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Commentaries Archive
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Sharing Ideas Across Borders: An Invitation to an International Exchange of Ideas in Interpretation
Posted on June 25, 2010 | No CommentsIt was exactly the kind of interpretive moment Freeman Tilden was talking about. I was in the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt, face-to-face with a movable-type printing press for the first time. -
Provoking the Profession
Posted on June 16, 2010 | 1 CommentAs I perused the latest issue of Legacy, I read, yet again, the mantra of Tilden’s Principles. Yet again, they were hauled out as a sort of non-violable Truth—“Thou shalt be relevant.” It sounded like a religion, not a profession. -
Birding as Competition: New Jersey’s World Series of Birding Pits Geeks Against Nerds
Posted on April 9, 2010 | No CommentsYou know your competition has reached critical mass when it’s big enough to be mocked by Steve Carell on an episode of “The Daily Show.” -
What I Learned at the NAI National Workshop
Posted on February 17, 2010 | 1 CommentIn November, I attended the annual 2009 NAI National Workshop in Hartford, Connecticut, along with nearly 700 other U.S. and international attendees. -
Exposing the Soul: An Unexpected Encounter with Community-Based Interpretation
Posted on February 11, 2010 | 3 CommentsFour statues in a park forever changed my life. Statues are everywhere. In cities around the world, public squares and buildings are filled with monumental sculptures honoring individuals or representing historic moments. How many times do we walk right past, paying them little or no attention? -
Serenity, Acceptance, Courage, and Wisdom
Posted on December 11, 2009 | No CommentsAbout five years ago, our facility was in turmoil: staffing issues, a renovation looming, a little bit of flooding, you name it. My own solution to weathering the storm was employing “offstage” what I’d been unconsciously using during costumed interpretation the previous five years: The Serenity Prayer. -
Real Value in Costumed Interpretation
Posted on December 1, 2009 | No CommentsMy first encounter with costumed interpretation occurred at Disneyland in southern California. No, it was not Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, or Donald Duck, though my sons did enjoy meeting them. For me, the inspirational moment came from hearing President Abraham Lincoln speak. “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” is an oratory given by a mechanical Lincoln. -
No Stone Left Unturned: The Role of the Interpretive Parent
Posted on October 6, 2009 | No CommentsOften, I leave the electronic world to reminisce about my childhood—a childhood filled with days chasing butterflies through a nearby field, hours spent catching creek crawdads, and time just playing outside with no particular goal in mind. I remember my father, a single parent raising his only child, asking me what I was doing as I looked under rocks along the river. My answer was simple and that of a youngster: “I plan to leave no stone unturned.” Quietly, my dad began to look under rocks with me as if to help me reach my goal, and as we turned over stones and gently replaced them, he taught me about the animals living beneath. -
Leave No Parent Behind
Posted on October 1, 2009 | 1 CommentWhen I was growing up, the comedian Red Skelton had a variety show on television. I don’t remember what night or what time it came on. I don’t even recall watching it all that often, but my memory of Red remained for several reasons. First of all, my dad liked him. Skelton’s antics made him laugh quite a bit—not with belly laughs, mind you, but with a kind of wheezing snicker usually reserved for small humor. Personally I didn’t quite get it; although I noted to myself many times that this TV guy must be really funny to elicit such a reaction from an otherwise stoic guy. -
Children Can Be Interpreters, Too
Posted on September 21, 2009 | No CommentsIn a review of Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods published in The Wall Street Journal, Mark Yost says that Mr. Louv wrote that “kids are aware of the global threats to the environment—but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading.” Mr. Yost’s review further states that our ultimate goal is to help children find “their spontaneous connection to the natural world—and thus the very reason that anyone comes to care for nature in the first place.”