Last week I attended an excellent workshop on ‘Visitor Experiences of Co-produced Exhibitions’. Co-production is a central theme in museums at the moment, and participants were encouraged to bring their own experiences of co-production to the workshop for discussion. I came away with a few good points to ponder, which you might find interesting as … Continue reading Visitor Experiences of Co-produced Exhibitions
Tag: interpretation
Selling Experiences?
I recently read about someone saying that heritage managers and interpreters were ‘selling’ experiences. I’ve already written in a recent blog post how ‘experience’ seems to have been a popular concept for a while now. In fact, even I was raving when the National Trust first changed all interpretation and visitor related job titles, along … Continue reading Selling Experiences?
Evaluation and Impact Studies: A note from a conference in Germany
I spent the last weekend at the annual conference of the German Bundesverband fuer Museumspaedagogik. It focussed on measuring the impact of interpretation, a subject that is even newer in Germany than it is in the UK. There were a few things that I found interesting, and which I’d like to share here: Cultural … Continue reading Evaluation and Impact Studies: A note from a conference in Germany
A Truly Democratic Model for Interpretation
Last week, I had a meeting with our Interpretation Stakeholder Group. We discussed the interpretive vision for a project to relocate and redevelop one of our museums. And what an interesting discussion it was! As always, the most inspiring comments came from people who aren’t interpreters. The first thing that struck me was just how … Continue reading A Truly Democratic Model for Interpretation
A View from the Outside: The Arts Council’s Review of Museum Research
I have recently read the Arts Council England ‘Review of Research and Literature on Museums and Libraries’, compiled in September last year just before the Arts Council took over the responsibilities of the now-disbanded Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The review was part of an endeavour to ‘understand the needs and priorities of the sectors’ … Continue reading A View from the Outside: The Arts Council’s Review of Museum Research
QCF – A case for interpreters
The Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) is well established across Britain. In the words of Ofqual, the body that administers the framework, it aims to provide ‘a simple yet flexible’ qualifications system that is ‘inclusive, responsive, accessible [and] non-bureaucratic’. What does it have to do with interpretation, you wonder? That’s simple: it’s another way of … Continue reading QCF – A case for interpreters
Interpretation is…Learning Humility
For the stakeholder engagement conference I’m organising at my current site in September, I invited a member of the community to give the closing presentation. I was very keen to ensure it isn’t just the ‘professionals’ talking about involving stakeholders and communities in interpretation, and reporting how well – or not – this worked. I … Continue reading Interpretation is…Learning Humility
Update on our young people’s project: Is this interpretation?
Three months ago I blogged about the HLF funding I secured for a young people’s project at my site. This week, we’re completing the first activity of the project – the ‘research’ phase -, which I thought was a good time to share an update and explain why this is interpretation also. We started off … Continue reading Update on our young people’s project: Is this interpretation?
Closing the gap – A new initiative started at the Interpret Europe conference
I spent the start of this week in Pisa at the annual Interpret Europe Conference. Possibly the greatest inspiration that I took from it was the forming of a group of like-minded professionals with an interest in ‘closing the gap’. Talking to each other, we found that there is a discrepancy between how interpretation is … Continue reading Closing the gap – A new initiative started at the Interpret Europe conference
Interpreting History, Heritage – or Politics?
When I recently visited Germany on my first research study visit, my interviewees used two terms to describe interpretive foci, which I found quite intriguing: ‘Ereignisgeschichte’ (event history) and ‘Rezeptionsgeschichte’ (reception history). We don’t generally use these terms in English and in our writings. However, I wonder if they can go some way in helping … Continue reading Interpreting History, Heritage – or Politics?
Nicole Deufel's Blog 