• 20Apr

    When an Airport Is More Than an Airport

    Troutman rocking chair

    I just flew into Charlotte Airport in North Carolina for a training event and was reminded that their airport is distinctive. White rocking chairs are scattered around to provide a place to sit while waiting. I have had layovers here and found this a charming alternative to the steel and plastic cushions of most places. On one occasion I was astonished to find a very talented gospel-blues performer singing and playing at a baby grand piano. That made the wait much easier and it made me wonder what other interesting things happen in Charlotte.

    Airports are usually pretty similar and that makes sense. They have functional requirements that are probably most easily handled with standard equipment. But some cities go to a great deal of trouble to also tell their community or regional stories. Vancouver Airport has beautiful corridors of First Nations décor and artifacts. It helps create a real sense of place when you land, having flown from another nation.

    Denver International Airport (DIA) is our home airport and the distinctive tent roof by Fentress Bradburn Architects of the main terminal can be seen from miles away and looks somewhat like snowy peaks in the distance. They have added some excellent exhibits at the international arrival areas with photos and artifacts from the Native American tribes of the region. And sometimes they do things that just do not seem to work with our identity as a gateway to the Rockies. A 32-foot , 4.5 ton blue mustang near the south end of the airport by Luis Jiménez resulted in his death when the head of it fell on him during the creation process. It is unusual, and has been controversial as a sculptural icon since being installed in 2008.

    Wikimedia Photo

    In 2010 a 7-ton statue of Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead was erected south of the main terminal to advertise a King Tut exhibit in the city. Many travels said it “creeped them out” to have the god of the dead standing visibly at the end of the terminal in a place we all hope to pass through alive. I simply thought it stepped on our western U.S. identity. Our airport volunteers wear cowboy hats, greet guests as they emerge from the underground trains and help people find information and transportation. We seem to have a partial commitment to a strong “sense of place” identity. Some of our public art choices at DIA are odd at best.

    Las Vegas is one of those places noted for its casinos and identity as a fantasyland of disconnected buildings and images – an Eiffel Tower, a Venetian Canal and a pirate ship. But McCarran Airport commissioned a series of Desert Wildlife sculptures in 1992 and David Phelps landed the contract. His larger than life rattler, horned toad, desert tortoise, jack rabbit and scorpion seem carved from the cracked mud of a high plains alkali flat. They emerge from the Terminal D floor surrounding a large mosaic map, reminding you that you have landed  in the desert.

    David Phelps sculpture

    Most of us spend hours or days each year waiting in these travel terminals. I enjoy it more when the food reflects local flavor like the great BBQ in the Houston Airport. I love the beautiful desert landscaping of the Tucson Airport that greets you and invites you to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Public art is interesting in airports but even more powerful when it shares regional stories and helps establish a sense of place. When the architecture, furniture, public art, food, exhibits and even music all work together, an airport becomes more than just another public facility doing a job. It becomes a public interpretive site that welcomes people to regional heritage, stories, cultures and landscapes. Few airports get it all right, but some are really making an effort. I like that.

    -Tim Merriman

    Permalink Filed under: Communication, Cultural Interpretation, From the Executive Director, Interpretive Planning, NAI blog, Nature Interpretation Tags: , , , Comments Off
  • 06Apr

    Interview with an Entrepreneur, Betty Brennan of Taylor Studios

    Betty Brennan is the dedicated entrepreneur behind Taylor Studios and this week she took a few moments to answer my questions about how her ideas and interests have grown into a very effective business that works in the field of interpretation. Taylor Studios is an interpretive planning, design and fabrication business in Rantoul, Illinois, doing $4 million in projects each year with a talented and growing staff of 38.

    The staff at Taylor Studios work in two buildings. One office building is home to all project management, project design, and interpretive planning. The other is a former Wal-Mart store that is now devoted to the fabrication of exhibits and models of anything you might imagine for a nature center, museum or interpretive center.

    I asked Betty questions and she gave very thoughtful, direct answers:

    Tim: How did you get started in business?

    Betty: I grew up in a business – my family’s farm. I was my Dad’s helper, so I was outside all the time, and loved nature. Finding artifacts outdoors led me to fall in love with archaeology and history.

    During college at Southern Illinois University, I excelled in business and marketing. I knew early on I was an entrepreneur. At 19, I set a goal to be on the INC 500 list and achieved that goal after 10 years in business. I have been on the INC 5,000 list as well.

