we were able to directly relate it back to the animals because that’s what they eat in the wild. We let the guests know that by making sure that we’re sourcing these things responsibly, we not only ensure that we have plenty to eat in the future, but that the grizzlies and sea otters will also have a sustainable food supply. It’s one of way of really connecting the people to a variety of species we have at the zoo. Another big item on our radar at the Minnesota Zoo is palm oil. It’s something that frequently appears in a wide variety of consumer products and we’re currently looking at ways to discuss the way palm oil affects a variety of endangered species and habitats. Just like most other things, there’s good palm oil and there’s not so good palm oil. We want our guests to understand that by making the decision to support items that have responsibly sourced palm oil they can have positive impacts on tiger, elephant, rhino, and orangutan populations. Now on the surface, this might seem familiar. It’s not like conservation messaging has avoided consumer awareness campaigns that warn potential buyers of the effects of their purchases, this just goes one step further and it can be done in a way that celebrates good food instead of demonizing bad food. When a guest can put a delicious piece of food into their mouth, it triggers a variety of impulses which leads to sensory memory. When they can remember how good something is when they’re at the store, they’re a lot more likely to make a better purchasing decision. They’re also a lot more likely to talk about these issues with others. People love to talk about food experiences and if they can influence other people in their peer group by simply talking about delicious food, then the messaging gets that much stronger. The next time you’re trying to think about a great way to connect your guests to your conservation messages, try thinking about how to work food into the equation. Whether it’s a dinner or a snack bar at an event, food can buy a lot of miles for your message.

Keane Amdahl Sustainable Seafood Coordinator Minnesota Zoo Education Department 13000 Zoo Boulevard, Apple Valley, MN 55124 Keane.Amdahl@state.mn.us

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Advancements in Interpretive Planning... Concepts for What Interpretation "Can Be"! John A. Veverka Certified Interpretive Planner/Trainer John Veverka & Associates. www.heritageinterp.com

Paper presented at the Seminario Permanente de Museologia en America Latina. October 23, 2014 Mexico City, Mexico

Abstract As a profession for the past 40+ years interpretation has focused on two main aspects of the philosophy and techniques of heritage interpretation. 1) What interpretation has been - its roots and founding as a real profession, and 2) what interpretation is today - current interpretive philosophies, presentation strategies and technology. What has been missing is a focus on the realities of what the interpretive profession "can be". This moves us into looking at the psychology of the visitor, experience economy concepts, markets of one and mass customization. This presentation will look at these new concepts with real world examples to help us look forward into interpretations real potential of what the profession "can be". Moving forward hurts! Based on 40 years of doing and teaching interpretation I have seen and learned that making any changes in paradigms is not easy. New ideas that require a new way of thinking that challenges old ideas and strategies are never easy to establish. And trying new ideas involves risks. Having research and case studies that help prove or support the new ideas helps reduce the pain of evolution. Here are some examples of "what interpretation can be". Visitor Physiology - Why visitors really choose to attend interpretive programs. My research into this topic began in 1978 while working as a seasonal park interpreter for Ohio State Parks. My program attendance was an average of 1500 per week offering a variety of interpretive topics and services (AV programs in amphitheaters, guided hikes and live activities like aquatic ecology programs. So why did people choose to attend programs? I did my MS thesis on this topic and here is what I found - that totally changed my way of thinking about interpretation marketing and program/services development. Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (figure 1).

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New Need: Wifi :)

Figure 1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1954).

Here is a summary of what this 2-year research uncovered. 1. Visitors selected to attend interpretive programs or activities that meet a definite "need" within the psyche of the visitor. For example, based on survey research: - They attended programs on poisonous snakes, deadly weather, etc. based on their "safety need". - They attended or selected programs that promoted working with your family, or being part of a group - such as bird watchers, based on Belongingness Needs. - They attended programs on learning more about nature or history (for self-enjoyment and knowledge) base on Esteem Needs. This is also what motivates people to volunteer for organizations. -They attended interpretive programs on advanced topics such as being a weather forecasting or how to identify animals using a "key" as part of their self-actualization needs. - Our longer hikes people selected for Physiological Needs - wanting to exercise while on vacation. So in summary, base the "needs" visitors needed to have addressed or met played a role in the kinds of interpretive programs they selected to attend.

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Interpretive Topics make a difference - marketing and more. But there is much more. Not only is the interpretive program/services delivery key to attending programs, but so is the topic. As part of the research we surveyed 90 possible interpretive program topics. Through random surveys giving visitors 15 topics at a time to review had them select the top five programs they would like to attend and why. Here is what we discovered after surveying almost 2000 park visitors. - Different genders (men vs. women) preferred different program topics. - Where both men and women preferred the same topic, they selected it for different reasons. For example, the program topic on "Tornados and Thunderstorms - the deadly clouds" was chosen as a preferred topic by both men and women - but for very different reasons. * Men those this topic for "esteem motives" wanting to learn how tornados were formed, how powerful they could be and how they can cause so much damage. * Women chose this topic for "safety" motives wanting to know the safest place in the home to hide if one comes, tornado warning systems, how to keep their family safe. - We found there were topics only selected by visitors under the age of 27 years old, an topics only selected by visitors over 27 years of age or older and some topics selected equally by both age groups (universal concepts). What this research illustrates that as an interpretive planner there is no "general" audience. The truth is that when you offer a program topic to be delivered by a particular method, such as a hike or lecture, you have unknowingly defined a market group for that program who are coming because of intrinsic interest in that topic and to have specific needs satisfied that the program or event provides. This gets us into the concept of "markets of one". This is why blue jeans come in more than one size. So interpretive planning for "what can be" requires us to understand the markets of one concepts. The Experience Economy and Experience Planning. The next big thing we have been working on in our interpretive planning and training courses, is adding the elements of experience based and outcome based interpretive planning strategies. Besides the inventory of interpretive resources such as geological, historical, ecological features, etc. we have also included an “experience inventory” based on the book “The Experience Economy” by Joseph Pine and J. Gilmore. Essentially what we know is that different sets of experiences will attract or discourage visitors who are looking for a particular set of experiences. Let’s take a look at the experience model (Figure 2) and I’ll give some examples as it applies to interpretive planning and marketing interpretive programs and services.

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Essentially Pine and Gilmore illustrate that there are four basic ways of engaging in experiences you seek out or take part in: Passive Participation – watching an interpretive amphitheater program for example. Active Participation – taking part in a hands-on interpretive demonstration or activity. Immersion Experiences – being in the forest, on a lake, in a historic home, scuba diving. Absorption Experience – this is where you are so focused on the experience like watching a great play or movie that you forget about time (day dreaming while driving – ever miss an exit?). Now, there are also four basic kinds of experiences you can engage in. You may be looking for: Entertainment experiences – like going to a movie, playing a video game or watching a living history program. Educational experiences – you want the experience to teach you something, challenge critical thinking and puzzle problem skills, or you want to learn a new skill or advance your knowledge level of a subject.

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Esthetic experiences – watching the sun set, looking at and smelling wildflowers, being in and looking at a garden, visiting an art gallery (which could combine many different experiences). Escapist experience – going on a long hike where you won’t see another person – taking a canoe trip or getting lost in a good book. To me this is one of the most important aspects of any interpretive plan – what experiences do you offer, or want to offer? We do an experience inventory as part of the total plan interpretive inventory to address this issue and how it may affect current or future visitation or market shifts. Now we know that visitors don’t usually come to interpretive sites for just one experience nor do they come alone. I often think “if I brought my family” would there be something for everyone; mom, wife, daughter, son and I? The visitor may want an educational interpretive walk that is also entertaining (edutainment) in the morning, want to watch a demonstration in the afternoon, and just watch the sunset in the evening. If you’re developing an interpretive program schedule – do you have just one kind of experience you’re offering or a diversity of experiences? Here is how it works in simple terms: The kinds of experiences you offer at your interpretive site or facility is often directly related to the kinds of audiences you can attract that “want” that kind of or mix of experience! If you want to attract new or different audiences or age groups, you have to add or modify new kinds of experiences market groups would have an interest in as appropriate for your site. If you look at advertising for interpretive sites you can see how that works. Here are two different brochures. What experiences are they offering and to which market groups?

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So, in general, as part of cutting edge interpretive planning we now spend a lot of time in looking at authenticity, experience realms and experience inventories as part of our audience needs and marketability for interpretive programs and services – interpretive planning for new experience mixes. Mass Customization in interpretive planning involves looking at the wide range of interpretive programs, services and topics that visitors might want to experience, learn about and enjoy. But in interpretation one size does not fit all. For example, most self-guiding trails have only “one” story or theme, and if that one story or topic is not to your interest, you might walk the trail, but not use the interpretive media. The interpretive content might be too simple, too complex or cover a topic they’re not interest in. With mass customization as part of an interpretive plan, we can phase in 10 or more different interpretive trail guides for “one” trail. For our example here we could have many trail guides based one general theme like “Our forest landscape is always in a state of change.”, but we can have many different self-guiding topic options such as: - Our forest landscape….

