Interpreting Heritage: A Guide to Planning and Practice

✍ Scribed by Steve Slack

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 243
• Series: Routledge Guides to Practice in Museums, Galleries and Heritage
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Interpreting Heritage is a practical book about the planning and delivery of interpretation that will give anyone working in the heritage sector the confidence and tools they need to undertake interpretation.

Steve Slack suggests a broad formula for how interpretation can be planned and executed and describes some of the most popular – and potentially challenging, or provocative – forms of interpretation. Slack also provides practical guidance about how to deliver different forms of interpretation, while avoiding potential pitfalls. Exploring some of the ethical questions that arise when presenting information to the public and offering a grounding in some of the theory that underpins interpretive work, the book will be suitable for those who are completely new to interpretation. Those who already have some experience will benefit from tools, advice and ideas to help build on their existing practice.

Drawing upon the author’s professional experiences of working within, and for, the heritage sector, Interpreting Heritage provides advice and suggestions that will be essential for practitioners working in museums, art galleries, libraries, archives, outdoor sites, science centres, castles, stately homes and other heritage venues around the world. It will also be of interest to students of museum and heritage studies who want to know more about how heritage interpretation works in practice.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Figures and table
Acknowledgements
Introduction
What can you expect from Interpreting Heritage: A Guide to Planning and Practice?
A questions-based interpretation planning framework
So who are these interpreters? Are you one?
Understanding our own interpretive heritage
Keep visiting and keep reading
Keep asking questions
Keep enjoying yourself
1 What is interpretation?
Interpretation planning
A brief history of modern interpretation
Founding fathers?
The late 20th century
The year 2000
Interpretation today
And next?
So who does this interpreting?
Defining interpretation today
Ethical interpreters
Ignoring the rule book
Further reading
2 What is heritage?
So, what heritage are you interpreting?
From assets to interpretation
Further reading
3 Interpretation planning
Interpretation planning models
Creating an interpretation planning model that’s right for you
A questions-based framework for interpretation planning
We all have our own bias
Stages of an interpretation plan
Top down or bottom up?
Is size important?
The collaborative planning process
Forming your interpretation working party
Facilitating your working party
Social interaction
Space
Sustenance
Stationery
We could have done with longer
Making some decisions
Writing up your plan
Access at the start
Further reading
4 Purposes of interpretation
Internal reasons for interpreting heritage
External reasons for interpreting heritage
Visitor-focused reasons for interpreting heritage
Values-based reasons for interpreting heritage
Political reasons for interpreting heritage
Being radical
Finding your interpretive agenda
Documents you may want to have on hand when discussing interpretive purpose
Further reading
5 Audiences
Who comes through the door?
Being the voice of the audience
Studying visitors
Who is your audience?
Segmenting your audiences
Describing your audience
Getting to know your audience
Audience research strategy
How will we find this out?
Testing formats
Getting research done
Keeping up to date with our audiences
An audience research case study
From audience research to interpretation plan
Inclusive interpretation
Participatory interpretation
A whole audience
Documents you may want to have on hand when discussing audiences
Further reading
6 Interpretive outcomes
Visitor outcomes
Getting the message across
Models for developing your message
Models for developing your visitor outcomes
Responsible messaging, responsible outcomes
Documents you may want to have on hand when discussing interpretive outcomes
Further reading
7 Selecting interpretive devices
The interpretive funnel
The funnel in practice
Making an informed decision
Our favoured interpretive devices
Interpretive trends
Layers of interpretation
Visitor agency
Route planning
Visitor orientation
Visitor experience overview
Taking care of visitors
A word on family interpretation
Documents you may want to have on hand when discussing selecting interpretive devices
8 The interpretive catalogue
Interpretive old favourites – labels and panels
Interpretive graphics
Printed interpretation
Object-centred interpretation
Human interpretation
Digital interpretation
Interpretive interventions
Devices that help make our interpretation accessible to all
Sensory and interactive interpretation
Changing interpretation
A word on interpretive costings
Being brave and being realistic
Further reading
9 Delivering interpretive projects
Keeping to the plan
Staffing and managing your project
Working with contractors
Working with designers
Writing interpretive text – ignoring the ‘rules’
The text writing process
Design layouts
Approaching the installation period
Installation
Documents you may want to have on hand when planning for the delivery of interpretation
Further reading
10 Managing and maintaining interpretation
Interpretation maintenance
Remedial evaluation
Snagging
Revisiting interpretation
Further reading
11 Evaluating interpretation
Why bother evaluating interpretation?
Summative evaluation brief
Research without audiences
Evaluation tools
Who’s going to do this evaluation?
Ethics of evaluation
What do summative evaluation results look like?
Iterative testing
Further reading
Bibliography
Further online resources and contacts
Index