Poland’s first CIG and CIT course took place in June, organised by The Małopolska Institute of Culture (MIK) with Interpret Europe. It was a pleasure to be a part of this event and here I share one short impression about it.
The course for Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) and Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT) took place in Krakow, which was a great place for such a course. One of our venues was The Ethnographic Museum, where participants developed theme lines and prepared their first interpretive walks. This went really well, but I’m not going to tell you about their work. I want to mention one man who inspired me (and I am sure that it was not only me who was inspired by him) on that day and accidentally helped me perceive something important in the course.
On that day, we were welcomed to the museum by its Director, who finished his speech with one of his favourite quotes: ‘If you look at the history, don’t seek ashes there but look for the fire’. I realised that it was strictly about the interpretation and all 22 participants proved this not only during that day in the museum but also during the whole course. There were people from different countries, with different educational backgrounds and different guiding experience, but each of them were doing their best in developing interpretive skills when they were looking for ‘a fire’.
This was my personal discovery which I experienced during this course. During those seven days, I witnessed not only the process of searching for the fire but also discovering it. It was a very powerful experience for me. In the next newsletter some of the participants will share their own memories from the course. To see more about the course, you can use #iecig on Facebook.
Magdalena Ku’ is the IE Country Coordinator for Poland and a member of IE’s training team. She also works as a freelance interpretive and nature guide and runs her own company Z BARWINKIEM. She can be contacted at: magdalena.kus@interpret-europe.net.
To cite this article:
Ku’, Magdakena (2018) ‘Searching for the fire – The first CIG and CIT course in Poland’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 2-2018, 22.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-2_summer.pdf