(guide for spring, summer, fall, winter). (guide for introductory, intermediate or advanced topics) (guide in 2-3,4 or more different languages) (guide for wildflowers, trees, succession, land management, etc.)

This range of guides could all be for the same trail. The guides would exist on your web site as a PDF for printing from a computer or be downloaded to a smart phone. They can exist as a printed guide, and audio guide, or a video guide. The visitor could “customize” the season, complexity, language and media (printed, smart phone) they want the guide to provide based on their interest or needs from a trail guide web based library. Now imagine if you had more trails, each with many different themes, adaptations, learning styles and levels, and experiences. More mass customization – a mall of individualized opportunities for visitors to discover and experience your stories based on each visitors unique needs, interests and learning styles (Markets of One). For larger projects, like the 500 mile long Susquehanna River Greenway Interpretive Systems Plan in Pennsylvania we developed a few years ago, the mass customization matrix included over 200different interpretive sites, museums, parks, and related heritage areas that could be developed/marketed for Greenway wide auto tours, bus tours or theme/topic based tours or events. Each interpretive experience could be customized to the user’s interests, knowledge levels and experience types ready for them to find and select at the Greenway web site (currently in development). The mass customization interpretive planning inventory and assessment for each individual site selected along the 500 mile long Greenway included: - Main interpretive stories or topics or resources the site presented. - Current experience opportunities at each site. - Quality of the interpretive resources/experience (best example, average example, most accessible example of a particular category, such as civil war sites, environmental sites, railroad history, canal era history, etc. - Analysis of existing interpretive media or services. - Recommended new interpretive media, services and experiences. - Tourism readiness issues (tour bus ready, up to 30 visitors at one time, only 5-10 visitors like for a historic home tour, or not tourism ready)

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The data from all the sites were then summarized in a variety of mass customization matrices including: - Site by topic (railroad, historic home, scenic vista, natural history features, etc.) - Site by tourism readiness. - Site by interpretive media or experiences. - Site interpretive media implementation priority and costs. When the mass customization matrices were completed they gave us a big picture of just what were the main interpretive topics, stories, resources and interpretive development opportunities for the whole 500 mile long greenway corridor and how we might be able to connect them for different themed experiences. For years interpretation and interpretive planning has focused on the same content, and many plans still focus mostly on the design and location of interpretive “media” without asking if “that’s what the visitors really wanted or needed” and how will this enhance the total site experience and outcomes? And we’re not leaving Tilden behind – the principles of provoke, relate and reveal and the use of tangible and intangible concepts are imbedded in all the final presentations and delivery media the interpretive plans recommend. That’s what makes the interpretive plan “interpretive”. But we must also use those principles in planning to create a diversity of interpretive experiences – to expand interpretive market groups, and to see visitors not as numbers but as a collection of unique individuals with a wide range of interpretive topics and experience interests. What Interpretation Can Be So back to the beginning of this paper - what interpretation can be. The more we learn about the needs, interests and motives the better job we can do communicating with them while also accomplishing our site/agencies mission and objectives. These concepts are also key to successful marketing and advertising for interpretive sites and facilities. Our understanding and use of our knowledge in these areas will move the interpretive profession forward and help us re-think of what and how we teach interpretation to others. - Understanding visitor motives and needs. - Understanding the importance of "experience" in interpretive planning. - Understanding and using the principle of "mass customization" and markets of one. These will help us, as a profession, think about all the possibilities of "what interpretation can be". References: Gilmore, James and J. Pine. 2000. Markets of One. Harvard Business School Press. Gilmore, James H. and J. Pine. 2007. What the consumers really want – Authenticity. Harvard Business School Press. Gottdiener, Mark. 1977. The Theming of America. Westview Press. Pine, Joseph and J. Gilmore.1999. The Experience Economy. Harvard Business School Press. Pine, Joseph. 1993. Mass Customization. Harvard Business School Press. Schmitt, Bernad. 1999. Experiential Marketing. The Free Press. Veverka, John. 1978. A survey of park visitor motivations for selecting and attending interpretive programs. MS Thesis, The Ohio State University. Veverka, John. 2011. Interpretive Master Planning- Strategies for the New Millennium. MuseumsEtc. Edinburgh, UK. Veverka, John A. 2014. Advanced Interpretive Planning, MuseumsETC, Edinburgh.

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Interpretive Tip: If it's called a visitor center, how come some of the people working there are not more visitorcentered? By J. Patrick Barry, Certified Interpretive Trainer

I remember telling the people I supervised, “When visitors walk through the front door of this visitor center, they are not interrupting your job, they ARE your job!” If you are like me, you probably enter visitor centers when you travel and explore new places. A recent family vacation through a neighboring state reminded me that some of the staff I encountered in visitor centers “never got that memo.” Don’t get me wrong, I received great service at five of the seven visitor centers we saw during the trip. As a group, I believe that people who work in visitor centers understand how to provide good customer service. But, the two exceptions left me wondering “Why was their service so terrible?” One ranger ignored me while I stood in front of him at an information desk. He was typing something very important, I’m sure. It would have been great if he had said something like, “Please give me just a minute while I finish something I need to complete.” Eventually he looked at me, still not saying anything but clearly not happy. I politely asked my question about the identity of a leaf I’d found on the ground. Looking annoyed, he asked me if I’d smelled it? “Yes”, I replied. “That is why I wonder what it is? Is it a bay laurel?” He sarcastically replied, “If it smells like it and looks like it then it probably is….” I slinked away. He obviously did not want to have this conversation. It left me wondering if he was having a really bad day or had been reassigned for the day to a place he did not want to be? What could cause him to be so rude to me? I don’t think he was trying to enter a “facilitated dialogue” with me or was practicing the Socratic Method. I was simply asking a simple question. I think he was simply annoyed to “have to” help me. But, isn’t that his job? I tell everyone I work with, “If you are having a bad day and are too grumpy to be around people, let me know so we can find someone else to cover for you.” Often there are ehind-the-scenes tasks to complete by staff who feel grumpy. That is clearly not the procedure at the park I visited.

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Here is how I think it should have gone. When I approached the desk he should have stopped typing, smiled and made eye contact. If I didn’t speak he should have asked, “Are there any questions I may answer for you?” After hearing my question he should either answer it politely or give me the classic response, “I’m not sure, but let me find out for you.” Simple, basic customer service. My other bad experience on this vacation (at a different visitor center) also needed the, “I’m not sure but let me find out.” Instead, when I asked if they knew who made their excellent displays,I heard, “I have NO idea!” It was said with an eye roll and in the tone of “That is the most annoying and stupid question!” I started to walk away. What saved this encounter was, when an older staff member walked up and I asked the same question. She knew the answer and modeled great customer service for her younger co-worker. She answered that question and politely engaged in a brief conversation. I left feeling well-taken-care-of and smiling. I want to address this to my fellow “public servants.” We are called public servants because we are paid to serve the public. That means we should provide customer service that leaves visitors saying, “I’m happy my taxes are being spent on this!” The last thing we want them to say is, “The ranger ignored me, was rude, and did not answer my questions!” Do they tell others whether it was good or bad? Yes they do. Should you care? Yes you should. If you are in a position to serve the public, practice exceptional customer service. If you are in a position to teach others to serve the public, promote exceptional customer service. When our visitors write their congressional representatives we want them to tell them about their positive experience and exceptional customer service. The service you provide will encourage them to either complain or complement. You choose.

The author, J. Patrick Barry, supervised a large federal visitor center for over 25 years and has given two presentations at National Workshops for the National Association for Interpretation about improving customer service. He can be reached at jpatbarry@hotmail.com

Customers come in all sizes too.

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A TALE OF TWO INTERPRETIVE TEXT PASSAGES STEPHEN BITGOOD Professor Emeritus of Psychology Jacksonville State University

In the last few issues of InterpNEWS, I introduced my attention-value model (July-August, 2014), described the importance of visitor navigation (September-October, 2014), and discussed how temptation and commitment play a role in visitor attention (November-December, 2014). I had a number of ideas for my next contribution, and finally decided on a critique of a specific interpretive text passage. The critique applies some of the principles described in my recent books and articles (see Bibliography). Reviewing my old files, I came across a photograph of a text label from an evaluation project I conducted in the late 1980s. The text came from interpretation along a walkway in the road-cut for Highways 280 and 31 going South from downtown Birmingham, AL. The walkway, part of the Red Mountain Museum, interpreted geological features exposed by the cut. Because of potential rock slides and the closing of the Museum in 1994, the walkway was no longer open to the public and artifacts recovered from the geological project were moved to the newly opened McWane Museum of Science downtown.

