Interpret Europe members have been busying themselves with the latest addition to the fast-expanding IE training programme, a Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP) course, with plans to hold a pilot course in autumn 2018.
A special team has been set up to develop the CIP module, including Peter Seccombe (UK), Michal Medek (Czech Republic), Helena Vičić (Slovenia), Dragana Lucija Ratković Aydemir (Croatia) and Ivana Jagić (Croatia) and if you attended this year’s Interpret Europe Conference, in KÅszeg, you may have seen them prepare and run a ‘taster’ workshop for the course.
To get an insight into the taster workshop and what’s in store for the full CIP course, we asked one of the development team, Ivana Jagić, to share her impressions. Here’s what she said:
‘When we were planning the workshop, our goal was to promote the CIP course and introduce an interpretation planning approach by showing participants that different contexts lead to different outcomes. After a short introduction, participants were split into working groups and each got two cards: one with a list of resources about KÅszeg Castle (the conference venue) giving participants information about its history, architecture and famous people, etc. and a second presenting the audience types (families, retired people, keen historians, etc.).’
Participants had to use a given interpretive planning approach and information on cards to develop an interpretive plan for the site, geared to a specific audience, with appropriate media.
‘During the workshop, I found participants were really excited to get to grips with an interpretive planning process. The groups set out around the castle to research and complete their brief interpretation plans. They worked as a team, considering different components of the interpretation plan and ways of telling their stories. In the end, each group presented the results of their planning process. They shared the reasons for their approach to interpreting this castle, who would they interpret it to, their overall message and how they would tell the stories to their audiences. Finally, they also had to consider evaluating their plan to know if their interpretation was working.
What I hope the participants got from the workshop (and what all future CIP participants will get from the course) is that planning heritage interpretation in an appropriate way is a highly effective tool to support heritage management in achieving goals such as heritage preservation, protection and promotion. Using interpretive planning approaches to develop heritage interpretation projects has the power to engage audiences, promote European citizenship and create unique, extraordinary visitor experiences. It also influences visitors’ behaviour and feelings about what they see while boosting their knowledge and awareness about our heritage.’
Stay tuned for more information about our CIP pilot course and we hope to see you there!
Valya Stergioti is IE’s Training Coordinator. She works as a freelance Interpretive trainer and planner. She can be contacted at: valya.stergioti@interpret-europe.net
Ivana Jagić is museologist and heritage manager from Zagreb, Croatia. Since 2013, she has been working in Muses Ltd – Consulting and Management in Culture and Tourism, as a museologist and tourism manager. She has been a member of Interpret Europe since 2016 and is the Association Secretary for Interpret Croatia. Ivana can be contacted at: ivana.jagic@muze.hr.
To cite this article:
Stergioti, Valya & Jagic, Ivana (2018) ‘Planning makes perfect – A heads-up on IE’s brand new Certified Interpretive Planner Course!’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2018, 14-15.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-1_spring.pdf
