In july aug 2017 issue

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JVA InterpNews

2 Volume 6, #4 - July/Aug2017

The international heritage interpretation e-magazine.

Here we are racing into summer and I'm already starting to put together our Sep/Oct issue of InterpNEWS. Check out the cover photo to the left. We'll have articles about the Day of the Dead, and interpreting Halloween. I'm now looking for articles for this issue, so if you have new programs planned for the fall, interpreting to/for school groups, interpreting climate change, new interpretive technologies, etc., send it in. Our author guidelines are simple. IN reaches over 300K in 60 countries, so your articles will be seen and read by a lot of people.

JV at Stonehenge.

We've added several new Regional InterpNEWS Editors (page 3) too. Want to be a part of InterpNEWS as a Regional or Thematic Editor? No $ but lots of glory and marketing opportunities for you. Let me know if you'd like to consider being one and we can chat about it.

InterpNEWS is now part of the Heritage Interpretation International Group - working to advance the future of interpretive communications. See the ad copy for the HIIG in the Market Place section of InterpNEWS. IN now accepts advertising - if you want to reach 300K in 60 countries about your products or services. Check out the web site for details: http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html

Our Sep/Oct issue.

John Veverka - jvainterp@aol.com

In This Issue: Page - Meet our regional editors.

3 - Cover story...

4 - Farm Magic: Mika and Banti - Rod Burns 5 - Interpreting Traditional Stories for a Contemporary Audience! Emily Capstick 8 - So What? (The magic and medicine of plants.) Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald 14 - Simple Nature Tracking – Wheel calendar Skot Latona, 18 - Think Local: Creating Relevance in Today’s Museums. Chris Brusatte 21 - Farm Magic: Space Travelers - Rod Burns 26 - Revisiting the Nine Mile Canyon Interpretive Plan - for the world's longest art gallery. John A. Veverka 28 - Did the infamous Alcatraz Island cell house audio tour live up to expectations? Dan Boys 36 - Interpreting Oarfish - Forecasters of disasters? IN Staff.

39 - Geology/Theology - Ed Clifton 41 - SensoryPEN® Engages Visitors Tricia Peterson 43 - New exhibitions and exhibit techniques to make interpretive labels accessible. Brian G. Jones 45 - Language Games and Heritage Interpretation. Anthony Kalin 48 - Victorian Mourning Interpretation For Historic Homes. Amanda Sedlak-Hevener 51 - The Future Has Other Plans: Planning Holistically to Conserve Natural and Cultural Heritage (book) 56 - The Evolution of Resilient Floor Art & Design. Ron Blair 59 - 5 Strategies For Responding To Questions (when you don't know the answers). Ethan Rotman 62 - Interpretation Market Place 63 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: Shaman - historical photo. www.heritageinterp.com , jvainterp@aol.com. SKYPE: jvainterp.

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Meet Our Regional Editors Regional Editors are professional interpreters with a mission to help advance the interpretive profession and make connections with other interpreters, agencies and organizations to encourage folks to share knowledge and ideas about heritage interpretation. interpretation. They may represent InterpNEWS at conferences or other interpretive gatherings to help generate articles about new technologies, approaches, exhibits or other innovative advancements in interpretation. Want to be one of our Regional Editors? Let's chat. jvainterp@aol.com.

Dan Boys BSc, MAHI (40 Strettea Lane, Higham, Derbyshire, DE55 6EJ, England (07800 799561) - "Dan Boys is Creative Director at audiotrails.co.uk, audiotrails.co.uk a digital interpretation consultancy specializing in audio guides, location-aware location (native and web) app software and formal and informal informal learning for heritage sites and cultural institutions.” You can contact Dan at: ‘interpnews@audiotrails.co.uk interpnews@audiotrails.co.uk’.

Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald Macdonald, Professor in the English department at York Technical College, College Rock Hill, SC,, published author, and heritage performer. She is a dedicated supporter of InterpNEWS and contributor to each issue. She has authored several wonderful books (check her work out at Amazon.com) You can reach her at: doctorbenn@gmail.com Rod Burns - CPHI - (Certified Professional Heritage Interpreter - Canada). Rods long career in interpretation includes being the Educat Education ion Supervisor, Salmonier Nature Park, Newfoundland, Canada, and currently being the owner of Bold Point Centre EcoTourism Training and Services. He also has 22 years of experience as coco owner /operator of Bold Point Farmstay, www.farmstay-ca.com. www.farmstay He will be working to generate articles on innovative interpretation for IN from Canada. He can be contacted at: at bpc@connected.bc.ca Brian C. Westfall Corps of Engineers

Community Relations Ranger/NRM Specialist.

Brian brings over 35 years of experience in interpretation with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Brian coordinated the interpretive outreach program at DeGray Lake for 19 years, promoting Corps of Engineers missions locally, regionally regional and nationally. Brian was also recognized as the 2006 Mississippi Valley Division Hiram Chittenden Interpreter of the Year. He also serves an as instructor for the COE National Interpretive Services Course. You can reach him at: Brian.C.Westfall@usace Brian.C.Westfall@usace.army.mil,

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Amanda Sedlak-Hevener is a freelance writer and public historian. She has a B.A. in Journalism and English in Ashland University and an M.A. in History from the University of Akron. She is currently working on an M.L.I.S. in Museum Studies at Kent State University. She believes in promoting local history through creative interpretation in museums, historic houses, and historical societies. You can contact her at: mandyhevener@gmail.com

Ethan Rotman - As principle of iSpeakEasy, Ethan has been speaking to groups for 30 years and training presenters for more than 25 years. He began his career as a park ranger in 1980. He quickly learned that Park Rangers must engage their audience or people will simply walk away. iSpeakEASY was founded in 2006 to bring a new approach of communication into the business world as well. He offers workshops and individualized coaching to help speakers improve their effectiveness and profitability. A frequent contributor to InterpNEWS, you can contact Ethan at: ethan@ispeakeasy.net

Would you like to be part of InterpNEWS and serve as a Regional or Topical editor?

There's no $ but lots of glory. You can use your title of Regional Editor on your resume, and represent IN as you look for articles. If you are a consultant you can also list your business and contact information. You can start at any time and stop serving as an editor at any time you get to busy. You will also be listed in our Regional Editor section as above. I will also send you a InterpNEWS logo for you to use on your web site or any e-mails you may be sending out to do a call for articles.

Your job - to either contribute one article to InterpNEWS for each issue, or help find/encouraged others you know to contribute an article for InterpNEWS issues.

If you want to talk more about it send me an e-mail and we can chat about it in more detail.

Cheers, John Veverka IN Publisher/Editor jvainterp@aol.com

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Our cover photo - some details for you.

Shamanism (/ˈʃɑːmən/ SHAH-men or /ˈʃeɪmən/ SHAY-mən) is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.

A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.[2] The word "shaman" probably originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia. According to ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen, "the word is attested in all of the Tungusic idioms" such as Negidal, Lamut, Udehe/Orochi, Nanai, Ilcha, Orok, Manchu and Ulcha, and "nothing seems to contradict the assumption that the meaning 'shaman' also derives from Proto-Tungusic" and may have roots that extend back in time at least two millennia.[3] The term was introduced to the west after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552.

The term "shamanism" was first applied by western anthropologists as outside observers of the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as those of the neighboring Tungusic and Samoyedic-speaking peoples.

Upon observing more religious traditions across the world, some caucasian anthropologists began to also use the term in a very broad sense, to describe unrelated magico-religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa, Australasia and even completely unrelated parts of the Americas, as they believed these practices to be similar to one another.

Mircea Eliade writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'."[5] Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Beliefs and practices that have been categorized this way as "shamanic" have attracted the interest of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. In the 20th century, many westerners involved in the counter-cultural movement have created modern magico-religious practices influenced by their ideas of indigenous religions from across the world, creating what has been termed neoshamanism or the neoshamanic movement. It has affected the development of many neopagan practices, as well as faced a backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation, exploitation and misrepresentation when outside observers have tried to represent cultures they do not belong to.

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Farm Magic: Mika and Banti by Rod Burns B.Ed. CPHI Quadra Island, BC, Canada

This adventure began with a phone call from an absolute stranger. Kate, we came to learn was desperate to find a new home for her exceptional feathered friends, Mika and Banti. The two hatched from the same incubator within minutes of each other. From the time they rolled out out of their shells, a mysterious bond developed between the two. The smallest chick Banti, as in bantam or tiny, for whatever reason cozied up to the much larger chick, named Mika. Starting at day one, Banti would nudge her incubator buddy over to the feed grains. Somehow, the larger chick, understood the intentions of the special clucking and physical nudges from the bantam chick. Mika learned to peck close to the sounds of little brown bird’s cluckings, resulting in finding sufficient food and water.

Between ween the farm family and visitors, everyone marveled at the bond between the two growing chicks.

A life changing decision for the chicks, one, which all farmers need to make, was forth coming on their seventh day. Saturday morning, by 7:00 a.m. they were ccrated rated and transported to the local country market. With 40 other new chicks, they were put-up up for sale.

Some will call it an angel event others just serendipity for what happened at the market? Kate a human, arrived early, looking for two special chicks. As a family care aide, Kate had the idea of raising chickens to become Comfort Birds, much like dogs and cats have become in special health care centres. Kate noticed or felt the tight bond between the two chicks. In seconds, she committed her heart and ssoul oul to a minimum one-year one training period between herself, Mika and Banti. She needed to get them comfortable with humans to the point where they could be picked-up, up, stroked or carried by people, of all ages and abilities.

At about the 4th month Mika had matured into a young rooster who liked to sing, loud and often. It was but a few days of joyous rooster singing when an ominous loud knocking sounded at Kate’s front door. The Animal by-law law enforcement officer was investigating a tip from a very angry nei neighbour. ghbour. Kate learned that raising hens within city limits was o.k. Raising roosters was illegal due to their penetrating cries, at all hours of the day. The next morning,

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Kate’s landlord put her on notice: find a new home for the birds or find a new home for Herself and the birds.

Kate called out to the universe, to help her find a new home for Mika and Banti. Through an internet search, she discovered Bold Point Farmstay and their commitment to full contact farm experiences. During the phone conversation, a stressed Kate explained the plight of the two birds. It was easy to say “Yes, we’ll take Mika and Banti” Agreeing to become the birds new care givers, included continuing their training to become Comfort Birds.

On the farm, the two feathered friends joined the menagerie of 10 sheep, 30 chickens, 4 turkeys and 5 ducks. Settling in took a few weeks. Finally, their enclosure gate opened, giving them the total farm in which to freely range! In the adoption, Kate provided Bold Point Farm with a custom designed coop plus a crystal food bowl. Mika had learned during his time with Kate, that when the crystal bowl was lightly finger tapped, soft ringing tones sounded. He would find fresh food in his bowl, by following the soft tones.

Banti lead in the exploration of their surroundings. Mika was never more than a few inches away. She had a repertoire of clucking sounds, which carried specific meanings to Mika. One combination meant follow me; another suggested here is some drinking water. A longer, more complex clucking, meant, “Stay in the enclosure, I’m going to visit the other hens. I hope to be home before dark.”

Every sunset, Banti lead Mika back to their enclosure; up the ramp and into their coop. Every night, the two perched on the railing, always snuggled together. In July, Banti showed significant behaviour changes. In the morning, she would guide Mika out of the coop. She would emphatically cluck a few times then race back into the coop. Around the twentieth day, the reason for her disappearing act was answered. Banti, the mother hen emerged from the coop with 5 chicks. Mika was the father!

Throughout the summer, guests to our Farmstay, were tasked with ensuring that Mika and Banti were called to meal times by ringing Mika’s crystal food bowl. Every child kept their promise of hugging the two lovebirds throughout the day. Everyone, adult or child was encouraged to draw a magic moment they had experienced with their feathered friends. Farmer Rod, challenged everyone to ponder how easy it is to be judgmental, based on a size, colour, adornments.

Over the summer, Farmer Rod considered ideas around a more formal program involving Mika and Banti; one which would fulfill the promise to have the two become social ambassadors. In September, a phone call to the elementary school principal, offered to bring Mika and Banti into the school as special guests, with a message.

The message was “Don’t judge me until you know me!” Mika had become the most beautiful Silver Laced Phoenix rooster. Historically, over centuries of Japanese empires, his long ago ancestors were tucked into the large sleeves of the Royal Ladies. Banti was a dull brown with white speckles. It was her tiny size, which triggered a cuteness factor

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. The children were encouraged to hold both Mika and Banti. The story of the two growing up and antics at the farm were recounted. Midway, a special fact about Mika revealed. A gasp of utter surprise, indeed sadness from young to old, went through the audience. They cuddled Mika and Banti even more. Meeting parents and children, weeks later let me know our message about getting to know someone before making a judgment about them, was successful, as it started many conversations/ Dear Reader: what was the special fact about Mika?

From the day of his hatching, he could not see the hand, which fed him. “Sight” was not part of his reality. Was his special aura larger because of his inability to physically “see”? Was his special aura a collection of other things? Why did Banti stay with Mika from day one?

From birth, being with Banti, to Kate, to life at the farm, and in the schools, Mika developed and kept up a circle of friends. In common, everyone was committed to giving unlimited comfort to all others, regardless of size, heritage, adornments or physical abilities.

Rod Burns B.Ed. CPHI www.farmstay-ca.com Quadra Island, BC, Canada bpc@connected.bc.ca

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JVA InterpNews

Interpreting Traditional Stories for a Contemporary Audience! by Emily Capstick

The Labyrintheme Trainer’s Handbook explains that this performance technique ...focuses on creating an image inside the head and not in front of the eyes. The ‘theatre’ element comes in when we learn how to tune the five senses so that we create controlled sensory images and share these images on a human-to-human level rather than through a patronizing I-will-provide-knowledge experience.

Based in Manchester and London, Peoplescape Theatre has been creating participatory performances for museums, galleries and theatres for about 20 years. Two key aims of our work are: to engage and enable the audience to response intellectually, emotionally and creatively to the story, characters and situation; and to create high quality theatrical experiences. Our audiences’ ages range from babies to older adults. Over the years we have also developed a specialism in devising work for children and young people with special educational needs; including people with autistic spectrum condition, profound and multiple learning difficulties, multi-sensory impairments and communication difficulties. The experience of creating and sharing these participatory performances with the young people (we often incorporate workshops with young people as part of the devising process) has informed all of our work regardless of age and whether the audience have any particular needs. We aim to create theatre that is challenging and accessible for everyone through careful selection of narrative and characters, and by using a wide variety of theatrical styles including applied theatre techniques, live and recorded music and sound effects, movement, multi-sensory props and puppetry.

