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We know that ideally our visitors should experience and discover heritage not just be shown or told it.  Good examples of this are few and far between but ‘The Kilkenny Way‘ shows how well it can be done. It is also one my favorite attractions from 2012. The Kilkenny Way gives visitors gives a real […]

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Happy visitors, preferably lots of them, are essential to success at almost all heritage attractions. Whether your goal is to make money or to turn hearts and minds to a conservation cause, the happiness of your visitors is a vital first step.  A basic (at least) understanding of visitor motivations is essential to that. But […]

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We hadn’t seen each other for some time, so all we wanted was a nice day out together.  Hannah, my 20 year old daughter, suggested we went to Chatsworth. I was amazed. It seems only yesterday that she was a stroppy teenager with several awards for ‘attitude’ who wouldn’t and couldn’t be dragged to a […]

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It is hard to sum up a conference as good as that, especially before it’s over –  but I love an adrenalin surge. So when I was asked to compose the parting thoughts from the 2012 AHI Conference, I gave it my best shot. Happily, my spur-of the moment words seemed to hit a note with several […]

“Hey! that’s my life you are writing about!’ – National Cold War Gallery, Cosford

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We visited three museums on Thursday as part of the AHI Conference in ‘glorious Shropshire’.  The RAF Museum at Cosford was the one I was least looking forward to.  It turned out to be the one with the best interpretation and where I had the most profound visit experience. (It is very often good to […]

AHI Conference 2012 – Some interesting questions

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So that’s the first workshop and the first set of keynote talks out of the way at this year’s Association for Heritage Interpretation.  All well delivered and full of provocation with plenty of relevance and some revelation. Sorry, that’s an ‘in joke’. A long time ago, 55 years ago to be precise,  an American journo wrote […]

Questions visitors ask – ask a curator day

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I have written here about the question I asked on ask a curator day. It was about this piece of art I thought mine was a very obvious question. So I asked the room stewart/interpreter/guide/attendant whether lots of people asked that.  She masked her surprise well, I thought, and told me no one had ever […]

How I visit an art gallery

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I love visiting art galleries.  I have no formal training in art. I suspect I know a lot less about techniques, media, style or even artists than most other people who enjoy visiting art galleries. Sometimes someone tries to fill those large gaps in my knowledge  which can rather spoil things. Other times I am just […]

The art of tweeting at The Hepworth Wakefield

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On Wednesday we discovered how Twitter can make a good day out even better. We weren’t too surprised to hear back from our brother-in-law, but another response surprised and impressed us. How about that for a welcome? We behaved exactly as predicted, that is: felt immensely welcome, warm to our hosts (the newish gallery The […]

Heritage interpretation as monuments and memorials

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Last week I was at a fascinating seminar on Spaces, Places and Practices of Remembrance and Memory at the National Memorial Arboretum, one of my favorite places (see here). Lots of food for thought. I found myself in the stimulating and heady company of academics from many subjects (from English Literature to Landscape History, Public […]