Fig. 1: The Red Mountain Road Cut. The road-cut exposed a number of geological features including a vein of iron ore and coal.

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Figure 1 is a photograph of the road cut. The walkway is located along the road-cut in the upper right of the photo. Figure 2 shows the fenced-in walkway with visitors viewing the interpretation. The walkway not only provided a unique interpretation of geological evidence, but also allowed an excellent view of downtown Birmingham from the heights of Red Mountain.

Fig. 2: Interpretive signs were placed along the face of the rock along the interpretive walkway.

Since the Red Mountain Museum no longer exists, it is an opportunity to critically analyze one of the interpretive panels placed along the walkway without fear of offending Museum personnel. Figure 3 is the text passage being critiqued. For comparison purposes, an alternative text passage (Figure 4) is offered as part of the critique. Thus, the“tale of two text passages” found in Figures 3 and 4. Fig. 3: THE RED MOUNTAIN ROAD CUT[Original label- 93 words] “The first ridge is Hartsell Sandstone. The valley between is occupied by the Tuscumbia Ls. and the Pride Mtn. Formation. Floyd Shale forms the floor of the valley beyond. The Little Shades Sandstone member of the Parkwood Formation forms the second ridge and regressive shales and sandstones of the Parkwood continue about two-thirds of the way up Shades Mountain. Thick, massive sands called the Shades Sandstone Member occur in the base of the Lower Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation. Three thick sandstone members are present near the base and probably represent deposition as barrier sands.” Fig. 4: THE RED MOUNTAIN ROAD CUT[Suggested change – 62 words]   

Red Mountain is composed of geological formations from the Pennsylvanian-Mississipian Geological Time Period (360-320 million years ago). Coal and iron, critical to the industrial development of Birmingham, were mined in this area. The formations in the ridges and valley also contain sandstone, shale, mudstone, limestone, and clay. This geological period is sometimes called the “Carboniferous Period” because of the large coal deposits.

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Vocabulary. The geological vocabulary (e.g. “Hartsell Sandstone,”“Tuscumbia Ls,”“Pride Mtn Formation”) of Figure 3 makes this passage incoherent to most visitors who do not have the necessary geological knowledge to make sense of its meaning. Figure 4 attempts to interpret the main ideas of the original text and make more sense minus the difficult vocabulary. Figure 3 illustrates a common problem that occurs when content experts are in exclusive control of the interpretation process. Unfortunately, it is too easy for the expert to assume the general public is familiar with the jargon of the profession.

Relevance. Even if the information in Figure 3 is made clear, it is not very relevant to the most important aspect of Red Mountain’s geology to the City of Birmingham: The fact that iron and coal were abundant in these rocks is critical to the industrial development of the City.

Reference. In the text of Figure 3, visitors are not told where and what to look at. Where is the “first ridge”? The “second ridge”? What do “regressive shales and sandstones” look like? A photo or illustration identifying where to look would have been helpful.

Length of passage. The first passage (Figure 3) contains 93 words, somewhat longer than most visitors are willing to read. Numerous studies have documented that fewer words (e.g., 50-75) are much more likely to be read than passages with more words. The alternative suggested passage (Figure 4) is only 62 words and is more likely to be read based on past visitor studies (e.g., Bitgood, 2014; Bitgood &Paterson, 1993).

Ease of processing. Reading the paragraph in Figure 3 takes more mental processing effort than reading the bulleted main points (Figure 4). In addition, the vocabulary is easier to understand.In one of our early studies, we compared information in paragraph form with the same information in bulleted form. The respondents spent less time to read the bullets and they recalled more of what they read. Another method of making text easier to process is to us conceptual mapping.

Capturing attention. Neither of the text passages (Figures 3 or 4) is likely to attract a high percentage of visitor attention by itself. The presence of concrete features (i.e., either three-dimensional objects, photos or illustrations) would increase attracting power and thus increase the chance of reading the text. What is needed in this case is a photo or illustration that marks the features discussed in the text.

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Summary. Both utility (interesting, attractive interpretative content) and cost (low investment of time and effort) are critical to visitors engaging with interpretive text. The reader can learn more about how the attention-value model explains the role of the utility/cost ratio in visitor motivation by referring to the bibliography below. The 2013 book, Attention and Value: Keys to Understanding Museum Visitors, might be especially useful since it contains a checklist of factors that influence attention and value as well as provides some of the evidence supporting the model.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bitgood, S.(2010).An Attention-Value Model of Museum Visitors. The Center for the Advancement Of Informal Science Education. Available at http://caise.insci.org/uploads/docs/VSA_Bitgood.pdf. Bitgood, S. (2013). Attention and Value: Keys to Understanding Museum Visitors. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Bitgood, S. (2014). Engaging the Visitor: Designing Exhibits That work. Edinburgh, UK: MuseumsEtc. Bitgood, S. (2014). Exhibition Design That Provides High Value and Engages Visitor Attention. Exhibitionist (Spring Issue), Pp. 6-11. Bitgood, S. (2014). The Importance of Attention and Value for Interpretation. InterpNEWS (July-August Issue). Bitgood, S. (2014). Too much Temptation, Not Enough Value. InterpNEWS (November-December Issue). ----------------------------------------------------------------

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INTERPRETING MINOAN ANCIENT SCRIPT WRITINGS by Rita Roberts

A Minoan Linear B tablet recording precious metal vessels.

Well over a year ago I became interested in the script writings of the Ancient Minoans of Crete. It was Michael Ventris who finally cracked the code of these ancient scripts in 1953. These scripts are written on clay tablets and were discovered by Sir Arthur Evans whilst excavating the grand Palace of Knossos in Crete. It was Evans who named these scripts Linear B. My Teacher and mentor Richard Vallance Janke is extremely helpful in guiding me through what would be a difficult course for me to follow. However, with Richards humour and patience and his unique way of teaching I have found this subject a delight to learn and have since completed levels l-4 (basic to Advanced, Part l) Michael Ventris

Since then Richard has given me several Linear B tablet fragments to translate into English but here I will only give three examples of them. These fragments seemed simple at a first glance as all of them contained the word KOWA meaning Girl and KOWO meaning boy, so I thought this should be reasonably easy. However when I looked at what I thought to be a simple translation where the first word was KOWA followed by the single syllabogram DI this confused me, I had no idea what this could possibly mean? My teacher had been working hard himself on his new theory of SUPERSYLLABOGRAMS so I knew he would advise me to consult the Linear B ENGLISH GLOSSERY and the much larger Lexicon Linear B dictionary where I would most likely find what the Syllabogram DI might mean, this I did and to my astonishment there I found an entry which made sense” di wi ya” diwiya meaning “ a or the Priestess of the god Zeus”. This Supersyllabogram D l meaning is to me a logical translation since the three most important deities the Minoans worshipped were Pipituna, the Snake Goddess and Zeus hence my translation of my First Linear B tablet is as follows.

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Entry for my first translation 190 Bp o2

NOTES:(1) How did I arrive at the translation “The Priestess of the God Zeus. “For the syllabogram DI. By consulting the Linear B Lexicon by Chris Tselentis, Athens Greece, 149pp; I discovered only one entry under the syllabogram DI among the 25 or so in the Lexicon that could possibly fit the context of this Linear B fragment, and the entry was “ diwiya” alternately spelt “de we ye ya’’ meaning a or the priestess of the god Zeus” Now the likelihood of that supersyllabogram DI meaning is to my mind quite high, since all the deities the Minoans worshipped, the three most important were Pipituna, The Snake Goddes and Zeus. Here it was to be Zeus. (2) Notice, that not only are these two ladies in waiting, but that one of them is on the left side of the Priestess, and the other is on the right side. This is just one more example of the logical economy of Linear B which often operates as a sort of shorthand. Not only in the supersyllabogram DI shorthand, but the position of each of the girls is also in shorthand. The reason for this is because the clay tablets were so small that the Minoan scribes resorted to this form of writing knowing that each scribe knew the meanings. (3) Another form of saving space which the Minoan scribes used on these small clay tablets, was called an Ideogram which was evident in the second Linear B tablet that my teacher Richard Vallance gave me to translate which I explain as follows.

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Translation of Linear B Tablet Fragment 194 B OS

First the Ideogram for persons appears on the top left truncated (chopped off) on this fragment and KOWA means girl, KOWO boy. My translation therefore for this fragment is:There are five persons- Three girls and two boys. It had taken me eighteen months to get to this stage of being able to translate any of the Linear B tablets but now, this my third translation â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;see belowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; my teacher published for me.

Translation= There are two women Interior Decorators and one girl plus one boy at Lasynthos. Notes: This is a famous Linear B tablet from the great Palace of Knossos. It is one of the earliest tablets to be deciphered by Michael Ventris and his colleague and close friend, Dr John Chadwick, who outlived Ventris by over 40 years.

