RSS
 

Archive for the ‘From the Editor’ Category

The NAI Community

01 Jan

Legacy-21-1The front cover of Legacy includes the slogan, “The magazine of the National Association for Interpretation.” It’s sometimes too easy for me, sitting at my desk at our national headquarters in Colorado, to lose myself in the everyday details of deadlines, page layout, and editorial responsibilities. Several times a year, though, when I attend NAI workshops or conferences, I am reminded that this magazine is a reflection of a larger community.

Sure, as a member of NAI’s staff, I spend most of my time at these events performing the mundane tasks associated with running a workshop or conference—hauling boxes, pushing carts, setting up audiovisual equipment, fielding questions, etc. But I get a charge out of attending these events because my days are punctuated by short conversations with NAI members. Sometimes someone I have never met has an idea for a Legacy article and wants to run it by me. Sometimes someone I have known for years wants to talk about what the Phillies should do with the back end of their bullpen. Regardless of the topic, these conversations remind me that the magazine I help put together represents the collective knowledge and experiences of this diverse NAI community.

At the most recent such event, the 2009 NAI National Workshop in Hartford, Connecticut, I had the privelege of announcing the recipients of NAI’s 2008 magazine awards, as determined by volunteer judges from within the NAI community:

  • Outstanding Cover Photo: Kelly Farrell, “How and Why a Regular Person Like Me Attended NAI’s First International Conference,” The Interpreter, Jan./Feb. 2008
  • Outstanding Feature, Legacy: John C.F. Luzader, “What Conflicts We Orators Have,” May/June 2008
  • Outstanding Feature, The Interpreter: Doug Capra, “Seven More Words Interpreters Should Know,” Sep./Oct. 2008
  • Outstanding Column, The Interpreter: Kirk Carter Mona, “A Lifetime of Memories,” Nov./Dec. 2008

This issue of Legacy addresses community-based interpretation. As I have come to expect with each issue, members of NAI’s community found thought-provoking and diverse ways to address the topic. I hope you will consider checking out upcoming themes (online at www.interpnet.com, under “Publications”) and contributing your own knowledge and experiences to this community.

 
No Comments

Posted in Community-Based Interpretation, From the Editor

 

Roller Coasters vs. Brass Doorknockers

01 Nov

legacy-NovDec09by Paul Caputo

As a child, I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, with my family. Prior to the trip, I spent months anticipating a day at an amusement park called Busch Gardens. I was consumed with and petrified by a roller coaster called the Loch Ness Monster, which featured multiple loops and a 114-foot drop. I studied photos of the roller coaster in a Busch Gardens brochure and wondered if I would have the courage to get into one of those metal, yellow cars when the time came to do so. (I would, and it was great.)

My 10-year-old brain had blocked out the fact that Busch Gardens would only be one part of a vacation that included several other sites. So you can imagine my surprise when, on the first day of the trip, I found myself not on the greatest roller coaster ever, but watching a living history interpreter in period costume demonstrate how Colonial-era Americans made brass doorknockers.

Once I stopped comparing the relative adrenaline rushes associated with the Loch Ness Monster and brass doorknockers, I appreciated the immersive historical experience of Colonial Williamsburg. I may not have understood all of the history I was seeing, but I left (in spite of myself) with an appreciation of how different my life was compared to what it might have been 200 years earlier. I learned something about the origins of my country and the people who made it what it was.

What I did not appreciate at the time was all of the discussions that go on behind closed doors at sites like Colonial Williamsburg. I did not think about how easy it would have been for poorly researched or inexpertly presented first-person interpretation to warp a visitor’s sense of what life was like in the Colonial era. It never occurred to me that management might have chosen to use interpreters in contemporary dress to educate visitors in the third person. Once I bought into the experience, I never questioned that what I was seeing was anything but purely authentic or that there was any other way to present it.

At a site like Colonial Williamsburg, I am confident that the living history presentations were then and continue to be of the highest quality. However, whether it is because of poor planning or a lack of resources, that may not be the case at every site. This issue of Legacy discusses some of the many factors that go into creating and providing effective, genuine historical experiences, and explores the whys and hows of different methods of doing so.

 
No Comments

Posted in From the Editor

 

Get Out Now

01 Sep

Legacy-SeptOct09by Paul Caputo

Seven years before Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder made its resounding impact on the field of interpretation (as well as much of the rest of society), another book encouraged all of us to get outside. In fact, John Stilgoe’s book, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places, begins with the directive, “Get out now.” Stilgoe continues:

…Not just outside, but beyond the trap of the programmed electronic age so gently closing around so many people at the end of our century. Go outside, move deliberately, then relax, slow down, look around. Do not jog. Do not run. Forget about blood pressure and arthritis, cardiovascular rejuvenation and weight reduction. Instead pay attention to everything that abuts the rural road, the city street, the suburban boulevard. Walk. Stroll. Saunter. Ride a bike, and coast along a lot. Explore.

To be sure, Outside Lies Magic and Last Child in the Woods are different books, written with different purposes in mind. John Stilgoe focuses not only on the natural world, but overlooked details of the man-made environment. (There’s an entire chapter on interstate highways.) Richard Louv addresses the importance specifically of getting children into nature—for their own well-being and to nurture future stewards of the environment. Both books, though, speak to the importance and benefits of unstructured exploration of the environment.

