This article is an excerpt from the course Interpretive Signs: Attractive, Brief, Clear. I’m offering the course online starting May 4, 2021. Check it out here. What this sign does well This interpretive sign connects people to place; it interprets the scene in front of the visitor and refers directly to features that the visitor can see. That might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s […]
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Representation Matters.
Heritage sites communicate a dizzying array of signals and messages that either welcome or discourage the visitor based on their identity.
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Taking It All Online
One Year Into the Pandemic It’s hard to believe we are now a year into this COVID-19 world. We got ourselves past the initial panic and have now settled into this ever-shifting new normal. For those of us in the cultural/natural heritage sectors, it has been a rough ride. One of the hardest aspects of it was the panicked call to action from our superiors: […]
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Do your staff represent your community?
What are some common barriers to staff diversity in the heritage sector? “We only hire the most qualified people, and they just aren’t coming from those communities.” This is probably the most common copout, er, response from museum leadership: we only hire the best, regardless of what their background is, and the best just happen to come from white, wealthy backgrounds. Cast the recruitment net […]
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A Community Advisory Group
It is becoming a well-known—dare I say best—practice in the heritage sector for each organization to assemble a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) advisory group. If you haven’t done so yet, you might really give it some serious thought. Who are these people? A DEIA Advisory Circle (or whatever they choose to name themselves) is a group of community members who are external to […]
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It’s time to silence the cannons
Historic weapons demonstrations are popular; I get that. Big old guns are cool, and special events where visitors can not only hear them go boom but wear the uniforms and light the fuses sounds like a great time. But something has been bothering me about these programs for a while now, and the further I delve into the work of truth and reconciliation, the more […]
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Staring down the rabbit hole of change
I am an interpretive planner and visitor experience advisor. I work with museums, historic sites, zoos, aquariums, and parks helping them evaluate and improve their relevance, revenue, and attendance. In other words, you call someone like me when things aren’t going as well as they used to—or when you have a vision of how much better things could be. You call me when your visitation […]
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Do interpretive signs change behaviour?
Understanding the impact of signs requires us to delve a little bit into the psychology of public behaviour.
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Evaluation: The Fuzzy Side
Qualitative or Subjective Evaluation In my previous post, I outlined some quantitative or data-based criteria for evaluating interpretive products. Many of us, though, are just getting started in gathering statistics and evaluations. If you’re weak in the data department, or your boss/client would like their team to weigh in with their judgment on the performance of their products, this article is for you… with a […]
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Evaluating Your Products
When it comes to measuring your success, you can take a numbers-based or a more subjective approach. We’re going to look at doing both, starting with the quantitative. I have written a bit over the last while about program evaluation. You might want to get an intro to my way of thinking by looking at a past post here: For this exercise today, I’m going […]
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