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For me this tablet brings to mind a picture of a girl and boy “maybe apprentices” helping the women interior decorators. One can imagine the wonderful colours the Minoans were so famous for. We only need to see the glorious frescoes to imagine what these interior decorators were capable of. The inside of Knossos Palace must have been a delight to look upon. HERE IS AN INTERESTING WAY TO LEARN LINEAR B ANCIENT SCRIPT WRITINGS

Shepherd Medallion. Po – me = Shepherd

Father Daughter Medallion Pa-te father Tu-ka-te Daughter

Dionysus Medallion. . Di- wo- nu-so Dionysus

Mother Medallion Ma-te = Mother

Anyone wishing to learn this fascinating subject. The Linear B Ancient Script Writings, you can contact my teacher: Richard Vallance. http://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com/ Rita Roberts http://www.ritaroberts.wordpress.com ritaincrete@yahoo.co.uk

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Interpreting WW1 for the i-Pad Generation. A new interactive online resource engages young people with 1914-1918 history

Children trying out the interactive at the Great Yorkshire Show in July 2014.

By Jen Newby, My Learning www.mylearning.org

Artifacts from the First World War have particular poignancy. There is a wealth of history and associations behind them and many of us have family connections to people who served. Yet, for young people who are discovering the history of the conflict for the first time these artifacts need to be put into context, with activities created around them to inform and inspire. My Learning and Leeds Museums and Galleries have launched a new WW1 Medals Interactive to do just that. (Left) The homepage of the new WW1 Medals interactive created by My Learning and Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Our First World War Guardians is a free online interactive. It is designed to inspire pupils to gain a greater understanding of the roles played by servicemen and women during the conflict, drawing on original artifacts in the Leeds Museums collections.

The interactive takes medals from different periods of the war and reveals stories of individuals who were awarded the medal and what they had to achieve to receive it.

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Information, intriguing stories and inspiring activities! The interactive uncovers the features and symbolism behind six medals awarded to British service personnel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from the choice of ribbon colour to the shape of the medal and use of mythical figures in the design. The significance of being awarded a medal is also explored through the histories of six WW1 medal recipients. Case studies are presented in an accessible format displaying original artifacts. The poignant stories of two brothers from Leeds, Alfred and Thomas Place, who were both awarded medals for their bravery, are revealed. The role played by women in the conflict is also highlighted through the war service of Phyllis Tessier, a nurse who received the Red Cross Medal for spending over 1,000 hours nursing injured servicemen Suitable for ages seven to 14 (UK Key Stages 2-4), the interactive allows students to combine learning with fun activities. They can design their own medals and view them in 3-D; write a letter to pre- and post-war British prime ministers; and follow key wartime events across a map of Europe. The responsive design makes it ideal for use on i-Pads and the highly visual presentation allows users to scroll through and tap objects for more details. Linked educational resources and additional classroom activity ideas are also available on the main My Learning site, at www.mylearning.org/ww1-medal-stories

What is My Learning? My Learning is a free website for teachers and learners inspired by the collections of UK arts, heritage and cultural organizations. Launched in 2006, My Learning features over 400 curriculum-linked resources, and has received over 860,000 unique visitors in the past 12 months alone. My Learning is funded through the Arts Council England's Renaissance Major Partner initiative and managed by Leeds Museums and Galleries.

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Contribute a WW1 resource to My Learning My Learningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new suite of WW1 resources feature artifacts from organizations across the UK, such as 9year-old Alfie Knight's letter to Lord Kitchener and a soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bible which stopped a German bullet. These objects inspire discussions of themes like conscientious objection and shell shock, but also address the consequences of war, from losing a loved one to prejudice. Over 35 curriculum-linked resources are already live on the My Learning website, at www.mylearning.org/firstworldwarcentenary with more to come throughout the Centenary. If you would like us to include an artifact, object or document from your organization (UK only), simply send your suggestion to the My Learning team by email (info@mylearning.org), then submit an image and any additional details and we will create the resource. Please do get in touch if you may have any queries about the interactive or My Learning! Jen Newby Digital Learning Officer, My Learning (www.mylearning.org.uk) Leeds Museums and Galleries Email: Jennifer.newby@leeds.gov.uk WW1 Medals Interactive:www.mylearning.org/ww1-medal-stories Follow us on Twitter @MyLearning.org

My Learning is a member of the First World War Centenary Partnership led by the Imperial War Museum.

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Retirement and Interpretation. Iris Schwartz Certified Interpretive Guide and Resident Volunteer

Iris and Ken at Gulf Coast VC, Everglades National Park.

What better place to live than on a lake in a refuge or in a national park for months at a time for a couple of nature lovers? Well, we do just that as resident volunteers where we provide our time and energy in exchange for a place to live. My husband Ken Asher and I are resident volunteers/*workampers at national parks and wildlife refuges and a good bit of the time our duties include interpretation. How did we get here? Retirement The time had come. Ken asked me to retire (in my case, leave the paid working world before I had reached the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;typicalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; retirement age) when he was ready to retire as part of the Medicare set. Of course, he did not want to sit at home until I returned from my work day. We discussed the possibilities involved in resident volunteer/workamping experiences and I agreed, as I am always up for an adventure. Turns out he had already been checking into what would become our second career---resident volunteers/workampers at national parks and wildlife refuges. A Workamper combines part-time or full-time paid or volunteer work with RV camping. Workampers generally receive compensation in the form of a free campsite, usually with free utilities (electricity, water, and sewer hookups) and additional wages.1In our case, workcamping takes on a bit of a different tone. In fact, we prefer to call ourselves resident volunteers and interpreters. As a resident volunteer, we feel we have a stake in the property and treat it as our own. And our preference is to perform interpretive duties as the greater part of our work schedule. Preparation Wespent the summer of 2009 camping across the country in our pop-up camper between consulting engagements. Ken took the time during the trip to talk with volunteers at various national parks and began learning about the possibilities of workamping/resident volunteer work and interpretation opportunities. As the specifics of this second career continued to gel, we also discussed obtaining certifications that might help us along the way. Our business experience had shown us that sometimes certifications can help in obtaining a position, especially if one has little experience in a particular field. * The term "Workamper" was coined by and is a registered trademark of Workamper News.

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Ken prepares camper for early spring chill in NJ.

Our plan came together in several stages. Early on, it was learning about workamping through both firsthand discussions and also research, typically via the Internet. We also put time and effort in certifications and training. First, we obtained a certification in Basic First Aid (with CPR) and Wilderness First Aid, which could come in handy no matter what we would do. We also planned a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, part of which would be a one-week class leading to our Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) certification through the National Association for Interpretation (NAI). Our early focus was the national parks and the relationship with NAI seemed to be a strong one, thus we thought that this would be beneficial.

Execution All this planning was fine, but the execution was yet to come. Mainly, after Ken retired in September of 2012, he intensified his research with a plan to be a resident volunteer by the next spring or summer. This necessitated planning not only where to volunteer, but also the acquisition of a home on wheels as we owned neither a camper nor a truck. So these two issues needed to be considered. And sometimes life does not flow in what one would think would be the sensible order. Ken actually landed our first assignment even before we purchased a rig and before I retired. Before the end of 2012, he had negotiated an early spring (2013) assignment at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. This opportunity was made possible by our past experiences in various volunteer capacities as volunteer leaders, history docents and trail maintenance volunteers. In addition, we had some excellent references from those experiences. This was really exciting news. However, on the same phone call, the volunteer coordinator asked about the size of our rig to ensure it would fit onto the camper pad. Well, we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a rig just yet, but we were seeking to purchase one. There were not too many rigs available in our home area (Northern Virginia) in the fall and winter months. But search Ken did while I went off to work each day, returning home to reports of some rig opportunities. We actually looked at a few rigs in southern NJ, oddly, not far from our first assignment. And eventually, we were fortunate to find a recreational vehicle (RV)and truck that were for sale by a private party, and not too far from Forsythe. We were fortunate also that the owners were willing to spend time showing us how the rig worked, how to drive and park, and even help us to set it up at our first assignment. Opportunities We were also lucky in that our first assignment was a mixture of the many activities that we tend to gravitate to. So what was a typical day at this first assignment? We opened the Visitor Information Center (VIC)in the morning if we arrived before the volunteer coordinator. We ensured that the VIC, including restrooms, were swept and clean before any visitors arrived. We ensured that pamphlets and brochure racks were refilled.