    Joe Taylor was my partner in the early years. He was the artist and I was the business person. Joe worked for a taxidermist and that led to making trees for a nature center. Then we discovered this was an industry, making museum exhibits for a living. How cool is that?! I went off to grad school to get an MBA. Joe went to work with Chase Studios. Later we did contract work for Brees Studios. We are friendly competitors with Gary Brees now.

    It wasn’t easy in the early years. We built the business from the ground up, starting Taylor Studios in our small town home’s garage, barn loft, and renovated chicken coop. Joe left to pursue other business interests, and I stayed on with Taylor Studios and expanded it.

    Tim: Why did you get into interpretive projects?

    Betty: We almost immediately were asked by fabrication clients to do design work because many of the designs we got from others were “floating in air”— not functional or something that could realistically be built.

    Designer Matt Wiley, working on a project.

    A children’s museum in Decatur introduced us to interpretation in 1996, while doing a project about health for kids. I started doing drawings, and we have been working on interpretive projects ever since. We wrote copy to tell Mark Twain’s story at the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal. We knew you had to engage the visitor with writing; you couldn’t just hit them with a lot of facts. Interpretation is the best way to do that.

    Around eleven years ago, one of our interpretive planners, Pete Salmon, started getting involved with NAI and took the interpretive planning course. Pete went on to earn the CHI and CIP credentials, and Katie VanMetre earned the CIP in 2009.

    Tim: What interpretive projects have you done recently?

    Betty: Right now, we have several really exciting projects because the clients are allowing some risk-taking in design. Linn County, Iowa, is expanding their nature center. We did their original exhibits 10 years ago. The nature center is getting a whimsical, kid-friendly twist, using a custom children’s storybook to tell the story. It’s a non-traditional approach in teaching children about nature. We have often told the wetlands and woodlands story, but this is a very exciting new way to tell it.

    Artist Shawn Hensley, sculpting a figure for an exhibit.

    We are also working with the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois to tell Abraham Lincoln’s story in a different way. Here in Illinois, there are so many exhibits about Lincoln – Taylor Studios is taking a theatrical approach, telling the story through Lincoln’s remarkable values. In the exhibit, Lincoln reflects on his life in very creative ways and we use video, lighting and varied media. We want people to reflect on their own lives throughout this exhibit.

    Our Prairie Grove exhibits in Arkansas won a Region 6 NAI award and we will submit it for a national award. Other projects are going on with Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, Rend Lake Visitor Center in Illinois, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, North Dakota,  and the Nevada State Railroad Museum. We keep about twenty projects going at any one time.

    Tim: How has certification with NAI played a role in your staff’s professional development and Taylor’s business development?

    Betty: I think our certification of staff members as CIPs give us credibility, a common language and a support system. I think it helps differentiate us from competitors. We try to be first to market on this kind of thing.

    Tim: What trends to you see in the business?

    Betty: We’re happy to see more open-mindedness in design. The industry is getting more open to creative design approaches. They know they have to compete with lots of other leisure time media. They need a compelling way to tell their stories.

    Planning seems to be a new trend instead of just jumping in with exhibits. When you ask what’s your story, why do you want to do this, they see a reason to plan it first. If we can help a client spend their dollars better and more sustainably, that’s good.

    Tim: Thanks, Betty. I appreciate your time in sharing your business story with us. All the best with your projects.

    - Tim Merriman

    Permalink Filed under: Communication, Cultural Interpretation, From the Executive Director, Interpretive Planning, Leadership, Management, NAI blog Tags: , , , , No Comments
  • 16Mar

    Flag Raising at Omaha Beach – Time to Remember

    While training at a small building once used for visitor contacts at Normandy American Cemetery, I saw about 35 American soldiers in camouflage fatigues and desert boots marching toward the cemetery grounds. I grabbed a camera and followed them down the path.

     

    The troops, who were on their way home from Afghanistan, would be raising the American flag in the cemetery at 9 AM. I watched quietly from a respectful distance. I saw the soldiers pull to attention as the large American flag was carefully unfolded by some of the men and attached to the rope to be hoisted. As the flag went up they saluted.

     

    I could feel my throat swell and eyes fill with tears unexpectedly. These men are experienced troops returned from a war zone paying respect to those who gave their lives in WWII. As the flag went up it lifted into the wind and unfurled.

     

    Andy Anderson (right) takes the flag from the young people from California who took down the flag.

    Dwight “Andy” Anderson, Director of Visitor Experience at the Normandy American Cemetery (overlooking Omaha Beach), is a retired Master Sargent who served in the Army and traveled in more than 90 countries. He speaks English, French, and German fluently, and a smattering of several other languages. His knowledge of personal stories of the soldiers under his care in the cemetery is extensive. He shares them with pride and much emotion as he guides family members, other visitors, and dignitaries around the site.

