Phenomenon, phenomenon, phenomenon! — was the word echoing in our minds throughout the entire week of the CIG course.
Already after the first day of the first IE Certified Interpretative Guide Course (CIG), held at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia in September 2025, the word phenomenon became firmly etched in the memory of every participant. Interestingly, although we all arrived with open minds and a great willingness to learn new things, we were still puzzled on that first day by our trainers’ intention to guide us back to a childlike way of perceiving the world. At the same time, we trusted them completely, convinced that their approach would eventually reveal its full meaning.
When I was a child, my mother – an artist, taught me to draw by explaining that the entire world is built from basic geometric shapes and colours: rectangles, triangles, circles, blue, yellow, and red. The first day of the CIG reminded me exactly of that. Our trainers were doing something similar. A phenomenon could be any sensory experience around us.
Beyond the phenomenal and fresh insights into our surroundings, what I believe was most valuable that week were the people. It was wonderful that my colleagues and I at the Republic Institute, organised by Ana Radovanac Živanov (Country Coordinator Serbia), had the opportunity to warmly host our peers from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Belgrade, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Zrenjanin, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Niš, the Museum of Yugoslavia, the Museum of Opanak-making, the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, and the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš, as well as our trainers from Croatia.
Since we all come from fields that require extensive knowledge of history, culture, and art, we expected that interpreting the cultural heritage of Belgrade’s old city core would be a piece of cake for us. But there, too, a new surprise awaited! It felt as though the large amount of tedious information we had been memorising for years was now getting in the way of designing an interpretive walk. We felt like true nerds! Thanks to the helpful guidance and signposts provided by our trainers and other peers, even the shyest and most scholarly among us underwent a genuine transformation before our eyes by the end of the week. Their interpretive walks delighted us, and the phenomena came alive.
Our early instinct — to trust the process — paid off. Theory and practice intertwined effortlessly. The entire course came together, and everything finally made sense. All participants returned home enriched with a beautiful new skill: how to present our heritage to the public in an interpretive way.
Although the course took place at the beginning of autumn, our online group chat is still lively. Whenever we encounter a phenomenon that reminds us of one another, we send photos, exchange memories, and share a joke or two. And alongside all this wonderful camaraderie, we are already making plans for new Interpret Europe courses that could be organised in our partner institutions — expanding our phenomenal network even further!
Dorotea Ašćerić is a young art historian. She is dedicated to the marketing promotion and presentation of cultural heritage. You can contact her at: dorotea.lovcevic.ims@gmail.com.
To cite this article: Dimitrovska, Vasilka (2025) ‘Hands-on with the Romans: Re-imagining Stobi through live interpretation’ in Interpret Europe Newsletter 3-2025, p. 17.
Available online: Newsletter autumn 2025