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The Forsythe Refuge had a relatively new VIC where we were able to help complete some of the touch table displays; we also spent time with visitors performing interpretive roaming through the Nature Gallery portion of the building. We found ourselves learning about and sharing information about the local habitat, a great bit of which was about birding. We have since learned that interpretation has no bounds on learning. Every assignment, new and return, is a learning experience of new activities and new materials. And no two days were the same. We had the opportunity to create an interpretive hike through a wooded area that was planned to be used in conjunction with parents and children from a local health club. Ken learned about a project that needed completion and took the lead in trail markings with posts that were on hand and just waiting for a little energy. Finally, in our last week, we were part of an environmental education session for local inner city seventh graders, interpreting the marshes and talking about the plants, the birds and the other marsh wildlife. Part of the adventure included getting some of our charges ‘unstuck’ from the mud. And, this first NJ assignment also was a wonderful introduction to full time living in a camping rig. We had camped previously, but not to this degree. It was fairly chilly in March and April and I like to tell people that it was the first time in years that I wore a winter jacket up until mid-April. But that was not all. We learned that when the furnace did not work (repaired about a week later) that we could survive using electric ceramic heaters. That dumping the tanks in the wind and cold could be an experience, especially for neophytes. We were fortunate in that we had moved from a condominium to a 29’ camper. Somewhat easier, I surmise, than transitioning from a large home of more than one story. Even so, this took a little getting used to. Since that first assignment in the early spring of 2013, we have found opportunities for interpretation. As camp hosts at Shenandoah National Park, we had time to chat with visitors about the Park and its cultural history as well as great hiking trails and waterfalls. A short fall stint had us helping out the two Southwest Florida Gulf Coast Refuges where we suggested interpretive mapping for a trail and supported a panther festival which was followed by a winter season at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center of Everglades National Park. This five month seasonal opportunity found us performing at least three interpretive talks, tours and walks each week along with the seasonal ranger staff; and taking part in the Calusa Days Festival, demonstrating archeological digs, weaving and creating twine from agave leaves. Most recently, our return to Forsythe this past summer included an opportunity to re-write an outdated interpretive guide to the Refuge’s Self-guided Tour and to ensure the sign posts along the drive were in proper condition. With every assignment, we seek to leave behind completion of a special project and of course, take away with us special memories of people and places. _______________________________________

Iris Schwartz and Ken Asher are Certified Interpretive Guides and Resident Volunteers who enjoy sharing the natural, cultural and historic resources of the U.S. national parks and refuges with visitors, friends and family. Find out more about being a "workamper" at: http://www.workamper.com/.

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Amarillo Designer Shows the Way in Palo Duro Canyon State Park Rock Langston TOMATO GRAPHICS

Beginning in the summer of 2011, I spent two years working with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to design and develop the visitor orientation, safety, and resource protection sign system for Palo Duro Canyon State Park. My graphic design firm, Tomato Graphics, in Amarillo, Texas, was eager to take on this project. The 18,438-acre park, sometimes called the “Grand Canyon of Texas,” is located near the Texas panhandle town of Canyon, 25 miles southeast of Amarillo. Palo Duro Canyon’s archeological features include colorful rock formations and dramatic vistas created by centuries of water erosion that carved the short grass prairie into the 120-mile-long, 600- to 800-foot deep canyon that visitors enjoy today. Historically, Palo Duro Canyon was home to bison herds, Native Americans, and pioneer ranchers. Tales of the Canyon include stories of the Comanche, The Indian Wars, Quanah Parker, Charles Goodnight, the JA Ranch, and Georgia O’Keeffe. The canyon’s diverse habitats are home to a wide variety of birds and wildlife, such as hawks, owls, pheasants, roadrunners, wild turkeys, diamondback rattlesnakes, deer, sheep, rabbits, coyotes, and the rare Texas horned lizard and Palo Duro mouse. The same forces that made the park a fascinating place to visit also present hazards. Summer and fall temperatures can reach 120 degrees, flash floods rise up, and the craggy terrain can challenge even the bestprepared, most sure-footed hikers, horseback riders, and cyclists. I live in upper Palo Duro Canyon, so am familiar with the park. Every year we hear about park visitors who have been evacuated due to exposure or injury, or even death. They are generally unseasoned hikers and bikers who underestimate the challenges of the heat, elevation, and the various trails. In their defense, until the signs were installed, comprehensive information on the park trails and resources was lacking. The few signs in place were small, hard to find, and not very informative. My first thought when I was offered this project is that addressing safety issues had to be a priority. It was. TPWD ensured that safety information was a prominent part of the design of the visitor orientation panels. TWPD commissioned the Palo Duro Canyon State Park visitor orientation system to orient visitors to their location in the park, improve safety, and protect natural resources. My design concept for the system was inspired by the history of the Canyon. I gave the design a hint of the Wild West, keeping Victorian elements, weathered signs, vintage maps, and aged papers in mind. The color palette came from images provided by TPWD, from the reds of prickly pear cactus fruit, to the greys of the native wildlife.

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The park draws many international visitors, so I presented the safety information using both text and illustrations for ease of comprehension, no matter the native language of the viewer. Each visitor orientation panel has a “Safety First” call out. In it are specifics for each trail, including the length and estimated time for completion, and how much water to carry for both people and pets. Icons have been placed on each trail to indicate who goes where: hikers, bikers, and/or riders. There is also an elevation view of each trail. Sources of well water to top off canteens are clearly marked. Now, visitors who come to hike, bike, ride, or camp here have clear safety guidelines, along with abundant visitor information via a cohesive set of panels designed to evoke the colorful history of this unique park. The system is built around 12 prominent visitor orientation panels located at park trailheads. Each 4-ft. by 4-ft. sign features the park’s trail system map, a “you are here” locator, pertinent safety tips, and a variety of interpretive content. Nine trailhead visitor orientation panels, three interpretive panels, two cultural panels, two wayside panels and a trail map handout for visitors round out the system. The park commissioned metal frames with torch-cut details to mount each panel. These frames are weathering to the color of the canyon walls, giving them a good balance between being easy to find, and blending in. After the majority of the signs were installed, I moseyed out to the Park on a lovely fall day to play tourist. It was exciting to see how park visitors were engaging with the signs. Many were “standing room only”, with people stacked up to wait their turn to get information. After a tour of the park, I approached people standing in front of a pair of signs, pointing, poking, and discussing what to do next. I told them about my part in the new signage, and asked them for feedback. They’d been in the park for two days. They said they’d used them extensively, and found them very informative and easy to read. The news reports of injuries and evacuations have been down in the year since the signs were installed. Our approach to “Safety First” seems to have been effective, as well.

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Tomato Graphics is a design studio specializing in design for print media. I’ve been creating interpretive panels and signs as part of my design services since 2002. My expanded range of services includes the design and development of marketing collateral and swag, custom maps, posters, and publications. Being able to tie all elements of an event, site, or business together is a challenge I enjoy. Using my skills and experience to improve the visitor experience in the state park in my own back yard was especially rewarding. If you get to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, I hope you’ll find my work enhances your visit.

--Tomato Graphics delivers top-quality creative graphic design services to clients both close to home and far afield. Founding designer and “Top Tomato” Rock Langston oversees every project from concept to delivery with friendly personal service and fresh designs. Tomato Graphics’ travel and tourism client list includes Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Plains Trail Region, Carbon County Visitors Council, and the Meeker, Colorado Chamber of Commerce. Tomato Graphics is HUB, DBE, WOSB, and SBE certified. These certifications can give me an edge in bidding on projects with these set-asides. If you come upon an RFP or RFQ with these requirements and are interested in partnering with a certified provider, give me a call to discuss!

Learn more: Tomato Graphics: http://tomatographics.com Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon © Tomato Graphics 2014

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The museum is not as it looks like! Significant experiences in the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa (MAX) Azminda Meybelli Román Nieto Educational Coordinator Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa, Mexico

Cuates del MAX students.

Museums are appropriated educational places where you can create and establish a vast learning network that promotes personal growth from the viewpoint of “free will”, given that it is not imposed by anything or anyone. The visits to the museum during childhood should be exciting and fun, therefore the return is guaranteed at later stages of life. This text narrates the reflections on how we used a playful approach as a strategy to bring children to the museums. The references that we are going to use are based on experiences acquired in the children’s educational program “Los Cuates del MAX” given on Sundays at the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa (MAX). We call early childhood to the stage that occurs during the first years of life. According to the experts, it last from birth to age eight. This period is very significant because it is when the children first develop emotional bonds with their parents, also begin to form social relations when they attend school, and establish the first of their cognitive developments as they discover the reasons why. Therefore, everything that happens in this stage exerts an enormous influence on the way the children will develop during adolescence and then adulthood. A child won’t grow and develop by themselves, but within a community, a culture and a country. During infancy, playing is usually a great learning tool. Joan Santacana (2013) mentions that playing is “an irreplaceable instrument to create affective and social relationships, it is critical because it proposes the inevitable previous experiences, assigns roles in social relationships and provides the sub-codes and behaviors that will develop in adulthood.” Although playing does not have the explicit aim to educate, it possess characteristics which are involved in the development of creative, cognitive and motor skills, and it has the implicit load of bringing ideas out of context to apply them into another. Playing is fun because it allows us to unlock things from their usual setting, so they can be used in a free, unlimited and unburdened way. “Playing is one of the best ways to learn the implicit elements that conforms the culture we belong” (Santacana, 2013).