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Museums and heritage sites have information; in the hierarchy of knowledge, they are at the top and I value that very highly. Over the last five years or so, I have heard considerable reflection by heritage organisations about how to actively involve visitors in interpreting or responding to a topic or theme; what can the visitor contribute that the museum can sincerely value and recognise? what dialogue (in whatever form that may take) can we have with visitors? For me, this can be about the significance of events in history and exploring the human experience of the period. This takes us back to the opening explanation of Labyrintheme Theatre finding the human-to-human exchange rather than just ‘providing knowledge experience’. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to participate in three days Labyrintheme Theatre training hosted by the Manchester Museum as part of an intra-European project. It is notoriously difficult to explain but, in a nutshell, the audience will usually: experience the performance individually or in small groups; meet character(s) particularly at the beginning and end; and wear a blindfold for some or all of the experience throughout which they will have a series of multi-sensory encounters. Our imaginations are given the space and stimulation to fill in the experience that might otherwise be interpreted and presented to us. (An example of this is when we created a festive experience for adults: when a Father Christmas grotto can leave us, even as children, disappointed by the lack of magic or asking questions as to its authenticity, a blind-folded adventure with scents, singing, gentle touch, intriguing bells and even an encounter with a friendly reindeer moved adults to innocent joy and laughter.)

Since this course I have incorporated Labyrintheme techniques not only in my own work but also as part of training events to a number of organisations; in recent years, particularly those looking at interpreting sensitive histories such as the First World War (codelivered with Dr Anna Farthing to Isle of Man Museums, Imperial War Museum North and National Museums Scotland.)

There are several ways in which Labyrintheme mirrors the process of our theatre company: it places the audience at the heart of the work; it is multi-sensory; performers are often present with the audience (physically - rather than detached by boundaries of seating or auditorium, and also in their awareness) and it is playful.

In 2016 Peoplescape Theatre received two grants from Arts Council England. For the first we worked with the National Maritime Museum, Horniman Museum and Gallery and the Cutty Sark (London) to devise a new performance, ‘Tom’s Ship’, for children with special educational needs (SEN). For the second we enabled two groups of young people to create Labyrintheme performances as part of the devising process for an original interpretation of a traditional story.

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Creating the Labyrintheme performances were: thirty-four children aged 10 & 11 approximately 80% of whom have English as a second language and many of whom are from families seeking asylum, created a performance for their families and school staff; and ten young people, all of whom have SEN, created a second performance for their peers, staff and carers. Both were hugely empowering experience for young performers as they led their blindfolded audience to experience smells, sounds and touch that the ensemble coordinated. The young people who are usually the recipients of care became the responsible care-givers: I know they thoroughly enjoyed creating the Labyrinth. For the pupils to have the opportunity to be in control of an environment is so important, when they are often in a position of disempowerment. For me, the experience of being an active audience member, was very moving. Being guided by the pupils made me feel safe, when the sounds and textures around me were suggesting danger or making me feel uncomfortable. I was incredibly proud of their achievement. Headteacher, Lancasterian School At the primary school we needed to consider how pupils could lead a small family unit who were blindfolded, through the experience together; for example, guiding their hands to the shoulders of the one in front. In Labyrintheme Theatre, the performers are all actively involved in the devising and subsequent sharing of their part in the experience. Through a series of workshops we identified, and children put themselves forward, for certain roles within the Labryinth - leaders, sound makers, touch or smell guides, in-role blindfold givers or greeters at the end of the experience. One young man who had exhibited a lot of challenging and concerning behaviour the previous term, excelled during the workshops at leading whoever his partner was. He put himself forward to be someone who leads blindfolded audience members and the teachers were absolutely thrilled to see how he responded to the responsibility and trust invested in him for this role. As part of the project Peoplescape Theatre delivered workshops to university students at Manchester Metropolitan University who supported the project (by providing us with rehearsal space) and a number of students then became part of the Labyrintheme performance team for the Manchester Children’s Book Festival. Inspired by a new children’s book called ‘Pugs of the North’, this is what the audience (aged 2 - 80) said about the experience: An incredible journey in your mind! FANTASTIC Overwhelming! Lots of fun. Hard to guess what exciting thing would come next Beautiful experience - thank you!

I LOVED IT! Thank you! It was great!!!

Good use of senses So much fun. Loved it.

IT WAS AMAZING!!

Original and fabulous and kind of moving!

Loved every second of it x Thank you for a magical and totally unforgettable adventure - we loved it!

The second phase of the Labyrintheme project (funded by Arts Council England) was to devise and perform an original interpretation of a traditional tale in primary schools across Greater Manchester, UK. The city has many Greater areas of Manchester, social and economic UK. Thedeprivation city has many andareas largeof numbers social and of people economic for whom deprivation English andis an additional large numbers language.

The devising of peopleprocess for whom for English this show is would an additional draw onlanguage. the experiences The devising of the process Labyrintheme workshops for this show would andperformances to challenge draw on the us experiences to develop our of the useLabyrintheme of applied theatre workshops techniques, and multisensory performancesand experiences to other challenge participatory us to develop methods our use for much of applied largertheatre audiences. techniques, multisensory experiences and other participatory methods for much larger audiences.

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Performances for groups of young people with SEN and for very young children tend to have small audience sizes. How could the techniques that we know work so well with audiences of 20 be innovated and developed for an audience of 100? We chose The Three Little Pigs. For those who are not familiar with the traditional story... three little pigs each want to build their own house - of straw, sticks and stone. A wolf is trying to eat them - “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!” The story ends with the wolf boiled alive in a pot at the base of the third pig’s chimney and all the pigs safe and sound.

It occurred to me that constructing a shelter from straw would be extremely challenging and that it might be a good idea to get some advice, to learn from an expert. And so, the first little pig goes to the fields and meets the mouse who knows all about straw. The second little pig seeks out the birds who are the very best at building homes with sticks and twigs. This also meant that each pig would be exploring a different habitat and geographical area (a topic studied in schools) and hence we had a Labyrintheme-type challenge to evoke the open fields full of grass and the woods to our audiences. From there we, the creative team, thought about the best place to find stones for building with and concluded that that was by the river where the water makes them smooth. Recent research has indicated that wolves very much like to eat fish and therefore our expert stone builder became the young wolf.

By this stage we had also discovered our theme; learning new skills and who can help us. Our young wolf wants to howl like the big wolves and as Grandma Wolf explains to him, ‘You need more wind in your tummy to howl’, he sets out in search of the wind. As any teacher can tell you, children are affected by the wind in the playground at breaktime; it exhilerates, scares, energises and worries them. At the time when we were devising, the news was full of accounts of people around the world whose lives were being devastated by hurricanes and storms. It is the wind who becomes the destructive force of our interpretation and one without malevolent intent.

From our work with children and young people with SEN, we have learnt the value of starting the performance from the origins of the story; in this case, the sun creating warm air which moves with colder air up in the mountains. A breeze gets bigger, stronger, growing into a blustery gale. It whooshes through the grass of the fields and snaps the tree branches hurling them to the ground. The pigs finally find shelter in the strong stone den that the third pig builds with the wolf and they are able to play together with the wind (and Wolfie finally manages a howl).

Our story deals with learning, sharing, helping, working together and recognising and valuing difference. It also includes school topics such as materials, human and animals bodies, maps, math and science.

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With a cast of three actor/musician/facilitators, we created three versions of the performance by the end of the tour (all participatory and using multi-sensory multi sensory props adapted for larger audience numbers): the first additional version, for young people with autistic stic spectrum condition, has tighter control over exposure to sensory stimulus and is briefer (with less dialogue) while retaining a strong narrative and characters; the second additional version consists of a series of more complex sensory experiences associated associated with the characters and geographical locations with little narrative for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties. We also adapted the performance for children with severe hearing impairments in a specialist support school. This winter ter we hope to create a new participatory show based on a different traditional story. This time there will be a fourth version for younger audiences who have little or no spoken English which use more physical theatre and incorporate makaton sign language into the script. We will be working towards Peoplescape Theatre’s goal of interpreting stories in a way that is ‘Challenging for all and accessible to everyone’.

(With thanks to Arts Council England, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Children’s n’s Book Festival and Quarry Bank Mill, National Trust.)

Emily Capstick and Alison Hale are joint Creative Directors of Peoplescape Theatre.

Emily also works as an independent scriptwriter, children’s author, theatre director, maker and performer.

We will be organizing ing a TRAINING EVENT on interpretation interpretation as part of our next project with Arts Council England later this year. To express interest in or to find out more, please email: emily@peoplescapetheatre.co.uk

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So What? (The magic and medicine of plants.)

By Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald

My Irises are one of my favorite garden plants. In medicine It is chiefly used in the dry state, being said to be good for complaints of the lungs, for coughs and hoarseness, but is now more valued for the pleasantness of its violet-like perfume than for any other use.

One day I will read more about the French botanist, I always whispered, as I passed the historic marker on State Street in Black Mountain, North Carolina. The Frenchman climbing up and down mountain trails, threading his way through the tropical South, navigating rivers and creeks, walking, or traveling by canoe or horse, has intrigued me for some time. Did you ever read about Andre Michaux who once taught pioneers in the Appalachian Mountains how to export ginseng to China? Do you ever see a sign commemorating an individual or place and hope that, in time, you will become acquainted with that individual or setting?

The time to study this French botanist came this past Christmas when I was visiting my daughter, Sara, who heads the Equestrian Division at Camp Rockmont, just a few miles from Black Mountain. I read what was available on her book shelves. The cold season provided an opportunity to gather around the fire to read and to remember the warmer temperatures during my childhood when our family summered in nearby Montreat. Even hiking Greybeard Mountain, Lookout Mountain, and Bear Mountain where we gathered Galax leaves for my mother, the temperature occasionally required a light sweater, but we never were cold.

As you can obviously guess, I am not a winter soul. I do not like “icicles hanging on the wall.” Maybe you do. When I returned home to South Carolina at the end of December, I dug out two old books, given to me during my teaching days at William and Mary: Raymond L. Taylor’s Plants of Colonial Days 1952) and Shepherd M. Dugger’s The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain (1934, reprinted in 1974), along with another cherished volume: Magic and Medicine of Plants (1986). Though tattered and dusty, I relished returning to each one, along with the bible for its allusions to herbs, plants, and trees; talking to herbalists whom I have known through the years; remembering stories about herbal lore my grandmother had passed down from her grandmother; and rereading poetry whose allusions to herbs and flowers always delighted me.

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I’d like to share my thoughts in a reflective, personal essay (intentionally not a scholarly piece),whose theme of healing includes an unlikely comparison between Michaux, the French botanist, and Scotland’s beloved poet, Robert Burns, a note or two about what Michaux brought to the United States and what he contributed to his beloved France, as well as references to some medicinal herbs available to many of us. I pray you, dear readers, indulge me with personal reflections, transitional devicesto guide you along the path.

Even though Andre Michaux (1746-1802)born near Versailles, and Robert Burns (1759-1796) in Alloway, Scotland, grew up miles apart, they were alike in several ways. First, both had brilliant minds, despite receiving only a few years of formal schooling. Their fathers wanted their sons to devote themselves to agriculture (for different reasons, of course). In addition, both Michaux and Burns died young, Michaux of a tropical fever, Burns from rheumatic fever. Despite illness, misfortune, and losses, both loved their native countries (Atop Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, Michaux sang “La Marseillaise,” and Burns never ceased to laugh, love, sing, and write poemsof Scotland),and both had a passion for discovery, Burns for Scottish lore (he wrote poem after poem and discovered original Scottish melodies for which he wrote words, and many of his poems reference flowers such as roses, woodbine, daisies, and, of course, heather), Michaux for plants, trees, herbs, and flowers.

Despite similarities, there were, of course, obvious differences. Michaux traveled abroad extensively.

Although Burns dreamed of going to Jamaica, his plans ultimately failed. He only journeyed to towns and cities in Scotland.

Most historians generally agree that what Michaux brought to Americawere ornamentals such ascamellias and sasanquas, the ginkgo, tea plants, mimosas, and others. He took seedlings back to Paris for the Park of Rambouillet which had been ravaged by war. During his visits to America, he spent time in the North in the Hudson Bay Region, in Virginia, in Kentucky, in the “high mountains” of North Carolina (area of Banner Elk, Boone, Blowing Rock, and such), in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, and in Charleston, South Carolina, Florida, and other states.

Yet not all of the plants which Michaux brought to this country were simply ornamental. For example, leaves of camellias and sasanquas made a delightful tea, according to Terri Lowe, a student of herbs, oils, and spices, and the ginkgo, a gorgeous gold, was not simply an ornamental tree. Its leaves offered healing properties, such as helping individuals suffering from asthma and those experiencing ringing in their ears.

Years ago, my neighbor had a lovely female ginkgo which graced her lawn. But she complained, “I don’t like the odor of this rotten fruit, so we’ll have the tree cut down.” Indeed, she did. Some of us wondered if her husband, a medical doctor, might disapprove of the tree’s medicinal value and feared his wife might be tempted to make a tea of the leaves. After all, she had once made a tea of baking soda a few years earlier and had to be transported to the hospital for abdominal cleansing!

Of course, which botanist discovered a plant first is an ongoing debate. Michaux has been credited with finding and taking to France the yellow violet, trillium, Oconee Bells, purple laurel, the flame azalea, Carolina Lily, the big-leaf magnolia, sassafras, fox-grapes, a tulip-tree, and a plant with leaves resembling boxwood, slipperyelm, blue cohosh, stone-root, and others. He knew George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and many others who had beautiful gardens. I plan to read more about his son, Francois Andre Michauxwho sailed to America when his father made his second trip. I wonder if the younger Michaux knew Lady Skipwith who lived on the Dan River near Clarkesville, Virginia. That will be another rambling when we travel to “Prestwould Plantation.”

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Many of the herbs and flowers, plants and trees which Michaux detailed in his diarieswere ones which the Native Americans had been using for years. For example, a tea made from the bark of the tulip tree helped combat malaria. In addition, trillium was used to diminish cramps which many women endured once a month, and spring beauty was used for sore hemorrhoids. Blue cohosh helped with bronchial problems and rheumatism. One African-American woman related that her ancestors had used this herb, along with parsley, to abort an unwanted fetus. Parsley also promoted urination and solved the problem of constipation.

Slippery elm, like the gingko, turns a beautiful gold in the fall, but it is native to this country and continues to have many uses, as it did in the early days, by both settlers and Native Americans. They used it for constipation and diarrhea, for wounds, burns, and dried skin. Amazingly, a tea helped both the elderly and babies. Likewise, tea made from sassafras was a common cure in days gone by for nearly any ailment.

Nowadays it primarily relieves gas. Lady’s-slipper whose leaves remind me of aspidistra leaves had a calming effect. A descendant of a Virginia planter says that years ago when the Yankees threatened to burn her grandfather’s tobacco crop and steal the hogs, cattle, and horses, she served them well-brewed lady’s-slipper tea. In time, their eyelids drooped, and it wasn’t long before they stumbled out the front door and down the steps, scarcely able to mount their horses and ride off, wondering what caused their languid state.

Lady’s-slipper, sometimes called yellow Indian shoe because it does, in fact, resemble a slipper, invites us to consider other yellow plants: like lady’s slipper, a blend made from the roots of yellow jessamine served as a sedative, and a tea helped with coughs. Even though some herbalists believe in the old-time remedies of this flower, others have shown that too much is lethal. Mullein and other yellow flowers, including yellow violet, yellow iris, yellow dock, even wormwood, have healing qualities. My great-great grandmother, for example, in her little notebook with “receipts” for favorite dishes and healing remedies, referenced making a decoction from the leaves of mullein to relieve diarrhea and inflammation, as well as bronchial conditions.