     

    President Obama, along with many other Allied leaders such as President Sarkhozy, visited on June 6, 2009. The guides at the cemetery have been hosts to many world leaders over the years in serving the mission of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

     

    As they tell you of 44 pairs of brothers in the cemetery, the fathers and sons, and the story of the Niland brothers (Saving Private Ryan’s story), the utter despair created by the losses suffered during a war settles on you and in you. The victory of the Allies in WWII was won at a great price to soldiers and civilians, especially the French in villages that were occupied by German soldiers.

     

    Andy surprised us Thursday afternoon by inviting us and the other non-ABMC members in our class to lower and fold the flag at 4 PM. The sound of taps in background was chilling. I remembered playing taps on Memorial Day as a trumpet player in high school with little understanding of the solemnity and deep meaning for veterans standing quietly next to the graves of fallen comrades.

     

    French students from high schools learn about the wall that holds the names of those still Missing In Action.

    Andy also invited a family visiting from California to assist in the flag ceremony. He knows from experience the power of allowing visitors to share this daily act of raising and lowering the flag. Afterward he asked the children in the family to take a pledge – to study hard, eat their vegetables and obey their parents. They smiled and agreed.

     

    Helping people make emotional and intellectual connections with this unique site is enhanced by sharing the personal stories of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, the flag raising and lowering ceremonies each day and the simple playing of taps in background at the end of the day. Our week in the planning course at Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach was shared with participants from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, and Greece. The experience touched us all differently based on our own backgrounds, bringing home the point that thoughtful interpretation at these American Cemeteries in Europe and north Africa will help new generations understand the tragic costs of war.

     

    The next morning at 9 AM we took a break from the planning class presentations and hoisted two American flags over the cemetery at Omaha Beach. Mike Yasenchak, a Cemetery Superintendent, and veteran, led the singing of the Star Spangled Banner and all joined in. He has sung at the White House at times in his career and his strong voice carried above all others. The light fog that surrounded the cemetery at this hour of the morning kept our focus only on the radiating lines of crosses and Stars of David that mark the graves. This place, its stories and the respect of the caretakers for the men and women who gave their lives will bring those who visit to a deeper understanding of the competency, courage and sacrifice of American soldiers and nurses during a unique and difficult time in history.

     

    -Tim Merriman

    Permalink Filed under: Communication, Cultural Interpretation, From the Executive Director, Interpretive Planning, NAI blog No Comments
  • 09Mar

    Pointe du Hoc – Sharing an Important Story from D-Day

    On June 6, 1944, Companies C, D, and F, about 200 men, of the Second Ranger Battalion assaulted the bluffs of Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, a point of land between Omaha and Utah Beaches. Under the command of a native Texan, Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder, they achieved their mission but more than 40% of their brave comrades. Their mission was to take this high ground and secure the coastal road while silencing six 8-inch guns in the area. Unbeknownst to the Rangers, there were actually only three big guns and they had already been moved a mile or more inland. Still Rudder and his men secured the area in two and a half days and united with their comrades from the beach landings to move further inland and to secure the port of Cherbourg.

    Visitors at Pointe du Hoc look out of the observation ports used by German soldiers when the D-Day landing began.

    This important part of the D-Day Landing story is less well known than that of Omaha Beach, but very accessible in some ways because the landscape is still there as evidence of all that occurred. The German gun emplacements, underground bunkers, bomb craters and observation ports are open and available to the public. The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has the job of telling this story while also managing the 24 American Cemeteries in Europe and North Africa. Only one of the rangers who fought so well at Pointe du Hoc is living and he is in his 90s, so the ABMC’s job at Pointe du Hoc has become even more important.

    Members of the planning class work on their visitor experience design for Pointe du Hoc.

    We are in Port de Bessin, France, teaching an interpretive planning class this week for eighteen participants from four countries. ABMC is our host at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Most of our participants manage other World War I and II cemeteries and battlefield sites.

    The American Cemetery Superintendents are responsible not only for the physical management of these significant sites, but also the interpretation of the thousands of stories that come with them for millions of visitors every year.

    Our planning class at Normandy American Cemetery.

    There was a time when the role of ABMC guides was more one of helping people find deceased family members and loved ones in the cemeteries. But WWII was over in 1945, 67 years ago. Those who remember first-hand the battles, challenges and outcomes are elderly and fewer in number each year. The stories of those who made the ultimate sacrifice are now in the hands of ABMC as interpreters and planning is an important part of the process to keep those stories alive.

