Many museums and sites want to provide a platform for communities to be heard. We can help. Possible services include consulting on ways to get started with communities, helping to establish relationships, serving as an owner's rep with design firms, serving as a community rep with your museum, or providing interpretive planning and exhibit design services, Contact us. An initial conversation is always free.

"Community" has a lot of meanings. We choose to think broadly about it, though there is a phrase that can get us particularly excited. When we hear something like "our story is not told by the local historical society" or "our voices are not represented at the state museum," we want to be in service to you. We can help you tell your own story, in your own voices.

We also help other planners and designers understand the story of a place, leading to better and more responsive designs. This applies whether the impetus is placemaking (we recognize the problems with this term) or a Section 106 mitigation requirement. You might think of this as design dramaturgy.

A detailed review of goals, audience, resources, and stories, leading to recommendations for a complete suite of interpretive media, from programs to exhibits to websites to curriculum. The scope of an Interpretive Planning project can vary widely, depending most significantly on the level of stakeholder or community engagement. Contact us to talk about your needs and review sample interpretive plans.

This relatively quick, relatively inexpensive service often helps existing organizations get started. During a brief visit we meet with staff to become clear about interpretive goals, audiences, and stories, then review existing experiences in that context. The assessment, at its simplest, is a professional review of content, flow, and design that makes recommendations for next steps. Past assessments have been used to support strategic planning, fundraising, and writing RFPs to implement recommendations. Contact us to discuss your needs and review sample assessments.

Planning, design, and fabrication review for all forms of visitor experiences, including interior and exterior exhibits. Exhibit planning and design occurs in a series of stages, from Concept to Schematic Design, Design Development, and on through fabrication and installation. Although it's ideal to move straight through the process, it is not unusual for projects to take pauses for fundraising or architectural design. Exhibit Concept or Concept/Schematic Design may be stand-alone projects for that purpose. Contact us to chat