Some used the yellow violet as a laxative. Moreover, rhizome juice of the gorgeous yellow iris which I cherish in my garden, as you probably do, served as a lotion for dry skin and wounds. According to Kathy Sholl, whose ancestors learned from the Native Americans to use yellow root to help women bear children, to heal sore throats, and to ease stomach pain, “some of these herbs are so fragrant that sick people just begin to feel better.”

She reminded me that we have many of the herbs used by Native Americans in our own back yards or nearby fields, for instance, colicroot, passion flower, mustard, Queen Anne’s lace, yaw root, spice bush, wintergreen, aspen, goldenrod, and evening primrose, to name a few. And, of course, those of us who grow herbs enjoy harvesting lavender, sage, and rosemary for ornamental, culinary, and medicinal purposes.

Readers who are sensitive to Ophelia’s pain in Hamlet, endeavor to understand her allusions to flowers and herbs and their uses when we hear her plaintive cries: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. . . There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say ‘a made a good end. For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. . .

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Some of those flowers and herbs have medicinal value. Likewise, In Genesis, we read in Chapter one, verse eleven, “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth:’ and it was so.” Indeed, there are many healing herbs in the Bible. Not only were frankincense and myrrh gifts to Jesus when he was a baby, but they had healing properties as well. Following Christ’s Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus used a mixture of myrrh and aloes as they wrapped the body of Jesus in linen clothes (from the Gospel of John).

In closing, I find it rather ironical that one of the loveliest flowers, globe amaranth, which can be dried and is beautiful in any setting somewhat resembles pigweed, an herb, once used in tea for diarrhea. Poke around in your garden or around your yard, in your surrounding woods or fields, and see what you may discover, but beware of poisonous plants lurking near, like pokeweed. One of my students at William and Mary often recalls the time I nestled fresh veggies and fruits on a fig leaf. A “stuffy”friend was horrified, convinced that the fig leaf was poisonous. He was totally wrong. Fig leaves are nutritional.

Another time, we’ll journey to “Prestwould” and look in Lady Skipwith’s beautiful garden or go to an old school and enjoy story-telling. Why not?

(FYI - A devoted gardener, Lady Skipwith owned botanical books that she used when compiling her extensive lists of flowers, shrubs, trees, and other plants that she grew and hoped to grow. She designed the gardens at Prestwould, including an orangery, a bee house, and special beds where she could observe the growth habits of particular plants. She collected specimens locally and traded seeds with other gardeners in the United States and overseas, and her notes continue to be a valuable resource for historians and botanists in documenting early American gardens. You can learn more about her here: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/vawomen/2010/honoree.asp?bio=1) - John V.

Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald College English instructor, published author, and performer.

Associate Editor for InterpNEWS doctorbenn@gmail.com

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Simple Nature Tracking – Wheel calendar Skot Latona, CIT Manager of South Platte Park Centennial, Colorado Centennial Cen

Nature Center staff are often asked when the eagles are most likely to be seen, when does the river flow reach its peak, or when to expect the best wildflowers. There are a number of phenology tracking apps, websites, and software that can help an interpreter track nature cycles and seasonal phenomena for their site. Our staff is small and has low interest in high-tech solutions so we created a simple wheel calendar to list the most interesting arrivals and nature events.

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This colorful display was printed in a large poster that could be rotated monthly so the current slice of the pie was easiest to read. Staff added entries such as the first observation of a flower or a migration arrival, peak bloom or fall color, and significant nesting benchmarks. Visitor postings on our facebook page helped provide information on new arrivals or sightings that were added to the wheel. Major storm or wind events, highest or lowest temperature times were added, along with when the lakes iced over or when the river flow bottomed out for summer. A blank version of the wheel was posted with a pen in the Nature Center to allow visitors to add their own sightings. After eliminating the bigfoot sightings, it still gave good insight into what the public was interested in or noticing!

The contents of the wheel were later transcribed to Prezito create an interactive online version that could provide an off-site reference to the happenings in South Platte Park. You can find a link by searching “South Platte Park Phenology” – and the chart is open for public reuse for your own site if you wish! http://prezi.com/na9rcw9w3h1h/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

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The exhibit was very inexpensive – just a large format color printout for the bulletin board. It took minimal staff time and it opened the door to a number of conversations about nature’s cycles, interesting features to watch for, and much more. After the first year of the wheel, the process was repeated with notations if events were significantly sooner or later than other years. The process helped bring more attention to the predictability and the variability of Park phenomena. It helped bring awarness that a particularly identifiable individual hawk arrived for winter within the same week for five years running, and left in the same three-day period each the spring. It helped clarify the narrow window when Great Horned owl chicks are large enough to be visible before cottonwood foliage obscures the view. And it helped illuminate the pattern of which waterfowl peaked in which winter months.

Other than serving as a simple display, this exercise also created a tool for staff, preserving the ‘institutional knowledge’ for future interpreters and field technicians. The calendar is used by resource specialists to anticipate weed treatments or to prepare for high river flows. Wildlife monitoring staff reference the wheel to anticipate migration timing and trigger nest inspections. Interpreters use it to determine if the cottonwoods will be yellow for planning a plein air class, when the best week to schedule a bat program falls, if a wetland plant ID class would be better in July or August, or if the mosquitoes might be tolerable for a new summer camp!

There are certainly more advanced and searchable tools to track this information, and this simple wheelcalendar layout created a quick, simple process, with rapid buy-in from staff, to create a much deeper understanding of our site!

South Platte Park is an 878-acre natural area along the South Platte River in the Denver Metropolitan Area.

The Park is owned by the City of Littleton and managed by South Suburban Parks and Recreation District. www.ssprd.org/nature.

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Think Local: Creating Relevance in Today’s Museums.

Chris Brusatte Interpretive Planner Taylor Studios, Inc. www.taylorstudios.com/blog For perhaps too long, many museums and education centers have focused primarily on global stories and issues that attract attention worldwide. Natural history museums focus on habitats, wildlife, and fossils from around the globe. Art institutions stage blockbuster shows featuring works by artists with the most worldwide renown.

History museums have exhibits on nationwide events and world encompassing wars. The focus has been on content with the largest reach across the breadth of humanity. Unfortunately, this approach on its own has proven increasingly unappealing to visitors, who desire exhibits that are more relevant to their own communities and to their own lives. With museums of all sizes struggling to engage the elusive “modern visitor,” a refocus on local issues has been one recent – and increasingly successful – trend.

Facing Reality: The 21st Century Audience More and more, visitors are less willing to spend time in exhibits that do not grab their attention, captivate, engage, and excite them. Perhaps more than anything, visitors desire a personal connection to exhibits. A museum needs to excite them and it needs to relate to their own daily lives.

The 21st century visitor is used to a world of personalized online content, trendy community-based art fairs, blogs about their own neighborhood hangouts, and trips to the local farmers market. Museums too can capitalize on people’s desires to be a part of – and learn more about – their own small communities. By refocusing their efforts on the local rather than the global, museums and education centers can capture visitors’ interest by relating content to them, to their daily lives, and to the issues currently foremost in their minds.

Making Content Relevant Relating our stories to the personal experiences of visitors truly lies at the heart of interpretation.

Laura Bassett, Content Developer and Interpretive Planner1 Many exhibits deliver powerful and important content, but that in itself does not make them relevant. Even the most significant and momentous subject matter cannot stand on its own. Unless an exhibit or program has relevance to its audience, they will not be engaged. As Sarah Nohe and Mike Thomin relate, “most incoming information is discarded after 15 to 20 seconds unless it’s relevant or interesting” to visitors.2 What makes content relevant? First of all, it must be meaningful. One way that museums and education centers are increasing their relevance is by focusing on the local community. Exhibits, programming, and ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1

Laura Bassett, “Let the Landscape Speak,” Legacy, National Association for Interpretation, Volume 28 No. 1 (January-February 2017): 12.

2 Sarah Nohe and Mike Thomin, “Slippery Oysters and Cold Beer: Incorporating Taste into Interpretation,” Legacy, National Association for Interpretation, Volume 28 No. 1 (January-February 2017): 17.

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events are tailored to the needs and interests of those who live close-by and use the sites most often. This seems intuitive, but it is rarer than many think.

In our globalized world and our quest for encyclopedic knowledge, many museums make the mistake of creating exhibits based on big, worldwide issues rather than on ones directly connected to their town, city, or region. Too many small and mid-sized art museums try to be the Met, featuring works from all places and all times, rather than focusing on art from their community and region. Likewise, too many small and mid-sized natural history and science museums attempt to be another Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

They try to tell the entire biological, geological, and anthropological story of our world, rather than focusing on the environments, ecosystems, unique habitat types, and cultures in their own geographic area. The attempt at universalism is well-meaning, but it is often not what visitors want. What is relevant to them is often the art, history, and nature of their own backyard.

A Growing Trend Recently, many museums and education centers across the country have refocused their efforts on the local community in a bid to increase the relevance of what they offer. An exemplar is the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History in California. Over the past five years, Executive Director Nina Simon has refocused the museum’s core mission and products on the local community. Local artists and community groups collaborate on exhibits, events, and programming. Shows and displays center on issues relevant to the local community and to local groups. As Lynn Peithman Stock relates, almost everything that the museum does is now based upon “creative risk-taking, grassroots participation, and unexpected community partnerships.” The result? The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History has never been more popular. In the first five years, Simon has tripled attendance to the museum, increased membership by 50 percent, and brought in more than 4,000 local artists and community groups to collaborate on exhibitions and cultural events.4

First Friday at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 3

Lynn Peithman Stock, “Silicon Valley 40 Under 40 2015: Nina Simon,” Silicon Valley Business Journal, 29 July 2015, accessed 17 January 2017, http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2015/07/29/silicon-valley-40-under-40-2015-nina-simon.html.

4 Kristin Gallas, “What’s the Secret Ingredient in the Tsongas Industrial History Center’s Success?,” Center for the Future of Museums, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 5 December 2016, accessed 17 January 2017, https://www.uml.edu/News/newsarticles/2016/museum-tihc.aspx.

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On the other coast, the Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) in Massachusetts is also proving how effective a local focus can be. The majority of the center’s student visitors hail from inner-city locations nearby, but they have had little contact with the natural environment of their area. The center realized that these children deeply desired to learn more about their own backyard beyond the concrete jungle of the city. TIHC’s programs now put students aboard a river boat to explore the area’s watershed and the abundant nature found in the Merrimack River Valley. As Kristin Gallas relates, “The Merrimack River Valley is their home, and these types of experiences provide students the opportunity to form relevant connections with the world around them.3 At Taylor Studios, the exhibit design-build firm that I work at, we recently helped the Indiana State Museum design, fabricate, and install a new natural history gallery focusing on four natural regions of Indiana. Visitors are immersed into the natural environments of Indiana’s past and present. They discover the state’s natural beauty, explore its diverse wildlife, and learn how to preserve Indiana for future generations. The museum is keen to teach children from around the state information that directly relates to them. Hence the museum’s focus on Indiana nature, Indiana history, and Indiana art. So far, the response has been extraordinarily positive.

Indiana State Museum’s newly renovated Natural Regions gallery, focusing on the state’s wildlife. Photo courtesy of Taylor Studios Inc. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 5

Emphasis mine. Elira Benavari, “Lake County Historical Museum curator 'bombarding' galleries with new exhibits,” Orlando Sentinel, 17 January 2017, accessed 17 January 2017, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/lake/os-lk-lake-historical-museum20161123-story.html.

6 Quoted in David A.M. Wilensky, “Talking with…An off-the-grid museum innovator,” J., San Francisco Jewish Community Publications Inc., 8 October 2015, accessed 17 January 2017, http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/75852/talking-with-an-off-thegrid-museum-innovator/.

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A local focus is perhaps most important for small community museums. In my home state of Illinois, for example, too many small museums feature large exhibits about Abraham Lincoln’s life in general, with no direct connection to their specific communities. A similar phenomenon is the ubiquitous stuffed polar bear that shows up in many small museums far from the Arctic, simply because a past donor with a fondness for curiosities gifted it to the site. The visitors to small community museums do not want to see this! What matters to them are exhibits about their area, their history, their backyards, and their lives.

The Lake County Historical Museum in Florida is an excellent example of a small community museum that successfully focuses on topics of local interest. In January 2017, the curator heralded the museum’s new exhibits, which are wholly local-themed and “not generic.” His quote to one newspaper said it all: “I am bombarding the museum with new and exciting exhibits focusing on Lake County.”1 Nina Simon would be pleased. As she says, There are a million different kinds of museums, and that’s a good thing. Every museum should be authentic to its mission and its community. Most museums in this country are not the Met. They’re small community museums, and the more tuned in to the wishes and dreams and interests of their communities, the more successful they will be.1 For Big Museums Too? But what about those famous museums in the largest cities? Should they highlight only national and global issues, or can they too focus on the local community? With a bold step in 2016, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has proven that even the most heralded big-city institutions can focus on local topics in a bid for increased relevance. In April 2016, the museum launched its Urban Nature Research Center to promote the study of local Los Angeles-area wildlife, with a goal to “increase understanding of the ecosystems in L.A.'s parks, medians, mountains, streets, and backyards.”1 Visitor response has been remarkable, especially among locals. They are excited that the museum is focusing on a natural world that is directly relevant to their own lives. As local science reporter Sanden Totten relates, “Typically…researchers travel to exotic rainforests or national parks to study new and interesting species, but in recent years there have been exciting discoveries right here in L.A.”1 The choice to highlight these discoveries has been a boon for the natural history museum.

The gardens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County focus on local plants and animals. Photo courtesy of Justin Higuchi.

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Natural history museums are not alone. In 2016, among exhibits on Japanese, Chinese, English, French, Dutch, Islamic, African, Soviet, and ancient Roman art, the world-renowned Art Institute of Chicago featured two dynamic exhibits squarely focused on Chicago and local interest. Practice, Theory, and History highlighted “150 years of educating artists, designers, and scholars at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,” while To Build a Modern Campus focused on the architecture and legacy of Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology campus. The museum is a global exemplar – and its mission statement mentions collecting, preserving, and interpreting “the world’s diverse artistic traditions” without any specific mention of Chicago or local art – and yet it understands how important it is to offer exhibitions directly connected to its community.1 History museums are also following suit. The brand new American Writers Museum, which opens its doors this month in Chicago and focuses on the nation’s literary icons, has specific exhibits centered on “home town authors.”1 The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is one of the most renowned institutions in the country, founded in 1965 to tell the breadth of the African American experience. For many years now, they have showcased a popular permanent exhibition Detroit Performs about the home town artists who have become famous – and who hold special appeal to local visitors.11 Temporary exhibits also do the trick. The Newseum’s Nationals at 10 celebrated D.C.’s hometown baseball team, the Washington Nationals, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum just opened a nine-month temporary exhibit highlighting the local Chicago Cubs – St. Louis Cardinals rivalry.12 These are two of the most popular museums in the country, and both have a global reach. However, they also realize the importance of engaging local visitors with exhibits of specific interest to them.