When I get home from work in the evening, I am always thrilled to find my neighborhood teeming with kids (two of them my own) riding bikes, playing baseball, and, in the case of my two-year-old daughter, picking up “roly-polies” to watch them curl up in a ball. Parents watch, chat with one another, and play with the kids. My suburban neighborhood is not a remote wilderness by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel that John Stilgoe and Richard Louv would both approve.

This issue of Legacy focuses on interpretation’s response to the challenge to parents and educators highlighted in Last Child in the Woods—to create opportunities for children to get outdoors. A host of feature articles and commentaries address the roles and responsibilities of interpretive sites, interpreters, and parents in cultivating a love of the outdoors.

Paul Caputo is the art and publications director for the National Association for Interpretation.

 
No Comments

Posted in From the Editor

 

In These Tough Economic Times…

01 Jul

by Paul Caputo

Legacy-JulyAug09-CoverIn these tough economic times, it seems that everything you read begins with the phrase, “In these tough economic times.” Understandably, we have become consumed by the financial crisis that has dominated headlines, wreaked havoc on the job market, and devastated the global economy. It seems that everything we do is defined in terms of “surviving” the economic downturn—a term that can be taken literally, as interpretive organizations, sites, and programs, not to mention the livelihoods of those who oversee them, are endangered.

Of course, adjusting to the crisis means finding ways to deal with it. One of the things that strikes me whenever I am around NAI members is a sense of community, an innate camaraderie even between folks who have never met each other. (I was warned when I first started with NAI in 2002 that this was “a very huggy group.”) Whether it’s a regional training event, the NAI National Workshop, or the NAI International Conference, there is a kinship among members of this association that I have not felt in other professional groups. In a post on NAI’s blog (www.interpnet.com/naiblog), Amy Lethbridge wrote this about the recent NAI International Conference in Greece:

While I learned a great deal from every session, I must admit that, for me, the magic was in the individuals. Strip away the PowerPoint, the agency and title, and the citations, and what you had was an amazing group of passionate warriors for the earth and our heritage.

So in these tough economic times, I am struck once again by the way interpreters band together and lean on one another. This professional network becomes more than just a vehicle for sharing ideas and information. I witness NAI members at events—or even on e-mail and Facebook—sharing job leads, offering support, or simply lending a compassionate ear. I can honestly say that I have never experienced anything like that as a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) or the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

This magazine offers another, more traditional venue for NAI members to offer support to one another. Within these pages you will find some unique and interesting thoughts about how to save money or generate funds for your interpretive program or site. And as always, you have the chance to participate in the discussion, to offer your own helping hand by commenting on these articles online at www.onlinelegacy.org.

Paul Caputo is the art and publications director for the National Association for Interpretation.

 
No Comments

Posted in From the Editor, Interpretive Paths During a Bad Economy

 

Legacy: What’s Different

01 May

by Paul Caputo

legacy-mayjune2009This issue marks the completion of a transition that Legacy started at the beginning of the year. Some differences you will see immediately (the typeface used on the magazine’s flag and headlines is different) while others you will discover over time as you read the magazine. However, the magazine continues to contain feature articles that relate to a specific theme (this time, it’s interpretation’s role in for-profit tourism) as well as articles of benefit to the professional interpreter that do not necessarily relate to that theme.

One significant difference with this issue is that thematic feature articles, which were until recently written by freelance journalists and other professional writers, are now written by your peers—interpretive professionals writing about interpretation. Themes through late 2010 are posted online, so I encourage all of our readers to visit Legacy’s page on NAI’s website, www.interpnet.com. (Click on “Publications,” then “Legacy Magazine.”) If you have a story that you’d like to share as it relates to an upcoming theme, please e-mail me your idea.

Columns that do not relate to the theme are listed under “Departments” on the contents page and include such topics as frontline interpretation, inspiration, media, planning and design, technology, and training, among others. Readers will recognize some familiar faces in this and future issues. The regular columnists you’ve come to know over the years, like Alan Leftridge, Kris Whipple, Kirk Mona, and Jon Hooper, to name a few, will continue to appear in the departments. And you’ll see new faces in this and future issues. Again, if you have a topic that fits one of Legacy’s departments or would like to propose a new department, please e-mail me.

It’s a different magazine now than it was a year ago, so it looks different, too. Those who are interested in this sort of thing will notice small design changes throughout the magazine and a significant change in the cover design. (Those who are really interested in this sort of thing should visit NAI’s newest website, www.InterpretationByDesign.com, for more on the changes.)

Most importantly, Legacy continues to strive to meet the needs of NAI members. The first goal of the magazine is to be a useful resource for interpreters, to advance the field of interpretation by sharing ideas and discussing important issues in the field. (You can share your own ideas and discuss issues on Legacy’s online companion, www.onlinelegacy.org. Every article you read in this issue will appear online over the course of the next two months, and you don’t need a username or password to comment.)

NAI’s strength is in its diverse and unique membership, and I hope you will consider the value of making your voice heard, either in this magazine or online.

 
3 Comments

Posted in From the Editor

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »