Common Learning Portal

Good Stories Well-Told

The history of interpretation has had amazing revolutions. The first major moment where interpretation began shifting from just factual communication to a more meanings-based approach came in the 1950s, championed by Freeman Tilden.

In Interpreting Our Heritage, Tilden crafted a framework for seeing natural and cultural resources as deeply meaningful and personal landscapes. Tilden’s model largely translated in the field to amazingly powerful lectures and programs, where interpreters explained why audiences might find these resources meaningful and worthy of preservation. For five decades, interpreters served as a sage-on-the-stage, offering prepackaged nuggets of wisdom and the stories of human experience within the resource.

This form of communication was and remains valid and valuable. The stories of the resource and the expertise of the interpreter on those stories are important elements of the interpretive experience. But the shift in the culture of communication and education are showing us that these prescriptive models alone are not enough to drive visitor actions or change lives.

Facts about a landscape are never enough. “Not with the names of things does care for a place arise,” Tilden wrote, “but by exposing the soul of things–those truths that lie behind what you are showing your visitor.”

Helping facilitate a visitor’s connection to the story of the place through techniques and interactions with the resource can catalyze care.

Additional Readings

• Foundations of 21st Century Interpretation Competency Descriptions
• Identifying Best Practices for Live Interpretive Programs in the United States National Park Service by Marc J. Stern and Robert Powell, 2012 [NOTE: The information in this resource was published by a university partner and cannot be modified by NPS. If you experience difficulty accessing the information, please email us at clp@nps.gov or contact us via our online form. We will try to assist you as best we can. This may include providing the information to you in an alternate format.]

Looking For More on Audience Centered Experiences?

You can find much more self-guided learning and all of the materials for making yourself an ACE in the Audience Centered Experience Interpretation workbook.

You can find links to seasonal lesson plans which support this emerging skill set in the Audience Centered Experience Trainers’ Guide.