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Consequently, the right to play and healthy recreation goes beyond its practice in certain moments of our everyday lives, however as is well known, its integration as an educational resource inside and outside the classroom has given successful results. Among the basic playing elements, we find the axis that will influence the children’s growth process into adulthood, since it promotes decision-making, the development of children personality regarding their interest and preferences, the exploration of their possibilities and limitations, and their active participation within the community. It is in these aspects that playing can be a resource of approaching and awareness of heritage sites, and in our case, the museum. The museum as we know it today, has undergone into several changes related to their work, because it went from being the “cabinet of antiquities” to a place reserved for the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage, however in essence, this perspective goes beyond the activity of guarding and lodging expressions of material culture, because at the moment of recognizing them as heritage sites, museums become generators of knowledge, based on educational and teaching resources that allow a greater comprehension of the past. Museums, at the moment of being custodians of cultural heritage, are shown as “educational institutions of extraordinary value” because it is through the material objects of the past that we can get in direct contact with people of all eras and ancient cultures, expanding this way our understanding of the human being and its environment. It also allows us to discover our critical consciousness regarding our identity and respect of others, therefore, the educational function of any museum should be a priority in its policy, organization and operation (Pastor, 2004: 42).

Even though I mentioned the educational dimension of the museum and its potential as a teaching resource, in an informal level, the low influx to these spaces remains a constant. The reason is that most, if not all the museums, who house archeological collections are not designed specifically for children, but for a more specialized audience. Proof of this is the fact that we can find in them the word “NOT” since our first visit, which is when we make first contact with the museum, and this usually occurs in childhood, when our teachers lead us in field trips. The restrictive nature becomes boring because it seems that the artifacts that are exposed there can only be “contemplated” without showing other aspects.

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That is the reason why I chose “The museum is not as it looks like!” as the title of this text, because that idea has been the main focus which all the activities in the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa (MAX) through its Sunday Children’s program “Cuates del MAX” has been following. This project is aimed for children aged between four to twelve years old and has as its main objective to introduce children to the museum and encourage the dissemination of archeological heritage. But how to achieve that goal in a “solemn” space such as the museum? Considering that the first contact of the child defines his attitude to the museum in their adulthood, the approaches used for the planning of the activities must be dynamic, educational, participatory, active, but mostly playful. The knowledge stored in the archeological pieces exhibited in the MAX are waiting to be exploited and their learning possibilities are endless. The first time a child visits the museum is with other children, they interact and laugh in complicity, so the socializing aspect which works as the first approach to the museum, then they are shown a series of board games (memory game, loteria, puzzles) to await the arrival of more visitors. Later, special guests and/or specialists in certain subjects are presented, and then they give the children a talk to introduce them to issues related to culture and the environment. In this first part, the children are located in the present context and then gradually in their bond with their past. The second part is when we introduce the young visitors to the halls of the MAX. Guided tours usually tend to describe objects and use specialized language; however, for the case that matters, we have tried to mention other aspects that cannot be seen, but are part of the story and the context of the observed archeological piece, always with the aim to discover, thinking about it and creating links between the present and the past. And finally, workshops with activities in relation with the topics are introduced so that the ideas explained previously can be reinforced. All this is aimed to strengthen the development of skills, attitudes and values that influence the formation of individuals and their environment, given that the children will not be able to imagine that they can find in the museum a place to develop their imagination, discover the existence of similar cultures to theirs and to learn in a fun dynamic way. The playful experience in the MAX leads to the formation of civic values in children, it lets them know that they are part of a community and as such, they participate in the decision-making. This aspect is reflected in the fact that the child is not contemplated only as another visitor, but also as another user, who makes use precisely of the spaces, collection, services and educational resources for their learning and common benefit without being explicit. This kind of public, so different, demands innovation each day in the activities that are presented, and their return continuously confirms our goal.

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“Cuates del MAX” job is to sensitize children to the cultural heritage, encouraging them in this way, to be able to establish bonds of identity and a sense of belonging to their community. This is, to make the museum become a participatory and inclusive space for children, and not a restrictive place. Up to now, our formula is based, in one hand, in the vision of an integral education from an early age, and from the other, the use of playful educational strategies. It is possible to establish that the knowledge gained during the visit to the museum can be internalized in a flexible, free and motivating way, promoting the formation of individuals who are active and engaged in the rescue and preservation of their cultural heritage. We encourage our children to discover, to imagine and to create, through “the waiting to be at”, or in this case waiting to go to the museum, and not in “the having to attend”. To conclude, we want to say that there exist many possibilities to bring near and sensitize children to the heritage sites, using creative process based on meaningful learning. The playful experience, in our case, has been the way which we can say, that the museum is not as it looks like. REFERENCES -Pastor Homs, M. (2004) Pedagogy museum. New perspectives and trends, Spain, Ed. Ariel -Santacana, Joan (2013) "The museology that can be built from the didactic" in V Congress of Education, Museums and Heritage, Chile, DIBAM, ICOM CECA: Pp (14-25) Azminda Román Educational Coordinator Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa Xalapa, Veracruz, México azmindaroman@gmail.com Special Thanks to: Aura Palacios y Dulce Nabil Lagunes for the traduction. P.S. In 2015 the Children program “Cuates del MAX” celebrates ten years of its creation. To view the activities planned for the anniversary will be posted on the website. For more information: http://www.uv.mx/max/fines-semana/index.html museoedu@hotmail.com

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No Such Thing as a Stupid Question – What are those visitors asking? By Matt Villamaino

Are you hot in that?

Interpreters talking to each other or other staff members may easily ask “Hey, did you hear the question I had to answer for that visitor earlier today? Wow, that was such a dumb question.” Too often, however, questions which people refer to as “dumb” are not. Some visitors do ask questions to test the staff or give them a hard time, but these are not necessarily common. Questions that visitors ask that appear to be “dumb” or “stupid” can be broken down into three basic types. Icebreakers are questions that visitors will use because they might be reluctant to come right out and ask a staff member their question. Lack of knowledge questions are those that visitors have that are outside their experiences or knowledge. Finally, some questions that are asked are not worded properly by the visitor, they mean to ask one thing but it ends up coming out completely different. Icebreaker Questions Visitors may be reluctant to start a conversation with an interpreter, even if they have a question that they would like answered. To offset this visitors may not start their conversation with what seems to be a simple question that the answer is obvious to and that they should know the answer. Visitors likely do know the answer, but are just using that question to get a conversation started. One of the more common questions for this is “Do you work here?” even when the interpreter is in uniform. A similar question is “Is there someone who can answer a question about…?” Other questions that might be asked, particularly at a living history site are “Isn’t it hot in that?” and “Do you live here?” When answering these questions it is important to put the visitor at ease so they can move on to asking the questions that they really would like to know the answer to. A poor or sarcastic response here can put the visitor off, not only giving them a bad impression of the site, but prevent them from moving to their real question and learning what they really would like to know. Depending on the question, it is possible to give a more detailed answer than a visitor might expect, for example if a visitor asks if it is hot in that clothing, answer truthfully, but use it as a starting point to talk about the clothing you are wearing and why it is constructed the way it is.

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Are those chickens real?

Once the ice is broken with a visitor try to move along to what they might really have come over to you to find out. As an example, if a visitor asks if you work at the site, do not end the answer at “yes.” Follow up with some questions to put them at ease, such as “Where are you visiting us from today?” or “How is your visit today so far?” After it appears that the visitor is comfortable with you, try to lead them to what they might have come over for in the first place by asking, “Is there anything I can help you with today?” or “Can I give you any more information about what you’ve seen here?”

Lack of Knowledge Questions A large percentage of questions that visitors ask that might seem “stupid” at a first glance are because the visitor does not have the knowledge about the resource that staff members have. Remember that visitors come from a wide range of places and experiences. Not all visitors to your site will have even a basic understanding of some of the things there; they may be visiting because they are interested in learning about it. As the environments are drastically different, these questions can be especially prevalent from urban visitors at a wilderness/farm setting. Questions of this type include “Where does the loop trail end?” “What is that white stuff on the mountains?” or [at a park] “How do you get all the animals into their cages at night?” When a visitor asks you these questions as with the icebreaker questions, it is important to answer in a professional manner without making them feel that they are foolish for asking a question with an answer that simple. Remember that if you were to travel to their environment you might have to ask them the same type of question and would want the same respect from them. Once you have answered the basics of the question and if the visitor is continuing to show interest in the topic, consider going deeper on the topic and going into the “why” of the answer. This can help the visitor gain a better understanding of the question and give them some background that might answer other related questions they might later think of. As an example, take the question “What is that white stuff on the mountain?” While it might be tempting to answer “Oh, that is just Styrofoam to help cushion the climbers when they fall,” this is not an appropriate answer. Instead, start by letting the visitors know that it is snow, and how as the elevation increases, the temperature continues to drop so that when you get that much higher, the difference is enough so that there can be snow on the mountaintop year round. From here, you could continue into the other effects that the lower temperature has on the mountaintop. Not Properly Wording Question The third type of question that visitors ask that seems to be “stupid” is when the visitor has a great question in their head, but then when they ask the question, something completely different comes out of their mouth. This type can be the most challenging to deal with because to properly answer it you need to figure out what the question that the visitor meant to ask rather than the question that they actually asked.