A New Paradigm

The lesson? Museums both large and small can revitalize their exhibits and programs by focusing on the local community – on local history, local art, local ecology, and local issues. In a 21st century world where visitors increasingly desire personal connections to museum experiences, institutions should shy away from only telling global stories that often have minimal impact on their visitors’ daily lives. Instead, museums and education centers should “think local” and provide educational experiences that highlight issues of particular concern to their communities. Only then will exhibits and programs be truly relevant, and the door is then open to lasting engagement and learning. As Simon says, “when we connect our work to the things that matter most to people…it will be relevant. And then the real work – and magic – can begin.”13 7

Sanden Totten, “Natural History Museum launches center focused on urban wildlife,” 89.3KPCC, 14 April 2016, accessed 17 January 2017, http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/04/14/59565/la-s-natural-history-museum-launches-center-focuse/.

8 Sanden Totten, “Natural History Museum launches center focused on urban wildlife,” 89.3KPCC, 14 April 2016, accessed 17 January 2017, http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/04/14/59565/la-s-natural-history-museum-launches-center-focuse/.

9 Art Institute of Chicago, accessed 10 March 2017, http://www.artic.edu/.

10 “Design Plans,” American Writers Museum, accessed 10 March 2017, http://americanwritersmuseum.org/museum-plans/.

11 “Detroit Performs,” Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, accessed 10 March 2017, http://thewright.org/index.php/explore/exhibitions/current-exhibitions?id=80.

12 “Previous [Exhibits],” Newseum, accessed 10 March 2017, http://www.newseum.org/exhibits/previous/.

“Step Up to the Plate,” Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, accessed 10 March 2017, https://www.illinois.gov/alplm/museum/Documents/2017.CubsCardsFlyer.pdf.

13 Nina Simon, “Meditations on Relevance, Part 1: Overview,” Museum 2.0, 28 July 2015, accessed 13 March 2017, http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2015/07/meditations-on-relevance-part-1-overview.html.

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Farm Magic: Space Travelers Rod Burns B.Ed. CPHI Quadra Island, BC, Canada

One spring evening, a little girl, we’ll call Micha, listened as her mother read her a story about a land where there are trees taller than the condominium building, which was her home. The faraway place was the home of many fuzzy and feathered flocks.

Micha learned that in the forest small brown birds, the size of her tiny thumb would scratch away forest floor leaves, looking for insect eggs to feed her nest of chicks. Mrs. Squirrel would dash across the field then into the farm Hazelnut tree. Out on a far limb, Mrs. Squirrel would twist free a ripe nut. She took the nut back to her brood, snuggled warm and dry in the nearby woodshed. Micha somehow knew the stories were true, fell asleep counting sheep.

Micha told her younger sister Akiko, about the magical land of fuzzy and feathered flocks. Akiko, couldn’t believe that anything could be taller than their condo or that sheep were more than just plush snuggle toys. There was no place where the night sky twinkled like a million holiday candles and big bears floated overhead. Since as long as she could remember, Akiko’s night sky was ablaze in reds, blues, yellows coming from the neon billboard signs, flashing along the streets below.

Micha began to doubt the stories of fuzzy and feathered flocks, as described to her. It was just so different from what she and Akiko saw and heard each night out their bedroom window. Micha became even more confused as Tobie, her soft plush snuggle doll, insisted that the land of big trees and tiny birds was indeed very real. Micha the courageous called on her parents to help her understand the difference between facts, alternative facts and imagination. Her parents realized they needed to set into motion a string of events to help their daughters, appreciate real, not storybook fuzzy and feathered flocks.

Months passed. A few days into the start of summer holidays, Akiko and Micha were told by their excited parents to pack their travel bags. The whole family was heading for a far away, magical island. Micha made sure that there was room for Tobie, her plush snuggle lamb in her suitcase.

Micha and family took the bullet train to the spaceport. Every few minutes, beneath mighty roaring engines, silver capsules hurled along the runway and lifted into the air. Sitting beside mother and Akiko, secured in her seat within a silver capsule, Micha fell asleep.

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Days flew passed, memories of which remain very hazy to Micha. She does recall getting into a land transporter.

Looking out the windows of the transporter, she recalls how the tall buildings began to get smaller. It was no longer a skyline of glass buildings but now a skyline of snow capped mountains. Micha remembers their land transporter driving along with hundreds of other land transporters into something called a BC Ferry, named Spirit of Victoria. The ferry, with a mighty thrust, sailed across a big pond. When they drove off the ferry, the buildings were even smaller. Next to the buildings, she began to see trees as tall as in her picture storybooks. Waking from another sleep period, Micha became afraid. There were no buildings, just large trees and an indigo sky. Where were the familiar neon lights and the sound of horns and sirens?

All around her looked so much like what was in the picture book. With the coming of darkness, wee sister Akiko snuggled up against Micha, Toby Snuggle Lamb was snuggled in her other arm. Amidst the sounds of frogs, and the smell of forest she relaxed. The three floated away into a dreamland, full of fuzzy and feathered flocks.

“Micha, Micha, wake up, it’s play time!” Tobie Snuggle Lamb gently bleated to her snuggle buddy. “Micha, down here! Micha, come outside and play!”

Following the direction of Tobie’s voice, Micha looked out the window. Down below, Tobie Lamb jumped in happiness to see Micha’s smiling face in the window. “Tobie, my Tobie” Micha called in glee. She dressed the quickest ever, flying down the stairs and out the door. Arms were flung around Tobie’s fuzzy neck. Baaah Baah Baahhh, Micha, Bahh, Tobie called out, responding to Micha’s happy calls. (Bahhing is the language of sheep) “Let me introduce you to my mother, family and friends” bahhed Tobie.

Baahing “Yes yes.” Micha asked Tobie if Akiko and their mother could come along to meet the great flock of Fuzzy’s? Baahh Baahhh “of course, of course.”

Over the next 4 days, eight fuzzy lambs gamboled with Micha and Akiko.

Games of chase and jump, kick up your heels were played. The game of Head Butting was tried. Neither of the sisters had the head for such a hard game. Tobie introduced the two girls to the Feathered Flock. They were two legged like the girls, but a lot smaller. They were dressed in the most gorgeous rainbow of feathers. They too liked to snuggle up together at night with their flock family.

Hours were spent exploring the Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir Forest.

These trees were as tall as the condo in which Micha lived. In the forest, they watched little Winter Wren, flip leaves in search of newly laid Pill Bug eggs.

These she took back to her brood, hidden amongst the Salal bushes. High-pitched squeaks alerted the girls to Mrs. Squirrel. She spent many hours dashing across the field over to the Hazelnut tree, dripping with ripe nuts. Each time, leaving the tree, she headed to the woodshed with a peeled nut in her jaws. It was yummy food for her brood, snuggled in the woodshed.

On the evening of the 4th day, the two girls were told by their mother, that time with Tobie’s fuzzy flock family and feathered friends had come to an end. Tomorrow, they would reboard the silver capsule. Two sleeps, later they were back in the world of neon lights and glass towers as tall as the forest at Tobie’s house.

The story of Micha and Tobie, is true. Micha and her sister lived on the 56 floor of a condo in Hong Kong.

Tobie was her plush snuggle doll. The flight path of international flights in and out of Hong Kong was outside their window.

Rod Burns, B.Ed. CPHI Bold Point Farmstay, Quadra Island, BC

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Revisiting the Nine Mile Canyon Interpretive Plan - for the world's longest art gallery.

John A. Veverka Certified Interpretive Planner and Director, The Heritage Interpretation Training Center.

John Veverka at one of the NMC rock art sites

Over 10 years ago I had the privilege of being contracted to develop the Interpretive Master Plan for Nine Mile Canyon - billed as the world's longest art gallery of Native American rock art. Here's the introduction to the interpretive plan: Nine Mile Canyon is a place that hits you in the face with its history, stories and importance as soon as you enter the main heritage areas. The Canyon engulfs you, swallows you up, with images from thousands of years in the past watching your every move. You can feel it in your bones - the heat, wind, and sun surrounding you as you struggle to understand the messages from past visitors left in stone long ago pleading to be understood – but knowing they never will.

The goal of the interpretive plan for Nine Mile Canyon was to help visitors to this unique and special place feel a sense of the thousands of years of history that they have had the privilege to observe and momentarily be a part of. Interpretation will also help visitors understand the importance of preservation and stewardship of the canyon resources – a library of rock images, historic ranch sites, and modern day land use - a library of stories of real people in real places over countless generations and cultural successions.

In the interpretation of Nine Mile Canyon we don’t particularly want visitors to remember dates or details, but to mainly remember their Nine Mile Canyon “experience”. We want visitors to leave the canyon with a feeling that they have seen and experienced something truly wonderful that must be preserved for the enjoyment and education of future generations, and leave with a hunger to learn more about the canyon’s many stories.

As you can tell, the canyon and its secretive stories really impressed me, so even though the plan was completed over 10 years ago, I always have kept an eye on the place to see how things are going there. In our plan we recommended a variety of interpretive media, from interpretive panels and orientation kiosks, to self-guiding brochures and driving tours, and web-site interpretation of the various key rock art features.

Here's our original interpretive objectives for the interpretive plan, when implemented, to accomplish:

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Interpretive objectives are the foundation from which all detailed site interpretive planning is based. The following objectives were generated from a focus workshop composed of Nine Mile Canyon stakeholders and managers.

Upon completion of their visit into Nine Mile Canyon, the majority of visitors will: -

Feel that NMC needs to be taken care of for future generations.

Understand that NMC has a long history of unique occupation and use.

Understand that archaeological resources and sites are remnants of real people – their lives, hopes and beliefs.

Appreciate the culture of all people who lived in the canyon (prehistoric and historic, and modern times).

Understand several reasons why Smith Wells is important in the history of the canyon.

Learn that NMC is the best place where the history of the Fremont culture can be seen and interpreted.

Understand that not “everybody” goes to a building for his or her spirituality (i.e. the role of sites and environments as a spiritual setting).

Understand the economic importance of NMC to the various cultures who lived there (past through present).

Feel a need and desire to protect the “messages on the walls”.

Feel the “feeling” at the rock art sites.

Learn that there is 4-5 thousand years of rock at NMC. Understand that cultural resources tell us how people lived and/or how their lives were similar and/or different from ours today.

Cultural resources are worth conserving and protecting.

Recognize people’s capacity to adapt to harsh living conditions at NMC, and why they chose to live here.

Respect the rights of the private property owners living in NMC. Understand why Smith Wells was chosen for a stagecoach stop (a day's drive by wagon or stage from the last good source of water and provisions).

Learn that NMC is a travel conduit, prehistoric times to present.

Understand that not all things (art at archaeological sites) can be explained, but we still need to respect and preserve them.

Gain a general overview of the historic ranches in the canyon.

Learn that many different cultures and people used the canyon (Spanish, pioneers, military, etc.).

Learn that it’s the water and it’s out of the way – that’s why people have lived here for 1000’s of years.

Understand the need for visitors to not touch or remove any artifacts they may find during their visit (artifacts tell us so much).

Learn about the Nine Mile Canyon communications system. The significance of the metal telegraph poles.

The Nutter Ranch had their telegraph converted to telephone. Had one of the last party lines in the U.S., and the oldest continually used phone line in the U.S. Visitors will learn and practice stated “Rock Art Viewing Rules” for the protection of the rock art.

Learn that (in contemporary times) the whole canyon was a loose knit community, with schools, stores, homes and ranches, etc.

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The main body of the interpretive plan was to do a complete inventory, with the museum archaeologists and history experts, of just where (what sites and resources) they wanted to interpret, and what sites were so rare and fragile that they didn't particularly want visitors to know about to help protect the sites. Each site we inventories had a complete individual planning assessment and recommendations that included: - Site description - Interpretive Significance - Interpretive sub-theme or story.

- Site specific interpretive objectives (learn, feel, do).

- Any management objectives - Interpretive media options and costs.

At the end of the interpretive plan we produced a 5-year implementation phasing and budget strategy. Here are some of the sites included in the plan.

The balancing rock art site (balancing rock top left photo) has some excellent rock art panels (top right) that have been damaged by vandalism (close-up photo on the bottom left. The “white dots� are from bullets.

The NMC road/back country byway ends at this point (left photo). This famous panel is located on the rock face above where the red van is parked (arrow). The photo on the right illustrates this wonderful rock art example.

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The owl rock art site is probably one of the best for developing a handicapped accessible trail. The main owl panel (close-up photo in yellow circle) provides a good overview of the owl panel.

I thought you might like some general background on NMC as well, just in case you wanted to discover more about it.

Nine Mile Canyon is a canyon, approximately 40 miles (60 km) long, located in the counties of Carbon and Duchesne in eastern Utah, in the Western United States. Promoted as "the world’s longest art gallery", the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, most of it created by the Fremont culture and the Ute people. The rock art, shelters, and granaries left behind by the Fremont make Nine Mile Canyon a destination for archaeologists and tourists alike.

The canyon became a main transport corridor in the region during the 1880s. Settlers established a number of ranches in Nine Mile, and even a short-lived town named Harper. No longer heavily traveled, the rugged canyon road was used mostly for recreation and tourism through the end of the 20th century. The discovery of rich deposits of natural gas deep beneath the Tavaputs Plateau has brought an influx of industrial truck traffic since 2002. The large amounts of fugitive dust produced by the trucks' passage may be damaging the rock art.

Public debate is ongoing about how best to balance energy development in the canyon against the preservation of its cultural resources.

Nine Mile Canyon runs roughly southwest to northeast, with numerous winding turns, just to the north of the Book Cliffs, and south and east of Ashley National Forest. The full 78-mile (126 km) canyon route, formerly SR-53 through Gate Canyon, connects the towns of Wellington and Myton. Nine Mile Creek, the stream that formed the canyon, is by no means a major body of water. Its importance lies in the fact that it is one of the few water sources in the region that are reliable year-round, and it has been so since prehistoric times. Nine Mile Creek is actually a minor tributary of the Green River, emptying into Desolation Canyon on the east. A number of tributary canyons branch off Nine Mile itself, including Argyle Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon, Minnie Maud, and Dry Canyon. Significant rock art sites are frequently located near the junctions where they meet the main canyon.

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Archaeology

The famous Cottonwood Panel, also called The Great Hunt There are at least an estimated 1,000 rock art sites in the canyon, with more than 10,000 individual images. The true figures may be ten times as high, but there is no question that rock art is more concentrated here than anywhere else in North America. Much is in the form of pecked petroglyphs, and there are many painted pictographs as well. Researchers have also identified hundreds of pit-houses, rock shelters, and granaries, although only a limited amount of excavation has been carried out. Many of these structures are located high above the canyon floor on cliff ledges, pinnacles, and mesas. They were built by the Fremont, whose presence in Nine Mile has been dated at AD 950–1250. Indeed, Nine Mile Canyon was one of the locations most heavily occupied by the Fremont. In contrast to the purely hunter-gatherer cultures that surrounded them, the Fremont practiced agriculture, growing corn and squash along the canyon bottom. Compared to other Fremont areas, relatively little pottery is found in Nine Mile, suggesting that beans, which must be boiled for hours to become edible, were not an important part of the local diet. The Fremont left irrigation ditches and earthen lodges on the canyon floor that could be seen as late as the 1930s, but are no longer visible after generations of modern cultivation.

