Interpretation

Interpretation & Education

Visitors should enjoy and understand the museum they visit. Effective interpretation allows each visitor to personally connect with a resource or place and to care about the museums on their own terms. Interpretation is about getting the story across to the public. This can take place in text and images (text panels near showcases, guidebooks, websites, apps or movies), but can also be done by guide persons and is then called Live Interpretation: “any live interaction between museum / site staff and visitors” (Imtal-Europe).

Live Interpretation is an important method of presenting. It includes any interpretation, using living people to address the audience. One can simply start with guided tours, workshops and semi-formal School programs. If we move on to living history-type activities, we get demonstrations of historical craft, storytelling and costumed first- and third-person interpretation.

Check our Themed Collections:
Adult Education
Teaching Children

Public Access to (Pre-)History Through Archaeology

Author(s)

Katie Stringer Clary ¹ ✉

Publication Date

2018-08-25

EXARC Journal Issue 2018/3

Public history, like experimental archaeology, is relatively new as an accepted academic program; the two fields are intrinsically linked and should, ideally, use interdisciplinary collaboration to better educate and involve the public in their work. This paper presents case studies in education and interpretation by the author, as well as exemplary programs from various sites in the United States and Europe...

Read more about Public Access to (Pre-)History Through Archaeology

The Forgotten Movement – A (Re)construction of Prehistoric Dances

Author(s)

Ivana Turčin ¹ ✉

Publication Date

2018-02-25

EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1

However, after studying archaeological artistic depictions, historical descriptions and contemporary ethnographic examples as the main research sources for the history of dance and dance movement and its development in the context of early human history, we created a conceptual reconstruction of prehistoric dances. It was presented in the form of an educational dance performance with the goal of presenting the archaeological heritage through a possible vision of dances and dance movements from a number of selected prehistoric periods: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age.

Read more about The Forgotten Movement – A (Re)construction of Prehistoric Dances

Living History as an Instrument for Historical and Cultural Exchange in German Archaeological Open-Air Museums: an Online Survey Defines Present Status

Author(s)

Tatjana Meder ¹,

Jana Seipelt ¹ ✉,

Sabrina Slanitz ¹

Publication Date

2016-12-01

EXARC Journal Issue 2016/4

In Germany, for several years now it has become increasingly significant as a means of reflecting the cultural exchange of archaeological open-air museums, as well as in scientific discussions and interdisciplinary meetings

Read more about Living History as an Instrument for Historical and Cultural Exchange in German Archaeological Open-Air Museums: an Online Survey Defines Present Status

Recommended Literature

ANDERSON, J., 1984, Time Machines. The World of Living History. Nashville Tennessee: The American Association for State and Local History.

DUISBERG, H., 2008, Living History in Freilichtmuseen. Neue Wege der Geschichtsvermittlung, Ehestorf: Förderverein des Freilichtmuseums am Kiekeberg.

GOODACRE, B. & BALDWIN, G., 2002, Living the Past: Reconstruction, Recreation, Re-enactment and Education at Museums and Historical Sites, London: Middlesex University Press.

TILDEN, F., 1957, Interpreting our Heritage, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Interpretation Manuals

2015 Guidebook for Live Interpretation in AOAMs

Size: A4, 40 pages

As part of the OpenArch project, Archeon (NL) published a guide on the use of Live Interpretation in Archaeological Open-Air Museums. This booklet should become an...

Read more and get a PDF

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – EXARC Fellowship

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – EXARC Fellowship. Photo: Colonial Williamsburg

EXARC is proud to cooperate with America’s largest outdoor living history museum, Colonial Williamsburg, in an annual fellowship offer. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation annually invites applications for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – EXARC Fellowship. Fellowships are an important component of the work of the Education, Research and Historical Interpretation Division. Fellowships primarily support research on topics related to British America, the American Revolution, and the Early Republic. Read more

Photo: Colonial Williamsburg

Grundtvig Learning Partnership at EXARC

EXARC and a number of its members applied in 2010 for a Grundtvig Learning Partnership. Grundtvig was a part of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLLP) of the European Union which among others involves Leonardo and Erasmus. The Grundtvig Programme was focussed on adult education and in our case involves several museums, open-air museums, universities and high schools.We worked with our partners from across Europe to share practice, discuss problems and compare solutions on our particular topics. Obviously our project was about non-formal learning in different aspects. While writting an application two projects have been formed: Didarchtik and Zeitgeist.

Interpretation & Education

Interaction with Visitors

Featured EXARC Members Interpretation Groups

Featured in the EXARC Journal

Interpretation

Public Access to (Pre-)History Through Archaeology

The Forgotten Movement – A (Re)construction of Prehistoric Dances

Living History as an Instrument for Historical and Cultural Exchange in German Archaeological Open-Air Museums: an Online Survey Defines Present Status

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – EXARC Fellowship

Grundtvig Learning Partnership at EXARC

EXARC

Social Media

Creative Commons Licence

Interpretation & Education

Interaction with Visitors

Featured EXARC Members Interpretation Groups

Featured in the EXARC Journal

Interpretation

Public Access to (Pre-)History Through Archaeology

The Forgotten Movement – A (Re)construction of Prehistoric Dances

Living History as an Instrument for Historical and Cultural Exchange in German Archaeological Open-Air Museums: an Online Survey Defines Present Status

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – EXARC Fellowship

Grundtvig Learning Partnership at EXARC

EXARC

Social Media

Creative Commons Licence

User login