Interpretive Media Course - Wales

Hi folks. The interpretive media couse was a lot of fun and the the course participants a real treat to work with. Some of the topics included planning and designing an interpretive panel, as well as new technologies, web site development and more. Here are a few photos of the class (working on their panel project) - sample of a draft panel design - and a group photo at the National Slate Mine Museum of Wales, where we went to do a critique of their interpretive media for the museum manager.

Off to Wales.

Well, I had a nice few weeks working here at my home office catching up on things, but my itchy feet are taking me to the UK on Monday. I will be spending most of my time in Wales teaching a course on interpretive media at the Snowdonia National Park Training Center (Plas tan y Bwlch)for three days, then off to Cardiff to do a day of site critique/advisory services for the National Roman Legion Museum, and finally a day workshop for museum staff in Cardiff. More details are posted at my web site: http://www.heritageinterp.com. Here is a photo of the training center grounds in Wales - a great site and location when it is not raining. More photos from there later on.

New Project - American Chestnut Land Trust

JVA was just awarded the contract to develop the Interpretive Plan for The American Chestnut Land Trust (ACLT). The trust protects over 3,000 acres of wetlands, forest and farmland in rapidly developing Calvert County, Maryland. The crown jewel of the land trust is Parkers Creek — the Calvert Cliffs and sandy shoreline in the vicinity of the mouth of Parkers Creek look much the same today as they did 400 years ago when Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay. You can visit their web site at: http://acltweb.org/about/index.cfm

On to Nova Scotia

This week will be spent working with FORM Media, as a sub-contractor, providing interpretive planning consultation services to develop and deliver Mi'kmaq Interpretive Programming in Nova Scotia Provincial Parks. I really enjoy working in Nova Scotia, and this project working with First Nations is especially interesting. Likewise, FORM Media is a very well respected Canadian interpretation planning firm and I look forward to working with them.

Beauty and the Beast at Bonnet Carre

Some of the pictures from Bonnet Carre Spillway this week. The beauty is some of the great natural areas and some awsome wildflowers. The Beast is the sand and clay mining going on at other parts of the spillway drainage basin. All stories to be told via our auto tour and cell phone interpretation.

Back at Bonnet Carre Spillway.

Back in New Orleans and working on the interpretive media for the Corps of Engineers Bonnet Carre Spillway project. This week Matt Kaser, our outstanding designer, will be reveiwing the interpretive panel designs for the project. We will also be working on the self-guiding auto tour, doing digital interviews with staff for the audio auto tour and for cell phone interpretation about sites in and around the Bonnet Carre project. The weather here is great, with the afternoon temps. being around 80 degrees.

Baekdudaegan Arboretum Symposium - Korea

Hi,
Back from Korea and participation in the International Symposium on the development of the Arboretum project. We finished the first phast of the interprtive master plan, which we presented. That included the main interpretive theme, policies, and storyline as well as exterior exhibits and demonstrations planning. We hope to begin phase II (planning and writing of the media we planned including self-guiding walking tours both printed and audio, visitor center exhibits, and more) in the next few months. This week is a week in the office writing label copy for our New Orleans project - Bonnet Carrie Spillway - and a few other odds and ends. A pic from the seminar. Till later... jv.