The prints under this bison's hooves indicate Ute origin.

By the 16th century the ancestral Utes were in the canyon. They added to the rock art already on the walls, but in styles of their own. Many scenes, for example, depict Ute hunters on horseback and date to the 1800s.

Despite the number of Ute artifacts found in Nine Mile, there is no archaeological evidence of any Ute camps or residences.

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In 2009, 63 archaeological sites in the canyon were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, 36 in Carbon County and 27 in Duchesne County. Most are named in the National Register listing only by their Smithsonian trinomial codes, but there were three named sites in Carbon County: Cottonwood Village, DropDead Ruin, and First Canyon Site. The named ones in Duchesne County are Centennial House, Fool's Pinnacle, Karen's Cist, Maxies Pad, Nordell's Fort, Redman Village, Sunstone Village, and Taylor's City. The locations and details of these sites are not disclosed by the National Register. The 63 sites include 40 Fremont constructions, 19 rock art sites, and 4 sets of historical-era dwellings.[6] A further 165 sites were added on September 12, 2012, all of them designated by codes only. Of these additional listings, 158 are in Carbon County and 7 in Duchesne County. On September 22, 2014, 101 more sites were added, all in Carbon County.

History

Rock art from Archaic to modern There is some evidence that American fur trappers may have entered the canyon in the early 19th century, but the first unequivocal sign of a white presence is an inscription on the canyon wall reading "S. Groesbeck August 19, 1867". John Wesley Powell's second Colorado River expedition camped at the mouth of the canyon in 1871, and the earliest appearance of the name Nine Mile Canyon is in records of the expedition.

Nine Mile Road was constructed through the canyon in 1886 by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, linking Fort Duchesne to the railroad through the city of Price. Use of the road surged in 1889 after the discovery of Gilsonite in the Uinta Basin. This was the main transportation route in eastern Utah until well into the 20th century. Most of the stagecoach, mail, freight, and telegraph traffic into the Uinta Basin passed through Nine Mile until after the arrival of the Uintah Railway around 1905.

The freight trade led to the settlement of the canyon itself. One of the main stagecoach stops developed into a town of sorts. Called Harper, it included a hotel, store, school, and an unofficial post office. It lacked a formal town site, simply taking in a long stretch of scattered ranches and buildings. The community grew gradually from the 1880s until it was officially established as the town of Harper in 1905. The Harper precinct as a whole had a population of 130 at its peak in 1910, but in the early 1920s Harper became a ghost town.

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Current issues and management challenges.

Nine Mile's unique archaeological resources have led to intense debate over land use. As in many rural areas of the Western United States, land in the canyon is a patchwork of public and private property. Archaeological sites are found on both. Commercially important deposits of minerals and other geological resources have also been discovered, further complicating the issues. Since 2002, the Bill Barrett Corporation, in cooperation with the BLM and private landowners, has been pursuing a natural gas exploration project on the West Tavaputs Plateau in and around the canyon. The company estimates the available natural gas reserves at approximately 1 trillion cubic feet (2.8Ă—1010 mÂł). Bill Barrett Corporation has spent some $2 million on improving area roads, and the complete project, if approved as planned, could create as many as 1000 jobs. Government involvement in the project has been controversial, drawing complaints from conservation groups that not enough is being done to protect natural and cultural resources.

Road dust drifts up the canyon.

Dust-covered petroglyphs Previous to 2013, industrial truck traffic on Nine Mile's main road were producing clouds of dust. Prior to paving, the dirt road was not maintained for heavy traffic. The dust reduced visibility on the road and settled on the rock art. Carbon County, which supervises the use of the road, approved the application of magnesium chloride on the road as a dust abatement measure. The compound pulled moisture from the air to dampen dust, but it may have done more harm than good as the magnesium chloride dust may have drifted on to the rock walls. A 2007 study, commissioned by the BLM and paid for by Bill Barrett Corporation, found that the dust that lands on a rock art panel created "a very serious conservation problem."

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In 2004, due to concerns about energy development and increasing recreational and tourist traffic, Nine Mile Canyon was named on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Places.

In 2009, 63 sites in the canyon were added to the National Register of Historic Places, with another 164 added in 2012 and 101 in 2014, and the BLM has announced plans to nominate some 600 more in years to come.

It has been an interesting exercise to keep tabs on our original interpretive plan recommendations from over 10 years ago and see how things are going today.

Here are two web sites and organizations to learn more about Nine-Mile Canyon, including a self-guiding driving tour guide you can print off of the web site: - Driving Guide http://climb-utah.com/Misc/ninemile.htm - Nine Mile Canyon Collation: http://9mcc.org/v If you ever have a chance to visit Utah, visiting and experiencing Nine-Mile Canyon is a must. It will consume you - knowing you are standing where, hundreds or thousands of years ago, other people once stood, and created the message or memories of their lifetime or experiences on these walls for you to see today. How cool is that!

John Veverka Certified Interpretive Planner www.heritageinterp.com

The “Big Buffalo� rock art site

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JVA InterpNews

Did the infamous Alcatraz Island cell house audio tour live up to expectations?

Dan Boys

When it comes to audio guides of international significance the cell house tour at Alcatraz has to be one of the most talked about. For years it has been on my bucket list and last month I finally got to visit the island where Al Capone and many of the USA’s most hardened criminals were held between 1924 and 1963.

Alcatraz Island is a popular destination for tourists and I made sure I booked tickets well in advance; getting them on the day is nigh on impossible. We opted for the 09.10 trip on the 1.5 mile boat ride across the choppy waters, but still the crowds were big. However, with only the early bird seafarers ahead of us the island had not swelled significantly in population and we were soon taking hold of our hardware.

The cell house was everything I had expected it to be: row upon row of small cells set over 2 floors, each fronted with iron bars. Some cells were empty, others contained beds, toilets and even personal possessions.

One contains the head of a man made of soap - you’ll have to visit to find out why!

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The audio guide begins with an introduction to the narrators: 4 former officers and 4 former inmates. An image of each man, complete with a short bio, are fixed to one of the cells and putting a face to a name is a great opener. We were then guided around the cell house and invited to poke our noses into particular cells. Every so often the narrator would divert our attention to an item that we may have otherwise overlooked without lots of additional signage. These insignificant artifacts often related to the best stories!

We then passed through a bulky steel door to nose around an area the prisoners didn’t get to see. Here, we learned about the officers and their families that lived on the island and took in the view of San Francisco and the Golden gate Bridge though the misty skies.

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The Golden Gate Bridge (l) and Alcatraz Island (r)

Escapes, murder and friendship The stories of attempted escapes, murder and friendship flow nicely and the interchange of voices keeps the audio at a great pace. We were told to allow about 45 minutes for the tour. To be honest I couldn’t tell you if we’d spent 20 mins or 2 hours doing it as I was really engaged with the experience. Of course, it is a fantastic story to interpret but the audio tour did not disappoint.

The other positive for me, as an audio guide producer, was that it wasn’t anything different to some of the great oral history trails we have produced over the years. I’d love to get my hands on such a prominent heritage site one that has changed very little since Al Capone and his cronies rattled their cell doors with metal cups - and weave my magic on such an audio tour.

But hats off to Antenna International for a truly engaging audio guide that lived up to the expectations I had built during my wait to tick off one of my bucket list items. Take a look at some of the audio tours we have produced (audiotrails.co.uk/category/audiotrails/). If you’d like to chat about a project then please get in touch.

Dan Boys is Creative Director at Audio Trails (audiotrails.co.uk) - creators of engaging digital heritage interpretation for community groups, charities and tourist attractions.

Dan is also an associate editor for InterpNEWS.

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Interpreting Oarfish Forecasters of disasters?

InterpNEWS Staff Just for interpretive fun.

History is loaded with stories of terrifying sea animals from the deep-sea troubling passing ships. It is thought that the oarfish might be responsible for numerous of the mythical discoveries of sea beasts and sea serpents by age-old sailors and beach goers. They can reach sizes of over 10 yards, making them strong and big fish. When it does sometimes come up, it is the things of tale. They normally dive by wiggling their long, thin physical bodies, yet they can additionally dive in more straight-up positions.

Huge oarfish are the lengthiest well-known living species of skinny fish, reaching a length of 56 feet (17 meters). They can weigh approximately 600 pounds (270 kilos).

Not a lot is found out about the conservation condition of huge oarfish since they have seldom been seen alive, even though anglers do periodically draw them up in nets as undesirable by catch. As deep-water fish, they are just seldom detected, and almost everything understood about the Oarfish originates from specimens that have been inadvertently captured by deep-sea business fishermen. Oarfish from time to time appear in the area Britain and fishermen in Yorkshire a couple of years ago captured one. The oarfish is believed to populate the epipelagic to mesopelagic sea layers, varying from 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) and is hardly ever discovered on the surface area.

The Oarfish has no air bladder, when it is hurt or ill, it commonly drifts as much as the ocean surface area, where it is in some cases come across by passing ships (which might have triggered the myth of the Sea Serpent). Unlike numerous skinny fish, oarfish absence scales. They are modified to make it through under high pressure; at the surface area, their skin layer is soft and quickly harmed. Their orals are little compared with their physical bodies and they have no teeth, so they are huge but not enforcing. A couple of have been spotted still hardly alive, but typically if one drifts to the surface area, it dies.

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In Japan, oarfish have much time figured into mythology. There might be some experimental manner to that tale, even if researchers do not presently utilize fish habits to forecast trembling. Deep-sea fish existences near the sea deepest part are more delicate to the mobilities of active mistakes than those near the surface area oceanic. The fish is sought-after for game fishing nevertheless; it cannot be over the counter traded for ingestion because it is not tasty considering the jelly-like flesh. Folks have attempted consuming them, yet “their flesh is flabby and icky.

Sometimes the slender creature is gotten cleaned on shore, dead, on coastlines. At least among the Oarfish’s family members, the Streamerfish, is found out to be able to generate a weak electrical current in its body system, like an electric eel. During October 2013, an 18-foot Oarfish was discovered cleaned up on a coastline on Catalina Island, off the California beach. From December 2009 to March 2010, strange numbers of the wispy oarfish Regalecus russelii, found out in Japanese folk story as the Messenger from the Sea God’s Dwelling, showed up in the waters and on the seaside of Japan, the appearance that is claimed to hint earthquakes.

Whenever natural disasters occur, it seems like all the animals on land had known it had been coming. It’s as if they have a sixth sense about impending danger. Once triggered, they’ll act on that sense and get themselves to safety. We may never understand how that intuition exists.

Although land animals can sense this danger, you’d be surprised to learn that ocean dwellers may also have this amazing sense of realizing there’s trouble ahead. The recent earthquake in the Philippines could be proof…

Recently, both before and after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake tore through the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, residents found the bodies of several oarfish washed up ashore. These creatures usually dwell hundreds of feet beneath the surface. So, what were they doing so close to land?

Recently, the island of Mindanao in the Philippines was decimated by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. Oddly, many bodies of oarfish, which usually inhabit the deepest parts of the ocean, were found just before and immediately after the quake struck. These same elusive fish were also discovered just before the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, Chile and Haiti. Was their sudden presence an accurate predictor of natural disasters?

Although not much is known about oarfish due to their infrequent sightings, some scientists believe they surface due to strong currents which could, in fact, be caused by the planet’s tremors. It might just be a coincidence that these oarfish all appeared around the times that catastrophe struck, but islanders should still be wary of their presence.

Although not much is known about oarfish due to their infrequent sightings, some scientists believe they surface due to strong currents which could, in fact, be caused by the planet’s tremors. It might just be a coincidence that these oarfish all appeared around the times that catastrophe struck, but islanders should still be wary of their presence.

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JVA InterpNews Jurassic basalt

Permian Sandstone.

Geology/Theology by Ed Clifton Geologist

Devonian Shale

With sincere apologies to Michelangelo A few years back, I was asked to lead a private school group on a geology walk at Point Lobos, a State Reserve on the coast of Central California, something that I did fairly routinely. When this particular group arrived, the teacher took me aside and explained that the children had been taught that God had created everything on the earth several thousand years ago, and she hoped that I would respect that. Well, I could respect it, but it was going to make my interpretation difficult.

I asked her if there would be a problem discussing the radioactive isotopes that placed the age of one of our rocks at 80 million years. She said that I could discuss it, since the children had been taught that the Almighty had created those isotopes along with everything else.

In short, I could talk about present-day geological processes, but not about their shaping our world in the past. I fear that walk was not much of a geological success. I focused on the kelp beds, sea otters, and harbor seals, some wave erosion, and the names of the rocks. The children learned nothing of the elegant story inherent in the strata.

This was not a unique occurrence. As a guide at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I sometimes discuss the natural history of sea otters, including their evolutionary history. I describe how, as relatively recent newcomers to the ocean, sea otters are not as fully adapted to a marine existence as the harbor seals that share their space. I have been approached afterwards by guests who said they could not accept my exposition, as they did not believe in evolution.

A few years ago I took a class on the art of interpretation, in which we were asked to make a brief, individual interpretive presentation. I chose to describe geologic time and how to convey it to nonscientist. When I finished, a class member approached me and said, that although she considered it well-presented, she could not accept its premise. She firmly believed that the earth was but a few thousand years old.

So, how can a scientist (or anyone who believes in the scientific method and that all things on the earth have a natural origin) best react to a listener who adheres to a literal translation of Genesis?

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One can debate scientific theories, the validity of evidence, the coherence of interpretation, the soundness of the applied logic. Geologists commonly have such debates with others in the profession, often loudly, over a couple of beers. But, whereas I enjoy mixing it up with a colleague over his or her interpretation of the rocks, I believe I have no right to challenge anyone’s faith. Faith, I think, lies beyond proof, and I have no rational basis to put my beliefs ahead of another person’s. Time may tell whose faith is best-placed, or it may not. At heart, it is unknowable, and, accordingly, irresolvable.

Some have argued that “creation science” (and its spin off, “intelligent design”) provides a valid scientific alternative, one that is preferable to the theory of evolution and the acceptance of geologic time. At their core, however, these ideas are based on a literal interpretation of the Bible and, accordingly, a reliance on faith.

The scientific interpretation of the earth’s history is a remarkably consistent story, based on an overwhelming amount of evidence. But that interpretation lacks direct confirmability. Human documentation of our world’s history extends into the past no more than a few thousand years. What occurred prior to this documentation can only be reconstructed from the available evidence in the rocks and the earth’s landscapes. A person could postulate that the geologic history of the earth was shaped 30 thousand years ago by little green men from the planet Zorg, and although I would find this ludicrous, I could not prove him or her wrong.

So, if debate of these issues is inherently fruitless, how can we, as interpreters, best respond to persons with an alternative view of the origins of the universe and its inhabitants. I raised this question some years ago with Jim Covel, Director of Training and Interpretation at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and his advice was to find common ground with anyone who had a different view of the world, whether it be its origins or climate change.