    The Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach gets more than 1.5 million visitors each year. About 15% are Americans and about 60% of the guests are French. The other 25% come from every other nation in the world. The new Visitor Center at Omaha Beach provides a very emotional experience with the individual stories of many of the soldiers. In one corridor you can hear the reading of the names of all those buried at the cemetery. It takes 15 hours or more to read more than 9,300 names.

    Though many young people in America may not know what events turned the tide of war in favor of the Allies, many French people remember and teach their children by adopting the graves and stories of individual soldiers. They pass on their knowledge of the individuals who gave their lives in defense of freedom to the next generation.

    As ABMC identified their needs to become better at interpretation as keepers of these sites and stories over the past decade, they have invested in training and partnerships. National Park Service staff have provided training and ABMC staff have spent time at U.S. parks and historic sites to gain insights into strategies used in high visitation battlefield settings.  They have sent many of their staff to NAI courses in the U.S. and attended NAI’s international conferences. This is the first interpretive planning course with ABMC in Europe and it includes the hands-on work of planning the visitor experience at Pointe du Hoc.

    ABMC wins the hearts and minds of  thousands of visitors each week with their interpretation of America’s soldiers and their roles in WWI and WWII. Pointe du Hoc will soon get many improvements to better tell its important and powerful story to all who visit there. As we stood out on the point in extraordinarily high winds and looked left to Utah Beach and right to Omaha Beach, we listened to the ABMC staff recount the stories of the men who scaled the cliffs. As a class project, the Pointe du Hoc offers the challenge of conveying the competency, courage and sacrifice of the soldiers who gave all of us a chance to live in freedom. As an American, I am proud to play even a small part in telling that story and prouder still of the good work that the ABMC does on the behalf of the brave men and women whose histories are now in their hands.

    -Tim Merriman

    Permalink Filed under: Communication, Cultural Interpretation, From the Executive Director, Interpretive Planning, NAI blog, Professional Development Tags: , , , 2 Comments
  • 17Feb

    Interpretive Technology – What are the Opportunities?

    Technology is scary to a lot of folks in our field. Despite my four decades in the profession, I still get excited about new technologies. But I hate to see them used just to say we have something new and shiny. They should do something wonderful in revealing hidden stories and meanings in the resource or in relating to people that cannot be done another way. Some of the very best experiences are very low tech and hands-on. Ted Cable and Larry Beck (Gifts of Interpretation, 2011) write about the applications of technology in our profession in Chapter 8 – The Gift of Illumination Through Technology. They write that, Technological approaches allow visitors to view objects that previously could not be seen, experience environments that could not be experienced, and manipulate and respond to stimuli that previously could not be perceived.

    This week I was attending a meeting in Washington, DC, with the Federal Interagency Council on Interpretation, a group of lead interpretive officials with the federal agencies. Dr. Steve Storck of NOAA introduced us to a fascinating video from Corning Glass, A Day Made of Glass 2 Unpacked. Take a look at it if you have time or just tune in to the 8:43 mark in the 11.5 minute video if your time is limited. Any of us can quickly suggest what might go wrong with this use of glass technology (birds fly into reflective glass), but the opportunities are evident as well and explored in the video. They make the connection between a school field trip and the child taking the experience home to share with parents. They suggest how these new phone, tablet, QR, augmented reality and related technologies might work together in the daily lives of a child and her family.

     

    I was contacted a few months back about vendors who could help develop virtual tours for nature areas. I did not have a source to suggest. I have since learned that Glacier Bay National Park has been a leader in using digital media on their website. Homestead National Monument is another NPS site working with digital media. If any of you have thoughts to share on this, please comment. Young people use texting and social media easily and at a level greater than many of us who are older. Finding technological applications that capture their interest and lead them from virtual to actual experiences with nature and history is the desire, but we likely must start where they are and not where we are. They are wired and like it.

    There are opportunities out there for us to become more skilled in using these media to connect new generations to actual resources by introducing them through virtual resources. We will have to invest in new technologies and hire people trained in these areas to help us apply the applications well. Interpretive planning is still important to the process. We need to know we are using technology as a means to better interpretation and not just a “Gee Whiz” end. When it is used well, we may not notice the technology as much as have a great experience we could not have in more simple ways.

    - Tim Merriman

    Permalink Filed under: Communication, Cultural Interpretation, From the Executive Director, Interpretive Planning, Management, NAI blog, Nature Interpretation 4 Comments

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