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Wednesday 11 December 02:00 CET
Interpretation: Land Trusts and Indigenous Partnerships

Join adventurer, conservation writer, motivational speaker and IGA-certified interpretive guide Joanie McGuffin as she shares her 30-year journey paddling Lake Superior, the largest freshwater expanse on Earth, alongside her husband Gary. Her time on the water revealed the beauty and challenges of humanity’s connection with nature, sparking a shared mission to protect and care for the lake’s vast watershed through interpretation. Together, she and her husband founded the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy and discovered interpretation. Bringing the two together has helped them create a stronger, more effective voice for all people who live and work along the Lake’s shores.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Friday, 11 October, 16:00 CEST
EVRYNOUS’, in Greek, means open-minded

In the remote NE corner of Greece, where cultures and ethnic groups intermingle for centuries, the project EVRYNOUS offered local people a challenge: to discover the half-forgotten stories of their own regions, weave them together with their own personal stories to create meaningful interpretive walks. The final result was a strong network of local people of the whole Evros prefecture, ready to inspire us with their newly acquired interpretive skills.

Valentina Sokratous lives in Alexandroupoli Greece and has been working as a Museum coordinator since 2018 and head of Museum Learning since 2011 at the Ethnological Museum of Thrace. She designs and implements community projects and workshops in various groups, using multiple techniques and approaches. As well as an experienced cultural manager in social change-based projects. Her studies are in the field of Pedagogy, and she has an MSc in Innovative Approaches in Learning in Multicultural Environments. She is an alumnus from START-Create Cultural Change /Goethe-Institute Thessaloniki & Bosch Foundation Germany 2019-20 and the US. State Department & Embassy of Greece residency recipient (2021 & 2023) for the “Promoting Social Change through the Arts” International Visitor Leadership Program. She has created and participated in various performance art projects and strongly believes that our heritage and culture is the key to implement social change.

Valya Stergioti is the founder of Alli Meria, a team of Greek professionals aiming in promoting heritage interpretation in Greece and beyond. For the last twenty years, she has been a free-lance interpretive planner, writer and trainer, collaborating with NGOs, public institutions and governmental agencies, in many different countries of the world. She has been Interpret Europe’s training coordinator for eight years and is still working closely with IE for the development and implementation of its training programme. She’s especially interested on the co-creation of interpretive services with local communities and on heritage interpretation at sites seriously affected by the climate crisis.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Wednesday, 28 August, 19:00 CEST
Start Climate Conversations

Stromness is a small town of around 2000 people and its museum is one of the oldest independent museums in Scotland. Its collection comprises ethnographic, social history, maritime and natural history collections. Katy and her team have been working to use the collections as a springboard to start climate conversations. This outreach and interpretation activity begun after COP26 in Glasgow and has continued ever since. Katy will describe the award-winning Changes in a Lifetime: Climate Cafes project and elaborate on this project’s legacy.

Katy Firth is Climate Change Exhibitions and Outreach Officer at Stromness Museum, Orkney, Scotland. Katy was born and brought up in Orkney and studied Archaeology and German at the University of Glasgow. In her heritage-related career she has had roles as Park Ranger, Community Archaeologist and has worked freelance in heritage education and learning since 2015. She is passionate about Orkney’s natural and cultural heritage.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Tuesday, 20August, 04:30 CEST
Creating First Nations Community-led Digital Interpretation at Murrook Culture Centre

Murrook Culture Centre is a special project, not only to the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council and Community, whose Culture it shares and with whom it was co-created every step of the way, not only to our extended team of interpreters, creatives, technologists, designers, producers, cinematographers, historians and other specialists. It is also recognised as special by multiple Excellence Awards programs’ judges, who are experienced professionals in the field of heritage, culture and technology, as well as diverse visitors. Join Beata Kade as she takes you through the journey of creating this Digital Interpretation experience at Murrook.

Beata Kade is the Managing Director of Art of Multimedia, an interactive design studio that crafts compelling communications and immersive cultural experiences for enduring impact. She is also the current Treasurer of Interpretation Australia.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Tuesday, 11 June, 22:00 CEST
New voices at the table: Using interdisciplinary Interpretive Planning to transform visitor experiences

From ideation to installation, interpretive planners push boundaries to infuse new perspectives and challenge norms in exhibit and experience design. Join Lauryn Record, Senior Strategist-Interpretive Planning & Creative Services at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo to discuss the advantages of having an interpretive voice at the table from the beginning of a project. Use the case study from Wild Canada, a reimagined zone at the zoo, Lauryn will discuss infusing interpretive stories into architecture and theming while amplifying new and underrepresented perspectives into the visitor journey. This session will be helpful for anyone looking to advocate for the importance of interpretative inclusion in decision making and all those who want to ensure diverse voices are included in the stories we tell.

Lauryn Record is a storyteller and place-maker who looks to craft experiences that more deeply connect people with the natural world through exceptional interpretive design. She is proud to live and work on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the nations of Treaty 7, including the Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut’ina First Nations, as well as Metis Nation Region 3.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Wednesday, 10 April, 19:30 CEST
Parks for All!