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Examples of questions where the visitor asked one question and meant to ask another are “How long is the 13 mile hike?” “Are the chickens real?” or “Is the fire real?” Each of these questions could be answered as asked, that is not the actual information that the visitor is looking for. In these examples, the visitor in the first question probably wants to know how long it will take to hike the 13-mile trail. The visitor asking about the chickens may want to know if the chicken is a heritage breed that would be appropriate for the setting or if it is a modern breed. Someone asking if a fire is real may want to know if it is a wood burning fire or if a concealed gas/electric line is powering the fire. It can be very easy to give a quick or witty response to these questions, for example “13 miles” “Nope, we are testing out some robot chickens” or “Well, you could put your hand in it and find out.” While it is can be tempting to answer like this, unless you know that the visitor has a sense of humor it may be best to avoid it. In circumstances where you decide to give a witty answer, be sure to immediately follow it up with a smile and the answer to the question that they actually want to know. This type of question can be the most difficult for newer interpreters, so it can be helpful to have a FAQ of this type of questions for staff to refer to. When compiling it, list the question asked and the different options for what the visitor might actually be asking. Be sure to include this in any training for new staff so that they are aware of this issue. Keep in mind that there may be more than one question that a visitor could be asking through their “stupid” question, so when in doubt, ask for clarification. Questions from visitors may at a first glance appear to be “stupid,” but in reality, they are not. It is important that all questions be answered in a respectful and helpful manner – no matter how stupid the question seems or how many times you have been asked that question already. While it can be easy to make fun of visitors that ask these questions, it is very unprofessional, even if it is done outside their hearing. By treating visitors with respect and helping them learn what they want to know we will have a much easier time accomplishing your objectives and through that making the intellectual and emotional connections that we seek to achieve. About the Author Matt Villamaino, CIT, CIG is a seasonal interpreter with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and a volunteer interpreter at Springfield Armory NHS. Do you have any “stupid visitor questions?” Send them to Matt at matt@missioninterpretation.com

JVA InterpNews

Interpreting World War One for children and young people. Part Two: The guilty joy of being given a Lee Enfield rifle, a mills bomb and a gas mask. Nicola Wright Storyteller / Historical Interpreter

There is something quite exciting about holding a rifle. Having never handled such a weapon before and spending a lot of my time talking about them, to be confronted with a Lee Enfield was somewhat of an adrenalin rush and brought vividly home to me the considerable power of the object. The centenary year of the start of World War One has raised many questions, one of which is how to effectively present and interpret this War to children and young people. In conjunction with the National Museum of Scotland myself and my colleague endeavoured to answer this question, through storytelling, interpretation, object handling, trails, photographs and music. The start of World War One is complex, so how do you begin this War when faced with an auditorium of over 60 children. Interaction is the key, using children to take on the role of Germany, France, Russia, Britain and Belgium the complex alliances and the Schlieffen Plan can be explained swiftly. A quick run, which results in a dead heat, can deal with the race to the sea. The children facing each other represents the two sides running out of land, the nature of the weapons used leads to them digging, so as to stay alive. Within 5 frenetic minutes the Western Front of 400 miles of trenches is born. Photographs and music can help to explain life in a trench along with vivid descriptions of bully beef, plum and apple jam, water being transported in petrol cans, toilets or lack of them, lice, rats and trench foot. The education space is far from the muddy trenches of Flanders but using, music, photographs and the power of storytelling one can capture the imagination of the young.

Lee Enfield Rifle - Mills Bombs - WW1 Gas Mask.

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One of the most poignant stories of the War is that of the Christmas truce in 1914. Using the space to show how far apart the trenches were, playing silent night (in German) meeting in no man’s land and then kicking a football, the story can be interpreted simply but powerfully. The audience was captivated and then when the men were ordered back to the business of killing, the Lee Enfield (hidden from view) is finally shown and my colleague described what that weapon was capable of. The football and the Lee Enfield are put away, horrific and inspiring stories of gas attacks, flamethrowers and air aces have been told and out comes one of the most powerful interpreting tools for telling the story of World War One, the mobile phone. In this age of mass communication and immediacy, where news is accessed at the push of a button it is hard to imagine a world with no text messages or email. This scenario leads to an entertaining discussion, how do you get a message back to HQ; use a man as a runner (an easy target) a dog with a message capsule in his collar or the unsung heroes of the War, pigeons, which leads to telling the story of Cher Ami. The pigeon who saved the lives of 194 American soldiers by delivering a message, despite being injured and was later honoured for its conduct. Telling the story of the role of animals in World War One captivates the young, many of whom have read or seen War Horse. Following the storytelling session in the auditorium the group is divided into three, one to look at objects, one group to make poppy wreaths and one to the WW1 exhibition. To enable the young people to effectively and meaningfully engage with the museum exhibition a trail sheet was designed to lead them around the space. A quiz and a treasure hunt can keep the young motivated, keen and not even aware that they are learning as they participate. The groups then change over so by the end of two hours they have heard some of the stories of WW1, held some of the equipment the soldiers would have used and paid their respects to those who fought. The Museum is a long way from the trenches but objects, music, images and storytelling can bring that War to life. The objects we used helped to tell the story of life in the trenches; along with the Lee Enfield (which was very heavy) there was a mills bomb fragment, a piece of shrapnel and a cloth cap. When war began the soldiers wore a cloth cap and the rate of head injuries lead to the development of the steel helmet, which we then showed the children. A woollen tunic the soldiers wore which was incredibly itchy and a goatskin coat(known as a woolly bear) to keep out the Flanders winter proved popular, with all the children wanting to try them on. An early World War One gas mask transformed the men into monsters, the photographs of men wearing these contraptions still have the power to shock to this day and such an object reinforced the stories and the horror of that war. A soldier’s pay book with his last will and testament poignantly displayed on page 13 and a tin of bully brought out the human story in this tragedy. As my colleague Jim Paris who lead the object handling sessions pointed out “Presenting to the children these original articles and letting them touch them and feel them, whilst explaining what they were and how they were used was transporting these young people back one hundred years. Then the questions came in torrents from these by now wide eyed and very engaged children and I should point out their wide eyed and very engaged teachers” I am a freelance storyteller and historical interpreter and am currently working on a living history interpretation piece on fishwives. Jim Paris and I have formed Thistle and Rose Storytelling and we will be performing The Life and Death of James 1V to the Edinburgh University Graduate Society in March. Our latest project is the story of Colonel Robert Smith Edinburgh’s Confederate. Storyteller and Costume Designer Ella Humphreys and I have formed DragonFlower and will be telling tales of the land and the sea in Haddington in May. If you are interested in any of the above please contact me on floweryfrocks@btinternet.com Nicola Wright - Storyteller and Historical Interpreter Scotland

JVA InterpNews

JVA is pleased to announce the release of a new interpretation textbook by John Veverka. Advanced Interpretive Planning is now available (November release) from MuseumsEtc: http://museumsetc.com/products/advanced-interpretive-planning. John's second new book, "The Interpretive Trails Book" is scheduled for publication in late December, early January 2015. MuseumsETC are the publishers of John Veverkas other three interpretive books that are currently available through MuseumsETC, Amazon.com and Acornnaturalists.com. You can find these and other related books at: http://museumsetc.com/

Sample Content: - Is it feasible? Conducting feasibility analysis for new interpretive facilities and services. - Planning for experiences and mass customization. - Regional Interpretive Systems Planning. - Planning for large scale landscape museums. - Creating "real" interpretive writing. - Planning for interpretive outreach services. - Evaluation strategies and forms for planners.

Sample content: - General trail planning and design guidelines. - Overview of trail surfaces and types. - Trail design construction guidelines. - Trail standards for a diversity of trail types. - Trail furniture (benches, stairs, viewing decks). - Developing the interpretive trail plan. - Planning/design of trail interpretive media. - Cost/contact and budgets for interpretive planning. - Mass customization for trail interpretation.

