I was born in the city of Bratislava. As a child I didn’t spend much time inside. With my younger sister and brother and some other kids from our street we loved to organise discovery trips to our surroundings. Our direct contact with many real phenomena outside were not always so successful but, for our further lives, more than essential. Even our parents didn’t always understand our interpretation of happenings, but most of the time they were kind to let us search again for deeper meanings.
Even though I didn’t have a clue about the topic of heritage interpretation, in 1999 I was invited by Chris Wood to represent Slovakia and be the speaker on this topic at the international workshop, ‘Heritage presentation and interpretation in Europe’, which was held at Bournemouth University, UK. At that time, 80 participants from 14 countries agreed that an international network would be created in Europe. Since then I knew that there is something with huge potential which can help me to convey the message of our organisation but also my personal beliefs. I was happy to have a chance to help to organise the first steering committe meeting for the newly-formed Interpret Europe in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2000. Since then I have appreciated the fact that I can be in touch with people – academics or practitioners – from the heritage interpretation field from abroad.
In 2018 I became an IE Certified Interpretive Writer and in 2019 an IE Certified Interpretive Trainer. I am convinced that the majority of heritage projects in our country can benefit from the possibility to learn from the experiences of their colleagues from the countries where heritage interpretation is more developed. This is why I am very happy and honoured to act as IE’s Country Coordinator Slovakia and continue to search for deeper meanings from this perspective.
I can be contacted at: michaela.kubikova@interpret-europe.net.
Read more about Michaela and all of our other coordinators and management team at: https://www.interpret-europe.net/feet/home/interpret-europe/our-structure/executive-management/