Design with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in mind! Discover how the East Bay Regional Park District is implementing standards for DEI through partnerships and community building, programming, as well as through the creation of accessible interpretive materials, and visitor center exhibits. We will share some insights and tools to make your programming and exhibits more inclusive and accessible for all.

Alex Collins, Naturalist (she/her) and Erica Stephens, Naturalist, (she/her)

From Denali to Zion, Erica spent over ten years as an Interpretive Park Ranger for the National Park Service. She now works for the East Bay Regional Park District as a Naturalist at Sunol Wilderness where she loves interpreting nature and paleontology, especially through her popular nature journaling programs.

Alex Collins is a Naturalist at Del Valle, part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Before the parks, Alex worked for 10+ years in residential environmental education on both coasts. Currently she is part of the Park District’s newest visitor center team, creating new exhibits and programs within a popular and established park.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Tuesday, 12 December, 22:00 CET
“ I Don’t Know What That is But I Love That It’s There”: Rethinking the social values and public outcomes of in situ archaeological conservation and presentation in Australia

Interpretation of in situ archaeological remains is commonly framed by archaeologists and other heritage professionals as an educational endeavour. It is based on an understanding that the primary purpose of archaeology is the production of knowledge about the past and an associated sense of responsibility to communicate this knowledge to the public. But is this long-received notion based on an accurate understanding of the ways that archaeological places actually work in communities in the present?

Recent research suggests that archaeological remains do far more than provide knowledge about the past. This talk draws on interviews undertaken with hundreds of members of the public at archaeological places that have been conserved and presented in situ in new developments in Australia, along with international research on place attachment, belonging, wellbeing and resilience. It explores the social, emotional and imaginative experiences that people have with archaeological remains and the ways these direct relationships work to create outcomes far beyond the transmission of archaeological knowledge to the public: outcomes such as individual and community resilience and wellbeing, identity building, belonging and social cohesion.

This research offers a challenge to interpreters to step beyond a focus on the past and to embrace the creative possibilities that archaeological remains offer in the present and for the future. It also highlights the importance of developing evidence-based and benefit-based heritage management frameworks that understand and respond to the way heritage works in communities and aims to support direct and meaningful relationships between people and heritage places.

Dr Caitlin Allen is a Sydney-based archaeologist and heritage specialist. She worked for the NSW State Government for nearly two decades as a heritage administrator and hands-on practitioner. In recent years she has been working as a sessional lecturer in heritage and museum studies at The University of Sydney. Her current research interests focus on social values and place attachment, including the ways archaeological remains contribute to the creation of liveable cities and community wellbeing. Caitlin is a Member of the NSW Heritage Council’s Approvals Committee, an Expert Member of ICAHM and a former Vice President of Australia ICOMOS.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Friday, 25 August, 00:00 CEST
Te Taiao | Nature: Merging Māori knowledge and science to spark sustainable action. 

If you don’t feel like sleeping on the night of 24/25 August, you can join the GAHI webinar held by our New Zealander colleagues. However, don’t worry, we’ll share the recording in our Facebook group as soon as it is available.

Join Frith Williams, Head of Experience and Content at Te Papa Tongarewa, Aotearoa New Zealand’s national museum, and dive into the the development of Te Taiao | Nature. This nature focused exhibition experience weaves Mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) with science to spark sustainable action. Frith Williams has 19 years of experience at Te Papa Tongarewa.

Participation is free of charge. You can register here.

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Thursday, 1 June, 17:00 CEST
Participatory and Dialogic Interpretation: Inspire through PIE and TALK

Join Dr. Jacquie to dig into the Participatory Interpretation “PIE” model, which encourages interpretation that starts with Participation, is followed by Information, and ends with Encouragement to action. Next, we will look at Dialogic Interpretation using the “TALK” model – Talk Types, Ask Great Questions, Lead with Facilitation Techniques, and Keep on Inspiring. Find out how Jacquie has success training interpreters using these two models that encourage them to engage visitors in two-way interactions, helping to make the topic relevant and meaningful to visitors. Join in this interactive session for your bite of PIE and taste of TALK!

Dr. Jacquie Gilson is a career interpreter. She received her Doctor of Social Sciences degree from Royal Roads University after studying the concept of inspiration in interpretation. Jacquie runs InterpActive and sits on the board of Interpretation Canada.

This series is free, but you need to register here.

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Thursday, 20 April, 16:00 CEST
Interpretive planning at World Heritage Sites – experiences from Europe

Together with UNESCO, Interpret Europe embarked on a journey to examine the role of heritage interpretation in World Heritage Sites, Global Geoparks and Biosphere Reserves. In this context, UNESCO suggested heritage interpretation as a core mandate of visitor centres at UNESCO-designated sites, fostering UNESCO’s key values: peace and sustainability.

In return, Interpret Europe revised its five-day CIP (Certified Interpretive Planner) course towards more value-based heritage interpretation.

Interpret Europe’s updated CIP course formed the central module of UNESCO’s two-year WH-Interp programme. Forty-two managers and planners associated with World Heritage were trained on-site to explore the transformative impact interpretation can have on visitors and communities.

Join an exchange with UNESCO officials, World Heritage managers/ planners, and Interpret Europe trainers on challenges and prospects for value-based interpretive planning.

This series is free, but you need to register here.