You can contact the author at: jvainterp@aol.com. Ask about our interpretive trail planning workshops and courses.

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Interpretive Master Planning Course 29 March -1 April, 2015 Plas tan y Bwlch (Snowdonia National Park Training Center, Wales, UK). http://www.eryri-npa.gov.uk/study-centre Join Interpretive Planner/Trainer and author Prof. John Veverka for his 2015 Interpretive Master Planning Course at Plas tan y Bwlch. John will provide training/coaching in developing state-of-the art interpretive planning documents and strategies for parks, gardens, zoos, historic homes, heritage sites, museums and facilities. Course content will include:

* Experience based interpretive planning. * Experience inventories and visitor psychology. * Visitor motivations for selecting and attending interpretive programs. * Planning for "markets of one" and "outcome based interpretation". * Financial aspects of interpretive planning - what things cost and budget phasing. Does interpretation offer more than it costs? * The Model of Interpretive Planning * Interpretive plan content outline. * New interpretive media options and old ones that still work. * Interpretive writing overview for labels and panels. * Objectives of the interpretive plan and how it will be used. * Marketing aspects of interpretive planning for audience development and market creation. * Developing marketing plans as part of interpretive plans. * Using interpretive plans for grant applications and funding. * Cost/contact and cost effectiveness planning - making interpretation financially successful. This is a very hands-on course and participants are asked to bring an interpretive planning project with them to work on during the course. A laptop computer is also recommended if you have one to bring with you :) One-on-one consultation on your project will be provided by Prof. Veverka throughout the course. Leave with a good draft of your interpretive plan with post-course follow up via SKYPE and e-mail available with the course instructor. The course is limited to 15 participants to allow maximum contact time with the instructor, so book early to hold your space. Course Instructor: Prof. John Veverka. John is a certified interpretive planner, trainer and author with 35 years of interpretive planning and teaching/coaching experience. John is the author of several interpretive planning text books, of which ebook copies will be available to participants as part of the course fee as well as an interpretive planning resource CD. For course registration details and costs and to be placed on the course mailing list for more details, please contact the course manager at Plas tan y Bwlch, Beth Cluer at: Beth.Cluer@eryri-npa.gov.uk (Tel.: 01766 772600). For course content details or questions please feel free to contact John Veverka at: jvainterp@aol.com

JVA InterpNews

e-INTERP – JVA’s new web-based interpretive training courses currently include two courses, hosted by cpd4education (http://cpd4education.co.uk/courses) cpd4Educatiion provides practical and useful continuing professional development for all those involved and interested in education, whether you are a teacher, teaching assistant, parent, museum or educational charity professional. All our courses are written and supported by fellow educators like yourself.

Introduction to Interpretive Services Cost: £75 for 90 day access http://cpd4education.co.uk/courses/course/search.php?search=Interpretation This course is designed to provide you with the state-of-the art concepts, principles and philosophy of the ever growing interpretive profession. The course is designed as an entry level course for anyone finding themselves in a interpretive position but have had no formal training in interpretation. Upon completion of the course you will be able to:

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Describe why interpretation is the most powerful communication process you have to communicate to your audiences Describe the professions the “interpretive profession” is composed Describe the basic components of the model of interpretation List each of Tilden’s Interpretive Principles, and the TIPS and give an example of each Describe each of the three types of objectives we use developing interpretive programs, services or media Be able to plan an interpretive program, tour or event Feel an increased sense of confidence in presenting a truly interpretive program or media Be able to implement a quality interpretive event upon completion of the course Be able to use all of the interpretive concepts and tool presented immediately Want to learn more about interpretation and explore more courses and workshops you can attend on the subject.

Planning Interpretive Panels (that are actually "interpretive"). Cost: £30 for 90 day access

Link: http://cpd4education.co.uk/courses/course/search.php?search=Interpretive+panels This course is designed to provide you with the state-of-the art concepts, principles and philosophy of the ever growing interpretive profession. The course is designed as an entry level course for anyone finding themselves in a interpretive position but have had no formal training in interpretation.

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Be able to describe the key differences between an interpretive panel and an "informational" panel. Describe the basic interpretive planning process for developing interpretive panels. Describe the role of Tilden's principles in panel design. Describe key design principles of an interpretive panel. Be able to develop truly "interpretive" panel copy text. Learn to consider interpretive panel mounting options and how they may contribute to the "Message Unity" of the panel presentation. Remember that there is no right or wrong interpretive panel designs, only "successful" and "unsuccessful" panel designs and presentations. That is - panels must successfully accomplish their stated objectives. Learn that only the intended visitors can truly critique an interpretive panel as to its success. Feel motivated to share this course information with others - to help advance the interpretive professions "professional understanding" of panel design and learning psychology.

JVA InterpNews

JVA Interpretive Training Opportunities - 2015 JVA is now taking bookings for our 2015 interpretive training courses, workshops and seminars. All or our courses are based on years of experience in actually doing the projects/activities we do the training in. We teach what we do, and do what we teach. Contact me for more information on costs, etc. jvainterp@aol.com All courses are customized for your specific outcomes (objectives), and we include pre and post test evaluations for all of our training if desired. Ask for my "Planning for Interpretive Training" publication - its FREE. We are one of the only firms providing interpretive training staffed by interpretive professionals with university degrees in interpretation and university experience teaching interpretive courses. Our some of my international course offerings currently include:                          

Seasonal interpreter, volunteer and docent interpretation training workshops. Interpretation for Managers, Supervisors and Education Curators (advanced interpretation). We recently taught this course for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Interpretive Tour Planning, Delivery and Evaluation Interpretive concept and message planning for museum interpretation. Planning cultural needs for international visitors into your tours and programs. Heritage tourism planning, design, feasibility and operations. Developing Marketing Plans for Interpretive/Heritage Sites. Interpretive planning for the coach market. New Technologies for Interpretive Services (iPhones, QR Codes). Interpretive Master Planning (developing your draft plan in the course). Innovations in Interpretive Planning (IP II) - Mass Customization, Experiential Planning, Markets of One. This is an advanced Interpretive Master Planning course. Planning and conducting scientifically valid visitor surveys for interpretive/heritage sites. Evaluation strategies for interpretive programs and services. Interpretive research and theory - conducting interpretive research that matters, recent research from the Journal of Interpretation with implications for implementing the research results. Planning Interpretive Exhibitions that are theme and outcome based. Planning/design of interpretive publications, brochures. Interpretive text writing that provokes, relates, and reveals. Planning, design and interpretation for self-guiding trails and forest/park walks. Community interpretation – planning for collective experiences. Conducting Feasibility Analysis for Interpretive/Heritage Sites and Museums (if you build it they may NOT come!) Regional Interpretive Systems Planning and Interpretive Zone development. Financial Planning for Interpretive Sites and Attractions (cost/contact & cost benefit analysis). Visitor Psychology in developing Interpretive Experience Environments (how to attract visitors and generate revisits based on the psychology of the learner). Re-inventing interpretive organizations/agencies (missions, policies, management structures, job descriptions, board of directors, cash flow, etc. for the next millennium). Creative interpretive planning and marketing in challenging financial times. (How to create "regional interpretive zones", share market groups and regional fee structures; cost share marketing and working smarter - not harder). AND MORE - contact me for details. http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training.html

JVA InterpNews

John Veverka & Associates Interpretive Planning and Training World-Wide Cape May NWF - Interp. Plan

Our Services: - Interpretive Master Planning - Interpretive Exhibit Planning - Scenic Byways Interpretive Planning - Interpretive Training Programs - Heritage Tourism Planning - Feasibility Analysis - Interpretive Exhibits and Panels - Interpretive Driving Tours - Self-guiding interpretive experiences - Regional Interpretive Systems Planning - Training Manuals and workbooks.

Interp. Planning - Toledo Metroparks, OH

Some of our current/recent projects: - US Army Corps of Engineers Interpretive Training (two 4-day workshops). - Snowdonia National Park Training Center,Wales, UK – 4 day interpretive planning courses. - National Parks of South Korea/Daegu University Environmental Education Center Concept Development/ Interpretive Plan - Pilot Project - Historic Falmouth (Stafford County, Virginia) Interpretive Master Plan - Cape May USFWS Refuge Visitor Services Plan. - Old Baldy Foundation, Old Baldy Lighthouse Interpretive Master Plan/Exhibit Concept Design Plan. - Korea National Arboretum – Interpretive Training Plan. - Chessie Circle Trail - Interpretive Plan - Graphic Standards - US Army Corps of Engineers – Advanced Interpretive Training Courses (5 Year Contract). - Metro Parks of the Toledo Area, Ohio – Interpretive planning and training services.

Interpretive Planning Course Wales, UK

Interpretive Planning/Training... Korea.

John Veverka & Associates www.heritageinterp.com jvainterp@aol.com We teach what we do, and do what we teach.