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Museums are all about stories! In order to best serve our current and potential audiences, heritage organizations need creative tools for interpretation and communication to build local capacity and sustainability while strengthening connections within its community. Museums are often seen as places of learning associated with the presentation of historical dates, facts and figures. However, they are also places where curiosity is invoked and where wondrous things can be discovered. The museum experience should engage visitors with hands-on and minds-on activities, storytelling, employ historical imagery, and evoke the spirit of historical persons from the past. To create truly memorable museum experiences, sites must invest in their staff - especially the interpreters who are the front line of museums as they engage with visitors more than any other staff member. Many museums with all-volunteer staff often receive limited training in storytelling and theatrical techniques as well as first/third person living history interpretation due to limited budget and training opportunities. This barrier to interpretive training can greatly impact a site's visitation, limit its community engagement and long-term sustainability.
Full-day workshops include lite breakfast, luncheon, afternoon coffee break, and reference materials.
Psst...Sign up for all three workshops and enjoy a 12.5% discount!
$120/pp for all three workshops - GHHN Members
$145/pp for all three workshops - NonMembers
Series 1:
Interpreters as Storytellers:
Shaping the Narrative, Sharing the Story
with
Tom Lee, Consultant Educator and Storyteller
Workshop Date: April 2, 2019
Location: Boscobel House and Gardens
Individual Workshop Fee: GHHN Members: $45 NonMembers: $55
Time: 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Every compelling story, from the simplest to the most complex, can be distilled down to a few basic and common components. Participants will gain insights into identifying the structure or "bones" of any story and how they can enrich their tour programs by applying this view of story structure to a range of stories embedded in their tours. Biographical sketches, the chronology of the construction of a house, the political and economic forces in play at any period of history, as well as popular stories and folktales can be shaped into compelling, engaging stories.
Series 2:
Connecting Collections and Audience: The Theater-Artists' Approach to Telling the Story of the Objects in the Collection with
Sean McNall, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
Workshop Date: June 25, 2019
Location: Boscobel House and Gardens
Individual Workshop Fee: GHHN Members: $45 NonMembers: $55
Time: 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
The history field often overlooks the art of theater when developing historic interpretation. The skills taught in theater provides effective forms of thinking for historic interpretation and audience engagement. In this workshop, fun and challenging-theater based activities will be explored through voice and movement exercises, acting techniques, improvisation, and facilitated reflection to invite participants into the process of telling stories about the objects in the museum.
Series 3:
Make History Live! Character Development with
Kandie Carle, Artistic Director East Haddam Stage Company and Living History Performance Artist
Workshop Date: July 23, 2019
Location: Boscobel House and Gardens
Individual Workshop Fee:: GHHN Members: $45 NonMembers: $55
Time: 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Living history interpretation is an educational medium where staff use performance to create a world, tell a story, stimulate learning, engage the senses and teach lessons through interpretation, clothing styles, pastimes, handicrafts, and reenactments. Visitors are transported to another time and place in their imaginations where they experience the past. 'Fleshing out' history, whether it be in a museum setting, or in a house, indoor or out, this workshop will take participants through active ways to create, launch, and maintain a living history interpretation. Whether it be first-person or third, whether you are the interpreter, or the training partner for staff, this comprehensive and interactive workshop will help participants feel comfortable with making history live.
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The Harnessing the Power of Stories Workshop Series is made possible by funding from the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. |
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