In retrospect, I could have directed the students of the private school to the wonderfully complex world that exists near the shoreline of an ocean, and how the rocks contribute to that magnificent ecosystem. I could have told the individual who rejected my story of the origin of the sea otters that we could surely agree that they are a wonderful member of the local marine community. I could have followed with a discussion of how we humans can help to insure that sea otters continue to grace our shoreline for our future generations. I could have told the member of the interpretive class who rejected my story of the earth’s origin and history: “Well, regardless of how the earth originated, we can probably agree that it is up to us to take care of it.”

I have since applied Jim’s advice a number of times, and it has proved an effective way to engage with an individual whose view of the world differs materially from my own. At heart, we are all human beings living in the vastness of space on a tiny blue marble.

Edward Clifton Geologist eclifton@es-designs.com

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SensoryPEN® Engages Visitors Tricia Peterson, President Blueraven Creative, LLC

Now is a great time to think about creative ways to combine SensoryPEN’s interactive and accessible technology into your exhibits! Imagine . . . a self-guided interpretive trail with strategically placed tactile “targets” that play custom audio clips and speak directly to your visitors about things that are relevant to them right now—today. What is blooming this time of year? What animals and plan-life might I expect to find this time of year? What is the latest news on this animal or plant? What might a poet or author have to say about this exhibit if they were alive? What might our elders remember about this place? What if I don’t speak English?

How can I retro fit an existing exhibit with audio? The possibilities of SensoryPEN are endless.

Since 2013, Blueraven Creative has been servicing the United States and Canada with selfguided tours and interactive exhibit graphics that make it easy for visitors to actively engage with your exhibits. Simple technology is key to intriguing the attention of today’s tech savvy generation. New electronic gadget? Cool! How does it work and what will it play?

People love the simplicity and non-invasive technology of SensoryPEN. Sandy Denninger from the Elk Grove Historical Museum said, “Everyone is RAVING about the SensoryPEN! It has been such a positive addition to this exhibit. Our board members are very happy with it and visitors of all ages love it.”

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Stacy Iwanicki, Natural Resources Coordinator for the IL-DNR said, “We at Volo Bog State Natural area Incorporated Blueraven’s SensoryPEN into our bird interpretive panels. It’s flexibility and dynamic abilities bring a heightened awareness of our feathered neighbors to our visitors.” SensoryPEN’s were made available for check out at the Visitor Center. And battery life? Six to eight hours of continual use, and charges completely in less than an hour.

Please visit www.sensorypen.com to learn more and inquire about a test kit or www.blueravencreative.com or www.triciapetersondesignillustration.com to enjoy samples of our latest projects.

SensorPEN kit includes: SensoryPEN, lanyard, usb cable with charging hub. Audio Targets available in any quantity and in sizes up to 5”.

Tricia Peterson, President Blueraven Creative, LLC www.blueravencreative.com tel 847.487.1658 cell 847.226.9115

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New exhibitions and exhibit techniques to make interpretive labels accessible at many levels.

Brian G. Jones, AIGA, SEGD COO / Creative Director Crystal McKenzie, Inc.

Before launching the brand new “On Fire” pottery exhibit, The Rockwell Museum of Western Art sought to create new marketing collateral that would be both compelling & interactive while improving their art labeling system. Crystal McKenzie, Inc., a brand strategy and multi-disciplinary multi disciplinary communications design agency based in NYC, was brought on to identify the best solution for communicating, displaying, and encouraging visitor interaction with the detailed information from the 100 pieces on display.

Tablet Kiosk Museum Solution Visitors use a touchscreen tablet in an accessible enclosure custom designed by Hadley Exhibits Inc. to view the relevant labels for the item (or items) they are interested in learning more about. Should they prefer to take that information with them, a QR code feature allows them to load the information on their own phone and walk around the museum to view. This mobile use of already already-compiled and accessible information illustrates the many opportunities to transition from self self-service service to mobile to digital signage, and then to web.

With integration of information and message across mediums, CMI has created a seamless visitor experience that carries rries through each visitor contact with the Rockwell Museum’s brand and messaging. CMI’s team consisted of Creative Director Brian Jones, Graphic Designer Paul Kwak and Hadley Exhibits Inc. (hadleyexhibitsinc.com) representative Patrick Caveny.

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The Rockwell Museum Team consisted of the following members:     

James Peck, Curator of Exhibits Beth Manwaring, Director of Marketing & Communications Melissa Murray, Museum Educator Mary Mix, Senior Museum Educator Kristin Swain, Executive Director

The Rockwell Museum, with the help of Crystal McKenzie, Inc., met its goal to utilize interactive and digital technologies in its galleries to enhance the visitor experience. Active participation, engaging learning experiences, and user-friendly access to information were all achieved with the use of tablet kiosks. The tablets were locked down byKioWarekiosk softwareand configured to provide access to the content and materials created andprovided by the CMI/Rockwell Museum team.KioWare allows the tablets to function in a locked down mode that restricts the user to only the application or websites that The Rockwell Museum permits. This protects both the user and the device from misuse, ensure privacy, & results in a reliable & innovative experience.

Why Digital?

Digital solutions provide benefits such as easily updated content, and are both environmentally friendly and saves on printing costs. Users find technology engaging and interactivity to draw interest. Text size can be modified to accommodate a plethora of visual needs. While challenges exist, namely a need for internet connectivity and set up costs, the use of tablets can lower the initial output with wifi providing a portable and reliable connection source.

The feedback has been positive since the exhibit’s opening in April of this year. Kristin Swain, Executive Director of The Rockwell Museum addresses the project, “We are focused on providing information in a userfriendly way to our guests. This sleek and contemporary software application provides a platform for The Rockwell to be innovative and creative while enhancing the visitor experience."

With great projects like this CMI marketing solution for the Rockwell Museum’s On Fire! Exhibit, it is clear to see that kiosks can be an added tool for use in the wise agency’s toolbox. Utilizing mediums such as kiosks and mobile technology in conjunction with great design and implementation, Crystal McKenzie, Inc. and The Rockwell Museum illustrate that museums can benefit from innovation, providing visitors with an enhanced experience that highlights the museum’s exhibit while maintaining substance, history, and educational value.

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Read the comprehensive case study written by Alanna Flowers of Crystal McKenzie Inc., here.

The On Fire Exhibit will be on display at The Rockwell Museum until April 1, 2016. From The Rockwell Museum’s site, “More than a museum displaying exquisite pieces, The Rockwell is a unique community center where people enjoy, connect, and reflect on the essence of the American spirit, character and values through the eyes of American artists.” Information about this exhibit and others can be found at Rockwellmuseum.org.

About Crystal McKenzie, Inc. CMI (cminyc.com)) provides signage solutions to help their clients improve their bottom line and increase the value of their products and services. From strategy through implementation, CMI delivers construction project communications, community relations, master way wayfinding finding systems, signage solutions and results. Services include all phases of development including the preparation of requirements and design specifications, preparation of test plans and procedures, workflow management consulting, digital asset management managem systems, and web-based based document delivery systems.

About KioWare Founded in 1991 to provide client server software development, Analytical Design Solutions Inc. (ADSI) developed KioWare (www.kioware.com www.kioware.com), ), award winning kiosk system software for the Windows OS in 2001, and KioWare for Android software in 2012. KioWare deploys browser browser-based based applications into int a kiosk mode environment easily and inexpensively, securing the operating system, and allowing users to access only the application. Each client has the ability to customize KioWare to his or her needs, with a product line ranging from basic browser-lockdown kdown to robust server based remote monitoring.

Brian G. Jones, AIGA, SEGD COO / Creative Director Crystal McKenzie, Inc. 220 East 23rd Street, Suite 305 New York, NY 10010 212-598-4567 www.cminyc.com

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Wittgenstein at the Museum: Language Games and Heritage Interpretation

Baker Mansion.

Anthony Kalin CIG Valparaiso University 19' History and Philosophy Majors Heritage Interpreter, Barker Mansion and Civic Center Michigan City, Indiana

Working in a Gilded Age mansion, I frequently hear the term “robber baron”. Robber baron is a derogatory term used to describe unethical and unscrupulous factory owners and businessmen during the Gilded Age, the time period from the end the civil war to the turn of the nineteenth century. America became an industrialized nation in the Gilded Age; it is the era of big names in industry such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan.

With industrialization also came horror stories, such as those found in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906), of exploited immigrants working in harsh factory conditions, producing low quality, dangerous products. “Robber baron” described these big businessmen who cut corners, endangered consumers, and abused their workers, all the while to living lavish Victorian lifestyles. In fact, the term “Gilded Age” originally came from Mark Twain who used the term to describe a time of lost innocence and serious social issues masked or “gilded” with a thin layer of gold. When I explain to my tour group how John Barker, the man who built the mansion, owned a freight car factory that employed thousands of immigrants bought over from Germany, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, the term frequently comes up. After all, the museum is not even fifty miles from the nightmarish meatpacking districts of Sinclair’s novel, but I explain to my group that calling John Barker a “robber baron” is a misnomer. John Barker was not a “robber baron”, in fact his workers worked significantly less hours compared to other factory workers in the time. According to his obituary, John Barker knew all his employees “by name and not by number”. He even built the first public library, first YMCA, and a hospital, among other civic institutions, here in Michigan City Indiana. I tell the group all of this in order to alter the visitor’s previous image of the nineteenth century factory owner, the one they generalized to John Barker. I then proceed to explain the legend of the robber baron, how it was a term sensationally used by a small number writers and politicians in the Gilded Age to describe a onlyhandful of businessmen.1I explain all of this in order to give the visitor a more objective view of history, one that gets them closer to the real texture of life in the past and at my site. While conditions for many factory workers and immigrants were very poor in the time, it is not historically responsible to generalize to all cases. I attempt to forge a new definition of the robber baron that gives the visitor a more realistic, less dark, picture of the time period. I want guests to leave the museum with a more positive image of John Barker, one as a community builder and philanthropist, rather than an oppressive factory owner. This also lets visitors appreciate the culture of the time period more. When I lead groups through John’s thirty-thousand square foot home visitors can see the artifacts not as the ill gotten gains of a Gilded Age industrialist but rather as the lifestyle of a person who played a key role in forging a positive future in Michigan City. I want to give the visitor a more accurate version of the past and a full appreciation and understanding of its culture. _____________________________ 1

See John Tipple’s “The Anatomy of Prejudice: Origins of the Robber Baron Legend” The Business History Review, Vol. 33 No. 4 (Winter 1959) 510-523

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In doing so I needed to alter their opinions and definitions of the past; all to forge a fair and open approach to learning history.

What was I doing with language in this situation? The visitor had one definition of a word and I altered that definition, giving it new meaning. We tend to think of words as having static meaning. For example, how many times has someone cited a dictionary definition to you in a disagreement or conversation? While dictionaries are definitely useful in helping us write well and communicate, language simply does not work that way. Meaning appears to come out of the way the word is thought of and used; think about how my definition of “robber baron” overrode another concept of the same word. Meaning is not strictly encapsulated in a definition nor is it in the word itself, e.g. the meaning of a word can not be found in just the string of letters. The meaning of words clearly has to do with how we use them but how exactly does it come out of use?

What is going on in our interactions that gives rise to this? What role do heritage interpreters play in this process?

Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that words found meaning in what he calls “language games”. Wittgenstein used language games in his work Philosophical Investigations (1953)to illustrate how language was used in very simple situations. For example, two people are building something together, one person will need to point to certain items and name them in order for the other person to be able to work with them. In this case the words are defined by one speaker and used by another speaker. This is a language game: using novel language as tool that relies upon others’ understanding and use of that tool. The words gain meaning when other speakers begin using the words as well. Meaning is contingent upon how the group uses that word and the need for that type of word. On a large scale language gains meaning in the same way, speakers introduce new words and concepts and those words gain meaning as others begin to use them.

Wittgenstein used this to critique ostensive definitions of words, definitions than can be done by pointing to examples. When a builder points to a tool as says “hammer” that is an ostensive definition. Wittgenstein’s language games demonstrate that ostensive definitions are not sufficient to account for meaning. Just pointing at words does not give them meaning, rather the words need to be put into use to gain meaning. Meaning comes from how everyone uses words together, this is a dynamic process that can not simply be conveyed through examples. Words do not directly correspond with things in reality, rather words correspond with how we use them in our lives. Wittgenstein called the speaking of language “an activity or of a form of life”.1Language is a tool used by a community and meaning is in how the tool is used. Language ultimately reduces down to these language games between the community of speakers.

Ostensive definitions lead to unsuccessful interpretation. Recall Freeman Tilden’s first principle: “any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being said to what is being displayed or described within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile”.1An ostensive definition of an artifact would simply be pointing to the artifact and naming or describing it. This would be rather “sterile”; for interpretation to be successful the interpreter will need to recognize that they are in a language game. When an interpreter recognizes that what they are doing is part of a language game they can become cognizant of how their interpretation affects the visitor’s own language. A language game plays directly into the “form of life” and experience of the visitor. The interpreter has altered the language of the visitor and hopefully that alteration will serve the visitor’s community of speakers, i.e. the visitor will be incited use the new meaning outside of the interpretive experience. __________________________ 2

Ludwig Wittgenstein, trans. G.E.M. Anscombe,Philosophical Investigations (1953; repr. Malden MA: Blackwell, 1997) §23 3 Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage 4th ed. (University of North Carolina Press, 2007) 34

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Language games also demonstrate the emphasis on connecting intangibles to tangibles in interpretation. The intangible meanings of a word or artifact are communicated from the interpreter to the visitor. The meaning of an artifact is not contained in the artifact itself, it is in the interpreter. The interpreter injects her or his self into the community of speakers and introduces new intangible meanings to an artifact. Successful interpretation will introduce new meanings of a word that the community of speakers will then use. The interpreter is playing a language game by trying to introduce something new and enlightening to the visitor all the while trying the provoke them to understand and use the new meanings themselves. This embodies Tilden’s fourth principle: “The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction but provocation”.1 The interpreter’s newly introduced meanings prompt the community of speakers, the visitors, to use and understand the new term.

When I redefined “robber baron” for my group I was provoking them to understand the word in a less generalizable way.

I was trying to use the term in a way that reveals the artifacts to be something other than what the visitor originally had in mind. This gives the visitor a new linguistic experience that implants provocative knowledge in them.

In short, interpreters are the referees of language games. They guide the visitors’ conception of the site such that they can get the most out of the language game and the interpretive experience. The interpreter brings in new concepts that add to the experience of the visitor and the interpreter organizes the game. The organization of the language game would be following the rules of the language game, in my case that would be making sure the guest understands the objective historical facts about my site. This also guides the visitor toward more fruitful learning experiences in which they are dynamically and positivelyaltered in their own language game. Without heritage interpretation, the past would be chaotic but interpreters are able to guide the public’s perception of their heritage and the past in a fruitful manner. Framing interpretation in terms of Wittgenstein’s conception of language allows interpreters to recognize what exactly they are doing with language and they role they play in the process of meaning. While I framed this in terms of my own experience, historical interpretation, this concept can be applied anywhere. Whether it is interpreting a site, an artifact, local history, conservation, or ecology the interpreter is refereeing a language game.

