Interpretive+Planning_Group+Document

Museum Education and Interpretation Spring 2011 **//Part 1: Foundation//** ** Purpose and Significance. ** This section presents a brief narrative of the purpose of the park and a description of its overall significance. These statements are based on the Strategic Plan. ** Themes. ** Themes define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to the public about a park. They convey the tangible/intangible meanings and universal concepts inherent in the park’s resources. They should be expressed in clear statements (usually one or two sentences), and may be divided into primary and secondary statements. Additional information may be added if useful in clarifying meaning. These statements connect park resources to larger processes, systems, ideas, and values. Themes should also be used to define the core content of educational messages that the park offers. These themes are the building blocks on which interpretive services and educational programs are based. ** Management Goals. ** Goals describe management’s intent in offering interpretive and educational programs and services. They are derived from the park’s Strategic Plan. This section may also contain objectives that define specific outcomes for the interpretive and educational programs, such as bolstering community support, building future constituencies, and providing opportunities for life-long learning. ** Desired Visitor Experience. ** The description of Visitor Experience relative to   interpretation defines how the interpretive process will facilitate a physical, intellectual, and emotional experience based on previously described purpose, significance, themes, and goals. Visitor Experience Goals describe opportunities for the public and suggest how interpretation may change the way the public, including organized groups, will think, feel, or act as a result of their park experience. With regard to   educational programs this section describes what educators, teachers, and students will experience when participating in an educational program. ** Issues and Influences Affecting Interpretation. ** This section includes long-range initiatives, influences and opportunities inside and outside the park, resource-based issues, and internal issues that affect interpretation and education. ** Visitor Profiles. ** This is a broad description of park audiences and their needs and includes both actual and potential audiences. It should include in-park, out-of-park, and education audiences. When possible, this analysis should depend on systematic surveys. ** Existing Interpretive Conditions. ** This brief summary establishes a point of   departure for future personal services, media development, and facility proposals. **//Part 2: Future Interpretive Program//** This part describes the mix of services and facilities, both personal and non-personal, that are necessary to communicate the park themes and facilitate identified visitor experiences. The elements in this section will be based on the goals and visions established in Part 1: Foundations. Care should be taken to consider the diversity of   park visitors, including education audiences, in all planning. There are a wide range of approaches in describing and achieving a park’s future interpretive program. All Future Interpretive Program descriptions should consider the following: ** Personal Services. ** This section describes the role that personal services play in   providing significance and context to the overall visitor experience. The potential use of   facilities or media for educational purposes (i.e., education centers, residential programs, electronic    field trips, etc.) should be explored here. ** Non-personal Services. ** This section assesses the need for interpretive and educational media which includes exhibits, waysides, publications, audio-visual programs, mass and/or electronic media, study guides, workbooks, educational kits, and traveling exhibits. Media should allow for multiple points of view to meet the needs of   a diverse public. ** Partnerships. ** This section identifies those partners involved in the delivery of   interpretive services and specifies their role. Partners include cooperating associations, friends groups, concessioners, other agencies, schools, and other educational institutions. ** Collections Needs **. This section defines potential uses of the collection to help achieve the actions of this plan. ** Research Needs **. This section identifies research needed to support the actions of   this plan. Research should contribute to the efforts to identify “untold stories” within the park. Collaborations between interpreters, educators, historians, ethnographers, scientists, and other museums are essential. Research related to analyzing the visitor experience, evaluating the effectiveness of existing media, and post-occupancy evaluation for new media is also important. ** Staffing Needs **. The park’s future staffing and training needs are identified here. ** Interpretive Program Costs **. This is based upon a clear definition of the personal and non-personal analysis; this analysis will help establish annual and projected budgets. This section also identifies alternative management and funding strategies, and a strategy for acquiring funds for projects. **//Part 3: Appendices//** Only those resources that are referenced somewhere in the LRIP should be included in this appendix section; all other reports, charts, demographics, school profiles, statistics, and other interpretive resources.
 * Interpretive Planning Exercise**