2011 SHA Annual Meeting, Austin,
Texas – January 6, 2011
Session: “Toward an Archaeological Agora: the Public as participants and creators of archaeological knowledge and understanding,”
Presentations in this session address examples of this new focus – how non-academics or laypersons (including but not only members of descendant communities) create, use and react to this new knowledge. The public may be operating alongside either professionals and students in projects, or on their own; they may be carrying out fieldwork, giving or collecting oral history accounts alongside archaeology, or may be interpreting archaeological finds themselves. In these variable relationships, how do professional and lay researchers interact? What sorts of past are being created, and for what purpose? How do these interpretations complement or compete with traditional archaeological knowledge claims?
6th International Archaeology Conference of Calafell, 10-12
March 2011, Calafell, Catalonia – Spain
Theme: “In Situ Reconstructions: arguments both for and against”
Many researchers consider the experimental archeology and archeological reconstruction as interesting ways of working that help to go beyond the knowledge obtained from past societies through the excavation, as well as in the past to disclose society, the final repository of this legacy. Moreover, the archaeological reconstructions have also its detractors. The aim of the meeting is to propose to face views and arguments both for and against, so that generated a rich debate on this topic. The results will be subsequently published in monographic series “Arqueomediterrània” of the University of Barcelona.
National Association for Interpretation
International Conference
May 4–7, 2011
Gamboa Rainforest Resort at the Chagres River and Panama Canal
Soberania National Park, Panama
http://www.interpnet.com/ic/
The National Association for Interpretation (NAI) will host the sixth annual international conference on the subject of heritage interpretation in Panama. The conference will bring together 150 to 200 delegates from 30 to 40 nations in an effort to create opportunities for professional development for attendees and establish a network for professional associations and individuals involved in heritage interpretation around the globe.
This capacity-building network will allow the exchange of ideas and facilitate working partnerships between nations with established interpretive organizations and developing nations that need assistance with the promotion and instigation of interpretive facilities to enhance tourism experiences, benefit local economies, and sustain sensitive cultural and natural heritage resources.
Interpretation: Making a Difference in the Triple Bottom Line
Interpretation helps create change – change in attitudes, change in knowledge, change in behavior. Imagine the power of being able to address all the elements of the triple bottom line (social, economic, and environmental) by using interpretive techniques to address issues of concern in your country. NAI’s international conference will provide the opportunity to discuss and share ideas for making positive impacts on the triple bottom line with academicians, researchers, site and agency managers, interpreters, commercial vendors, tourism operators, and others. Join us in Panama and be a part of positive change.
Curso de Certificación Profesional CIG
“Certified Interpretive Guide Training Workshop”
27 – 30 de mayo de 2011
Centro Ambiental Santa Ana, Parque Nacional Julio E. Monagas
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Eliezer Nieves-Rodríguez, CIT
rezeile@hotmail.com
Centro Ambiental Santa Ana (787) 740-4200
Interpreting across borders: June 2011
a workshop on current international standards in the interpretation and public presentation of cultural sites, Chersonesos, Crimea, Ukraine
An evaluation produced by U.S. National Park Service (NPS) personnel in 2008 found that existing interpretive programs of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos can be modified to enhance visitor experience. This workshop will be led by NPS personnel with a broad range of specific interpretation and interpretation-training skills, who are recognized as superior interpreters and trainers by their peers. Participants in the workshop will include members of the Preserve’s administration, supervisors and workers in the museum and guided-tour departments, field archaeologists, and other local stakeholders. We will also invite representatives from Olbia, Tyras, and Kerch, three other, similar National Preserves on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast, and representatives from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Olbia, Tyras, and Kerch are all large sites where ancient Greek colonists founded major cities, where the worlds of the Mediterranean and the steppe intersected, and where long human occupation left very substantial and visible archaeological remains.
At the same time, despite their similarities to Chersonesos, each of these sites has taken a quite different approach to interpretation and presentation, and the four together offer a broad spectrum of current practice in Ukraine. The inclusion of representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Tourism will help put the discussion into a national context, and will help the workshop address issues related to Ukraine’s involvement with ICOMOS and UNESCO. workshop would be the initiation of a discussion about the theory and practice of site interpretation and presentation. While the Park Service staff will not be imposing a specific view of interpretation on the Ukrainian cultural-heritage managers, they will take the opportunity to introduce US and international presentation standards and the new ICOMOS Ename Charter, and discuss their role in the success of a World Heritage nomination (and the success of international grant applications).
Interpret Europe meeting in Freiburg, Germany July 2011
Our first annual conference will be held from 11 to 14 July in Freiburg, Germany. This will be an important event for IE and for interpretation in Europe and we are keen that members make proposals as soon as possible for presentations or workshops – again, use the website to register your interest. Freiburg is easy to get to by rail, road and air – or even bus or bike!. We look forward to seeing many of you there to enjoy Black Forest hospitality and perhaps a slice of cake too!
www.interpret-europe.net.
Organization of a ICOMOS/OPW Endorsed Seminar and Workshop on the Public Interpretation and Outreach Challenges at Megalithic Sites and Monuments
Dates: Proposed date for Seminar: September 2011, to coincide with autumnal
Equinox; Date for follow-up Workshop: TBA. Venue: Dublin Castle, Bedford Hall
John Jameson, US National Park Service (NPS) and ICOMOS ICIP; and Clare Tuffy, Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre (Newgrange WHS) and ICOMOS Ireland; in association with Republic of Ireland Office of Public Works (OPW) and ICOMOS International Committee for Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites (ICIP)
Goals: The Seminar and Workshop programs are designed to support OPW in its core missions of managing, maintaining, and preserving national monuments, managing Historic Properties, and providing quality interpretative facilities and services. The outcome of the Seminar will be a best practice standards document. The outcome of the Workshop will be a set of recommendations to management for alternative interpretive strategies at specified Megalithic sites, with broader application to Megalithic sites and monuments in Europe and elsewhere.
Initiative to establish integrated international guidelines for cultural heritage interpretation:
Our goal in this work is to reach a consensus on definitions and principles that relate to visitor and stakeholder experience while tying this to the principles of interpretation and presentation as expressed in the 2008 ICOMOS Charter on Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites.
We want to work toward a producing a document supplement to the Charter that addresses visitor and stakeholder experience, to be endorsed and promoted by the ICOMOS Interpretation and Presentation Committee (ICIP). Our plan is to produce a final draft of this document in time to be presented during the ICOMOS General Assembly in September 2011 in Paris. By May 2011, we hope to have a draft document to present during the May 2011 NAI International Conference in Panama.
As an initial action, we agreed that each Task Group member would:
1) send statements on definitions and principles of interpretation and presentation as pertains to visitor and stakeholder experience;
2) send examples of best practice as it relates to items in #1 and tie these to cited relevant principles as expressed in the ICOMOS Charter.
We request that colleagues send comments to help expedite the work of the Task Group. We will post and distribute these statements and examples and provide feedback. We are creating a Task Group web site and will post individual comments on the web site. We are looking into possibly setting up group management software such as Base Camp. Contact John Jameson at jhjameson@yahoo.com if you like to participate. Comments may be submitted to the ICOMOS section of this blog site.
The National Association for Interpretation (NAI) will host the sixth annual international conference on the subject of heritage interpretation in Panama. The conference will bring together 150 to 200 delegates from 30 to 40 nations in an effort to create opportunities for professional development for attendees and establish a network for professional associations and individuals involved in heritage interpretation around the globe.