Anthony Kalin CIG Seasonal Heritage Interpreter Barker Mansion and Civic Center, Michigan City Indiana anthony.kalin@valpo.edu

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Victorian Mourning Interpretation For Historic Homes

By Amanda Sedlak-Hevener mandyhevener@gmail.com InterpNEWS Regional Editor

Victorian mourning rituals permeated the 19th century. They transformed a formerly simple act of mourning the dead into something elaborate. An entire industry sprang up around mourning rituals, with manufacturers creating specific clothing, bakeries making mourning biscuits and other foods, and even artisans designing jewelry made from the hair of dead loved ones. Books on proper mourning etiquette were produced and sold both in the U.S. and in England.

The mourning process started when Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert died of what is believed to be typhoid fever in 1861. They were apparently very much in love, and had a total of nine children together during their 21 year marriage. The dual loss of her mother, in March 1861, as well as her husband in December of that same year, caused Victoria to mourn deeply. She wore black clothing for the remainder of her life (even to her children’s weddings), and people dubbed her “the widow of Windsor.” This is where Victorian mourning customs come from - Queen Victoria’s actions. These customs spread across the pond and became the “only” way to mourn the loss of a loved one in America during the time period.

After Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria only used black-bordered stationary and refused to allow her daughters and aides to wear any jewelry other than jet beaded necklaces. (For the record, jet is considered a “minor gemstone” and its chemical makeup is similar to that of coal. It’s basically made of pressurized, decayed wood that has been smoothed and made shiny and turned into beads.) She memorialized him with public statuary, including an equestrian statue in Wolverhampton, in 1866, and a seated version of him covered in gilt located in Hyde Park that was put into place in 1877. Not to mention her creation of Royal Albert Hall.

Even though Royal Albert Hall was his idea, construction of it did not begin until 1867, 6 years after his death.

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Victorian mourning etiquette dictated how the deceased would be displayed, prior to burial. The body of the deceased was placed in the parlor or front room of his or her home in a coffin, which was sitting on top of sawhorses or simple wooden chairs. In most cases, the dead was embalmed (although not always). Flowers were placed in the room in order show that the deceased was loved, but also to mask the smell. Parlors were used because they were typically the best decorated rooms in the house. Houses of this time period were built with extra wide doors to allow the coffins to horizontally pass through them. The body was never left alone in the house. No matter what, the widow/widower/children/servants/someone was always there with it. A 24 hour vigil was the most common period for wakes, but some lasted 3 to 4 days, depending on the distance mourners had to travel.

Not only were there elaborate rituals in the home, but there was a mourning period that had to adhered to as well. This varied, based on the survivors of the deceased. Mourning pertaining to women was in three stages: deep mourning, second mourning, and half mourning. Deep mourning started immediately following death until a year and a day have a passed. Second mourning started after deep mourning, and lasted for 9 to 12 months. Half mourning came next, and lasted for 6 months. However, some women, like Queen Victoria, remained in mourning for the rest of their lives. This mourning was typically observed by widows, and sometimes by widowers, who could remarry during the mourning period. A widower who remarried while in mourning could wear a typical suit and tie on his wedding day, but had to go back into mourning the next day.

Amazingly, his new wife had to go into mourning for the prior wife as well.

Mourning wasn’t just something practiced when a spouse died. Here are some mourning periods for other family members:         

For a parent: 6 months to a year For children over 10 yrs old: 6 months to a year For children under 10 yrs: 3 to 6 months Infants: 6 weeks and up For siblings: 6 to 8 months For aunts and uncles: 3 to 6 months For cousins: 6 weeks to 3 months For aunts or uncles related by marriage: 6 weeks to 3 months Grandparents: 6 months

Special clothing was the most important component of the mourning period. It was usually made of crepe – an uncomfortable black fabric known for turning a rusty color over time (where the term “widows weeds” comes from) or leaking dye all over the person wearing it. Those with more money could afford dresses made of wool, cotton, or a silk and wool blend called bombazine. Any type of cloth could typically be used, as long as it wasn’t shiny. Widowed women wore full length dresses with cape-like sleeves and high collars, styles of which went from lavish (for the wealthy) to simple (for the not-so-wealthy.) They also wore veils that covered their faces which were worn as such during the funeral/wake, and then pushed back so they could see for the rest of the mourning period.

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Mourning bonnets were also worn, in lieu of veils. Some went so far as to wear black gloves. During the mourning period, women wore very little jewelry and carried black bordered handkerchiefs, which were not fully dyed because of the instability of the color. No one wanted to get a face full of dye.

Men who lost their wives/children/loved ones wore black suits with simple white shirts, although some simply wore their everyday suit with a black armband. Scarves, stoles, and sashes (all in black, of course) were worn, as well as black shoes, gloves and hats. Some men wore regular hats with black “weepers,” which were thin strips of black crepe wrapped around like a hatband with black ribbons festooned onto them.

Children under the age of 12 in mourning wore white with black armbands during the summer months, and gray during the winter ones.

However, they also wore black bonnets, sashes, ribbon trimming, and belts. Over the age of 12, children wore mourning clothing that was the same as that worn by adults.

Mourning wasn’t just practiced by the family of the deceased. Household servants and other mourners not in the direct line from the deceased wore mourning cockades and badges with their regular clothing.

Everyone who came into contact with the deceased in his or her daily life had to go into mourning.

Special mourning jewelry was created to memorialize the deceased. This is where human hair brooches and bracelets, memory lockets, and other items came from. Black beads, such as jet, glass, clay, onyx, and vulcanite were favored, as well as cross pendants. The hair of the deceased was shaped into crosses and placed, alongside weeping willow branches, in shadowboxes. In some cases, the hair was sent by mail to a specialized artisan who then returned it in the correct woven form. Hairwork became a form of needlework, similar to needlepoint, and was popularized in women’s magazines at the time, such as Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Love me forever Victorian morning jewelry reliquary broach.

In the house that was previously occupied by the deceased, a number of things had to be done before the first mourner arrived to pay their respects. Portraits and mirrors in the home (or anything shiny, like vases, in more extreme cases) were covered in black crepe fabric. A simple black-ribboned wreath, usually made of laurel, yew or boxwood, would be placed on the door, and the front door knob would be decorated with black ribbons. If the deceased were a child, white ribbons would be used instead.

Some people draped their windows with black crepe as well.

Every family photograph in the house would be turned around to face the wall, or, if it couldn’t be turned around, it was draped with fabric like the others. Also, clocks would be stopped at the time of death and left that way until the funeral ceremony ended.

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After the house was ready, death announcements or funeral announcements would be sent out. In some cases, the announcements would be hand delivered, but they were mailed out as well. At one point during the Victorian Era, people asked the post office to produce special mourning stamps, as their regular colorful stamps were seen as too “cheery” to be used to mail out funeral announcements and death notices.

Once all of the mourners had paid their respects to the deceased, a funeral hearse would arrive to carry the coffin to the church for a religious ceremony. This ceremony could be elaborate or simple, depending on the religion and class status of the deceased and his or her family. The color of the draping on the hearse indicated whether or not the dead was an adult (black cloth) or a child (white cloth). The burial ritual at the ceremony was very similar to those practiced today, complete with a prayer and everyone gathering around the casket.

When the funeral ceremony was complete, people would go back to the home of the deceased and eat. A traditional tea or dinner was served. These mourning foods included ladyfingers, funeral pie, biscuits, and cakes.

There were also funeral cookies, wrapped in paper with the deceased’s name and dates of birth and death printed on them. The meal was as simple or extravagant as the finances of the deceased’s family. Post funeral meals were a tradition from ancient times that are still practiced today.

Sometimes the biscuits would be wrapped in white paper with black sealing wax and handed out as funeral favors to those who couldn’t make it back to the house for the post-funeral meal. While some of the food served was produced in the household of the deceased, other things were purchased. Commercial bakeries made funeral biscuits wrapped in paper that were printed with “uplifting” quotes, poems and bible verses. These can be compared to the holy cards given out today, and were kept as morbid souvenirs of the deceased. Examples of Victorian mourning poems that were printed on these wrappings: When ghastly Death, with unrelenting hand, Cuts down a father! brother! or a friend!

The still small voice should make you understand, How afraid you are -- how near your final end.

But if regardless and still warned in vain, No wonder if you sink to endless pain: Be wise before it's too late, use well each hour To make your calling and election sure.

AND Thee we adore, eternal Name, and humbly bow to thee, How feeble is our mortal frame!

What dying worms we be.

Our wasting lives grow shorter still, As days and months increase; And every beating pulse we tell, Leaves but the number less.

The year rolls round and steals away, The breath that first it gave; Whate'er we do, where'er we be, We're traveling to the grave.

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In addition, despite the religiosity of the time period, spiritualism was popular. This was a way of communicating with the dead in the afterlife. Séances were held to communicate with deceased loved ones. This is where the idea of the classic séance comes in – a spiritualist/psychic sitting at a round table holding the hands of the loved ones who want to communicate with the deceased in the “other world.” And yes, knocking, thumping noises, eerie noises, tables falling over or tilting, etc were all an expected part of the séance. Although it could never be proven whether or not the psychic/medium ever contacted the dead, they certainly put on a show while trying to. One of the most famous practitioners of this newfound “spiritualism” was Mary Todd Lincoln, who held séances in the White House while her husband was president. After his death, her beliefs in this grew even stronger.

Photography was in existence, but many could not afford it, so only pictures taken of their loved ones happened after that particular loved one died. This led to death photography, where the dead would either be photographed alone, in some cases, laying on a bed, in a coffin, or propped up sitting or standing with the help of an elaborate set of stands.

(Note: this practice is highly questioned today, and some scholars believe that photographs of the dead were never taken.

However, their dissent hasn’t been proven either.) Makeup and prosthetic eyes would sometimes be applied to make the deceased look better, but sometimes they just left the him or her looking, well, dead. In some cases, the living posed alongside their dead loved one. This usually happened with children. Mourners would also have their photos taken holding pictures or a book of pictures of the deceased, as this would illustrate and memorialize the depth of their sorrow.

In some cases, the photos of the dead would be taken in their homes, but in others, they would be transported (presumably by hearse) to a photography studio.

There was also spirit photography, which supposedly captured images of the dead was popular as well.

Sometimes the images of the dead were superimposed behind a depiction of the living, using a kind of 19th century photoshop. In others, photos of the interior of the house were taken with ghostly images in them. Both were proof of the afterlife, and that the deceased was still around.

In all, Victorian mourning is a series of interesting and complex rituals that truly hearken back to another time period.

How To Set Up A Historic Home For A Victorian Mourning Ritual Mirrors and portraits in the house must be covered with black cloth, preferably crepe.

In some cases, everything shiny in the house (vases, etc) was draped with black cloth as well.

All clocks must be stopped at the time the deceased passed into the next realm.

A black ribboned wreath is placed on the doors to the parlor. Other door knobs and hand rails are bedecked with black ribbons. If the deceased is a child, then white ribbons are appropriate.

Someone must sit alongside the deceased until the funeral procession begins.

White flowers were placed alongside the coffin, which usually sat on sawhorses or ladder-backed chairs.

Mourning a spouse traditionally had three periods: deep mourning (the first year), second mourning (the next 9 to 12 months after that), and half mourning (6 months after second mourning ended.)

Wakes traditionally took place in the home, although the body was embalmed at a funeral home.

The dead was carried out of the house feet first. This prevented him from looking back at the house and trying to get another family member to follow him in death.

This was more than a down-home simple way of mourning. It was very regimented and stoic and proper.

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New Book for Heritage Management and Interpretive Planning

The Future Has Other Plans: Planning Holistically to Conserve Natural and Cultural Heritage by Jon Kohl and Steve McCool The Challenge of Unimplemented Heritage Management (Interpretive) Plans

The cover image shows the Mixed World Heritage City of Ohrid, Macedonia which illustrates both the integration of natural and cultural heritage as well as our intention to address the entire world, not just America or famous sites.

Have you ever been concerned with management plans of any kind (including interpretation) that end up on the shelf unimplemented? Has the notion occurred to you that the reason may lie deeper than just lack of resources or political obstacles? Have you ever asked how to better involve community stakeholders without losing control of the planning process? Would you like to find answers to these questions?

If you answer “yes”, then you might be ready for a new era in holistic planning. I say this as someone who started planning work in 1998, firmly convinced of the conventional planning approach. Back then I worked for RARE Center for Tropical Conservation in Honduras with the Ecotourism and Community Development Program. Our partner Pico Bonito National Park requested us to identify a consultant or methodology to help them create a public use plan. So, we consulted colleagues, read literature, and surveyed the young Internet.

Instead of identifying a methodology or consultant, we found a Latin American landscape full of unimplemented management plans of all kinds. Given our background in grassroots ecotourism development, we offered Pico Bonito to create an approach at least as good as what was out there. When I asked my boss if we could take on the project, he said, “Fine, but I don’t want any more plans on shelves. Figure out why plans don’t get implemented.” From 1998, I have pursued the co-mission of developing a new heritage planning approach and identifying deep causes of non-implementation.

That research mandate led me to work not just with Pico Bonito but with the UNESCO World Heritage Center on a project to demonstrate how sustainable tourism could conserve biodiversity in World Heritage Sites.

OurPico Bonito project became the Public Use Planning Program that worked with four World Heritage Sites: Tikal National Park (Guatemala), Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve (Honduras), Komodo and Ujung Kulon National Parks (Indonesia). When the project ended in 2003, I took the PUP Program to the UNESCO World Heritage Center. We continued to develop the methodological manual and tested it in a variety of World Heritage scenarios: Macedonia, Montenegro, Vietnam, Belize, Portugal, and Kenya.

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Competition between the PLUS and DICE Worldviews In 2006, I invited the eminent wildlands management professor Dr. Stephen McCool to co-write a book on our emerging ideas about holistic planning. Over the years, we eventually came to understand that the global protected area community (both for nature and culture) obeyed the same paradigm based on a belief that the world was what we called PLUS: Predictable, Linear, Understandable, and Stable.

Pico Bonito’s Public Use Plan. Unlike conventional planning processes where consultants write the plan, we did not write the park’s plan, only guided their work.

Pico Bonito’s board of directors wrote the entire plan. Even the cover art was donated by a local artist. The plan contained a full set of interpretive messages.

Our book then draws on contributions from many fields and disciplines that respond to challenges of the Modernist Technical Rational world. We integrate such ideas as Organizational Learning, Adaptive Co-Management, Systems Thinking, Dispute Resolution, Grassroots Development, Integral Theory, Participatory Interpretation, and Spiritual Evolution into “Holistic Planning.”We define HP specifically for heritage area managers and planners, including heritage interpreters.

PLUS assumptions meant that the world behaved in a nice, orderly fashion, changed slowly, and yielded its secrets to scientific investigators. As a result, planners believed they could devise technical plans using the best information and tools money could buy. They further believed that for plans to work in a PLUS World, they had to be shielded from people unqualified to participate in technical conversations.

Consequently, most stakeholders can contribute information and opinions, but do not share power in conceptualizing or planning the planning process. They do not make decisions about technical contents. So, in the end they feel neither ownership nor responsibility to implement someone else’s plans.

Furthermore, plans quickly fall outdated because the world is not PLUS, rather DICE: Dynamic, Impossible to Completely Understand, Complex, and Ever-changing or Evolving. In this world, uncertainty and rapid change characterize our daily experience. A highly technical plan written in stone has little or no chance of survival in such a world.

We investigate how worldviews evolve from a Modernist technorationalist mindset to a Postmodernist (and beyond) integration required to implement plans in an unpredictable DICE World.

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About the Book and Its Audiences Though heavily cited for academics, we use an engaging journalistic style to write it. We also avoided American biases by including examples and perspectives from all over the world. Because the problem is global, responses must be so too, and we intend the book to be accessible to English readers everywhere.

The book also shares sidebars called Inside-the-Box (for practices and perspectives from the PLUS World), Outside-the-Box (practices and perspectives from the DICE World), and Toolboxes of useful tools that make the book practical as well as deeply thoughtful. We think those who would most benefit from the book include heritage managers, planners, academics, and students. For interpretive planners, in particular, the book lays out a new approach to involvecommunities in interpretive planning. To learn more one can see for free the first 100 pages at Google Play and also a short article on holistic interpretive planning in the March 2017 issue of Legacy. Last, we provide additional information at www.pupconsortium.net/the-future-has-other-plans as well as links to Amazon.com for purchase in physical and e-book formats.

This book was published by Fulcrum in the Applied Communication Series edited by Dr. Sam Ham.

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The Evolution of Resilient Floor Art & Design Ron Blair Senior Project Manager Creative Edge

Oshkosh Public Museum - floor map for interpretation interpretation.

It 's probably fair to say that floors are the unheralded workhorses of our built environment. We tread not-sonot lightly upon our ground, stair, walkways, and hallways and, between the hurry and scurry of modern life and our obsession with handheld devices, rarely give floors a second thought beyond their basic utility. But a floor that's t's fabricated by Creative Edge Master Shop is likely to stop you in your tracks.

Creative Edge is famous for its amazing waterjet fabricated floors in marble and granite. Waterjet technology is equally effective at making designs, specialties, logos, and and art in “soft” or resilient floor coverings, including most kinds of sheet and tile products – lineoleum, marmoleum, VCT, vinyl, rubber – including carpet!

Technology Meets Art “There used to be two or three expert cutters who did all of the logos logos and custom cutting of carpet and resilient flooring in the country by hand” says Jim Belilove, co co-founder founder and president of Creative Edge.

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“During the last 20 years, they have retired and waterjet technology has opened up a world of design possibilities in vinyl, rubber, linoleum and other resilients, bringing floor design to an entirely new level.”

Waterjet employs extreme pressures of water forcing it through a tiny orifice of sapphire, ruby or diamond as a micro-cutting tool. The emerging stream, traveling at two times the speed of sound, cuts through the toughest flooring materials.

“Fabrication with water-only cutting systems allows for tight tolerances in the fabrication process with no discoloration along the edges caused by heat or contamination in other types of cutting methods,” says Belilove. “In addition, the cut edges are sharp with little to no bevel from top to bottom of the cut.”

For sheet vinyl, linoleum and carpet materials—which cannot be saturated with water—Creative Edge uses one of the newest cutting systems available, ultrasonic fabrication, which features the edge quality of a knife and CNC control to fabricate custom designs with the same tight fit and precision as waterjet.

As waterjet technology developed in the 1990s, so did the options in flooring materials. “Today, with thousands of colors and dozens of resilient flooring materials available—from VCT to luxury vinyl to rubber to cork—there is literally nothing to limit a designer’s vision,” says Belilove.

Healing Art for Children’s Hospitals As a family navigates the hallways of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), the parents keep up a cheerful patter to preoccupy their 6-year-old son, who is scheduled for surgery. The elevator doors open, and they step onto a vibrant floor mural swimming with colorful images of starfish and sea grass. Suddenly, the hospital doesn’t seem so scary anymore, and the child breaks into a smile.

Increasingly, architects are incorporating art as a foundational design element rather than adding it on after construction. Nowhere is this as important as children’s hospitals, where playful artwork and design have been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, mitigate the need for pain medication and contribute to the healing process.

“Evidence shows that spaces that are colorful, fun and uplifting help children heal faster,” says James O’Neil, the principal at the interior design firm Inventure Design, which specializes in the design of children’s hospitals and cancer centers.

“Art has been able to travel down the wall and become part of the floor,” says O’Neil. “That’s the true Holy Grail for interior design—art that serves many purposes. Floor art at the elevator landing serves the purpose of wayfinding and makes kids feel better. And it’s part of the building, so it’s not going to move, it’s not going to fall off, it’s not going to fade.”

“We had floor art in the past, but it was limited to squares and angles, what could be cut by hand,” says O’Neil.

“Waterjet technology makes curves and intricate, detailed designs possible. All of sudden these design ideas that we’ve had all along—that are proven to make a difference to patients—are possible. This new technology has opened up the floor as a canvas for all that.“

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Cost-Effective Art The experience at CHOC points to a major advantage of architectural waterjet: it’s cost effective. “I can come up with the most beautiful design in the world, but at the end of the day, if no one can afford it—it’s not going to heal one child,” says O’Neil. “I can’t say enough about the fact that waterjet technology is now so cost-effective. Technology has caught up and allowed us to do a number of things we would have loved to do before but were not available from a cost standpoint.” With the floor the biggest unused design element in most buildings, with more unadorned footage than any other surface, floor designs are no longer limited to small logos or centerpieces, but can extend throughout the building.

Floors For Learning We've seen that floors can be soothing and cost-effective. How about floors as an educational tool? Brad Larson, Director of the Oshkosh Public Museum and his staff noticed that younger children’s attention was consistently captured by the hand-painted animal tracks that were distributed over different areas of their museum floors. Brad states, “Our experience at the museum illustrates that young children are very aware and focused on the floor, far more than older children and certainly more than adults. By using the floor as a surface, we were able to engage the curiousity of our younger visitiors. We plan to continue using the floor surface in creative ways.” When it came time to remodel and upgrade their floors, their entire staff was convinced that utilizing their floors as a learning tool was the way to go. Consequently, working with Split Rock Studios for design and Creative Edge for fabrication, the Oshkosh team came up with the concept of using a low-decibel, highly durable marmoleum substrate in three distinct colors to create an 1,100 SF floor depicting a representative waterway in their region. The flooring, of course, has a practical purpose of allowing visitors to the museum to get from point A to point B but now it also invites those who walk on the floor to invoke some thought in that process.

Whatever the application - be it art, healing, or education – resilient materials open a new dimensionality for the use of flooring. Creative Edge, with their technology and decades of expertise, has turned this new medium into a cost-effective tool for utilizing the often-unnoticed space beneath our feet.

Ron Blair Senior Project Manager 601 S. 23rd Street Fairfield, IA 52556 Phone: 641-472-8145 Fax: 641-472-2848 cec-waterjet.com

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5 Strategies For Responding To Questions (especially when you don’t know the answer) Ethan Rotman

The way you handle questions has a large impact on your credibility. You may be asked questions for which you don’t know the answer, you may misunderstand the question, or you may benefit from a small bit of time to consider the correct best answer. Here are four strategies to help increase your creditably when answering questions.

1. Prepare Write a list of questions you may be asked, write the answers, and practice delivering these answers before you are in front of your audience 2. Remember you are an expert You know your topic, your job, and your project 3. Buy time (and think) Use these statements sparingly to help gain focus  “That is a great question”  “I am glad you asked”  “Make sure I understand what you are asking”  “I am not sure I understand what you are asking, can you give me a bit more background?

4. Use Your audience  Invite the audience to respond with their knowledge or opinions  Turn the question into a conversation 5. Give an answer If you don’t know the answer or don’t know the entire answer, you still need to respond in confident manner. Use these statements:  “Here is what I know about that….”  “Here is what I don’t know…”  “This is what I will do to find out…”

Keep your answers short and concise, answer only what was asked, and resist the temptation to tell ALL you know about the question. When you are finished, ask to see if you have given the info being sought. The best way to maintain your credibility as an expert is to prepare. Be ready for all questions, even the ones you do not know how to answer.

Ethan Rotman Performance Speaking Coach

(415) 342-7106

ethan@ispeakeasy.net,

© 2017 – All Rights Reserved. iSpeakEASY provides coaching and training workshops. Call or email for information.

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InterpNEWS Marketplace

Kaser Design

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

Advertisers in this issue: Creative Edge MasterShop Heritage Interpretation International Group Guide (Formally Studio Graphique) Kaser Design Museum Study Heritage Interpretation Training Center John Veverka & Associates Plas tan y Bwlch (Snowdonia National Park Training Center) Wales, UK

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InterpNEWS reaches more interpreters, government agencies, organizations, universities and related heritage sites than anyone, over 300K in 60 countries. A great publication to write for and advertise with, eh? http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html jvainterp@aol.com

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Working to help forge the future of Heritage Interpretation:

* John Veverka & Associates. * InterpNEWS - the International Heritage Interpretation e-Magazine. (Reaching 300,000 in 60 countries) * The Center for Interpretive Planning Excellence and Advancement. * Interpretive Evaluation, Visitor Studies and Site Assessment Center. * The Heritage Interpretation Training Center (teaching 37 college level courses in heritage interpretation). www.herigateinterp.com

www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews.html

www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_evaluati on_visitor_studies_and_site_.html www.heritageinterp.com/the_center_for_interpretive_planning_advance ment_.html

www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_ center_course_catalogue_.html

Want to be part of our future? Let's chat. jvainterp@aol.com

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Introducing

Branding, Marketing & Wayfinding for Places With People - Traffic.

For more information on how we can help your place come alive, visit our website at: guidestudio.com

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Do you need an Interpretive Plan for your historic site, park, zoo, botanical garden or heritage site or attraction?

If you do, put our 40 years of interpretive planning and training experience to work for you. We can help you with three options: 1. John Veverka can do your interpretive planning project for you (send us your RFP); 2. Act as a interpretive coach to your interpretive planning team; 3. Provide interpretive training courses for your staff in how to develop an interpretive master plan in a hands-on workshop setting or on-line.

Visit our web site for our current and recent interpretive projects and services and our credentials specifically in interpretation. We also offer our interpretive planning and training services internationally with recent projects in Lithuania, Budapest Hungary and Mexico.

Some of our current recent projects: Arab American National Museum. JVA has been contracted to provide a program for visitor research studies and exhibition evaluation needs assessment for a new museum exhibition program. Services will also include consultation on interpretive exhibit planning and design based on the survey research outcomes, and focus workshop theme and objectives development. The project will run from March - June 2017.

Barksdale Global Power Museum (Air Force Museum). JVA has the pleasure of sub-contracting to Kaser Design to provide an interpretive planning focus workshop and interpretive planning for developing new exhibits for this important military museum. You can visit this museum at: http://barksdaleglobalpowermuseum.com/.

Clemson University Interpretive Plan. ( Sep 2016) JVA began working on a unique and exciting project, developing an interpretive plan for Clemson University Campus. We completed a 3-day intensive focus workshop session to determine the main interpretive theme, objectives and storyline flow and completed the final working draft for the interpretive master plan. The project is scheduled for completion in May2017.

John Veverka & Associates and The Center for Interpretive Planning Advancement & Excellence. www.heritageinterp.com http://www.heritageinterp.com/the_center_for_interpretive_planning_adva ncement_.html jvainterp@aol.com

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Looking for Interpretive Training Courses to expand your expertise and help with new or ongoing projects? http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_center_ course_catalogue_.html jvainterp@aol.com The Heritage Interpretation Training Center offers 37 college level courses in heritage interpretation. Start the course any time and work on the course at your own pace. All courses are offered on-line via our e-Live program where you correspond with and send assignments to your interpretive coach.

We also offer our courses live to be presented at your site for your organization staff or regional interpretive training - from one-day seminars to 5-day courses. All courses award certificates of completion and CEU credits. $800.00/day of training. Ask for details.

Some of our most popular courses. Cut and paste the link to visit that courses web site page for complete course content.

Introduction to Heritage Interpretation Course. 14 Units - 2 CEU credits. $150.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/introduction_to_heritage_interpretation_course.html Planning/Designing Interpretive Panels e-LIVE Course - 10 Units awarding 1.5 CEU Credits $125.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_panels_course.html Planning Interpretive Trails e-LIVE Course - 13 Units - 2.5 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_trails_course.html Interpretive Writing e-LIVE Course - 8 Units and 2 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_writing_course.html Interpretive Master Planning - e-LIVE. 13 Units, 3 CEU Credits. $275.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_master_planning_course.html

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Online Professional Development.

MuseumStudy.com At Museum Study our mission is to help you build a better cultural institution and be a stronger member of the team that carries out the mission of your institution.

To accomplish this we provide online professional development courses on a broad range of topics important for running a cultural institution including; Administration, Exhibits & Public Programming, Facilities Management, Collections Management, and Collection Preservation & Care. Our goal is to help you develop policies, procedures and programs to increase your institutions management and operations success.

New museum courses for 2017.

For more information on these courses click the links below or visit our schedule page to see what other courses are coming in the months ahead. http://www.museumstudy.com/courses/course-schedule/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June, 2017 - Social Relevance: Environmental ď€ Sustainability in Museums.

- Emergency preparedness July 3, 2017 - Introduction to Heritage Interpretation.

- Rights & Reproductions: Guidelines and Best Practices.

July 10, 2017 -Salvage & Recovery of Cultural Heritage Collections.

- D & Care of Photographs on Paper August 7, 2017

- Laws and Collections Management.

- Keeping Historic Houses & Museums Clean.

September 4, 2017

-Introduction to Natural History Collections.

-Planning and presenting Live Interpretive Programs.

For more information on our courses visit the course schedule on MuseumStudy.com.

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Interpretive Master Planning Course 10th – 13th October 2017 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 2017 Interpretive Master Planning Course at Plas tan y Bwlch. John will provide training/coaching in developing new state-of-the art interpretive planning documents and strategies for parks, gardens, zoos, historic homes, heritage sites, museums and facilities to include: * Experience based interpretive planning. * Experience inventories and visitor psychology. * Planning for "markets of one" and "outcome based interpretation". * Financial aspects of interpretive planning - what things cost and budget phasing. * The Model of Interpretive Planning * Interpretive plan content - planning forms. * 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. * Cost/contact and cost effectiveness - making interpretation successful.

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JVA InterpNews 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. One-on-one consultation on your project will be provided by Prof. Veverka. Leave with a good draft of your interpretive plan with postcourse 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.

Course Instructor: Prof. John Veverka. John is a certified interpretive planner and 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 e-book copies will be available to participants as part of the course fee as well as an interpretive planning resource CD. John is the author of: - Interpretive Master Planning - Strategies for the New Millennium - Interpretive Master Planning - Philosophy, Theory and Practice.

-The Interpretive Trainers Handbook -Advanced Interpretive Planning -The Interpretive Trails Book - Publisher of InterpNEWS - the international heritage interpretation e-magazine. http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews.html You are invited to visit John's web site: www.heritageinterp.com.

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, Andrew R J Oughton at: Andrew.Oughton@eryri-npa.gov.uk (Tel.: 01766 772600). For course content details please feel free to contact John Veverka at: jvainterp@aol.com