Association Of Heritage Interpretation.docx

About AHI What is interpretation? Interpretation is a communication process that shares interesting stories and experience’s that help people make sense of, and understand more about, a site, collection or event. Interpreters come from all walks of life. They can be teachers, storytellers, writers, artists, curators, designers and scientists. However, they all share a passion for crafting engaging memorable experiences that connect people to our heritage. It is through these experiences that we can enhance people’s appreciation and understanding of their heritage.

About AHI The Association for Heritage Interpretation is an invaluable group for anyone interested in interpretation – the art of helping people explore and appreciate our world. We offer a forum for ideas, debate, networking and sharing good practice. We bring together people actively involved or concerned with interpretation of natural and cultural heritage. If you’re working, training or just keenly interested in heritage interpretation, then AHI is a great place to be.

AHI Ethos AHI believes that interpretation enriches our lives through engaging emotions, enhancing experiences and deepening understanding of places, people, events and objects from the past and present. AHI aims to promote excellence in the practice and provision of interpretation and to gain wider recognition of interpretation as a professional activity.

Association for Heritage Interpretation

Association for Heritage Interpretation – United Kingdom AHI began life in 1975 as the Society for the Interpretation of Britain’s Heritage. It has a membership of over 400 interpreters from around the world. The Association for Heritage Interpretation is a key forum for anyone interested in interpretation – the art of helping people explore and appreciate our world. AHI believes that interpretation enriches our lives through engaging emotions, enhancing experiences and deepening understanding of places, people, events and objects from the past and present.

The Association for Heritage Interpretation works to: •Encourage excellence in interpretation •Promote professionalism in interpretation •Facilitate discussion and exchange of ideas •Support a wide range of organisations in their service to visitors •Develop and recognise best practice AHI is managed by an Executive Committee which meets three times a year and holds an AGM at the Annual Conference in the autumn

The Association for Heritage Interpretation (AHI) is a membership based organisation for people actively involved or concerned with heritage interpretation. AHI began as the Society for the Interpretation of Britain’s Heritage in 1975 and later became the Association for Heritage Interpretation. It has a membership of over 400 interpreters from around the world. It is managed by an Executive Committee which meets four times a year and holds an AGM at the Annual Conference in the Autumn.[1] AHI’s president was Lord Sandford (1920-2009)[citation needed] and its patron is Loyd Grossman.[2] The Association states[1] that it: ... works to:     

Encourage excellence in interpretation Promote professionalism in interpretation Facilitate discussion and exchange of ideas Support a wide range of organisations in their service to visitors Develop and recognise best practice

AHI offers a focus for ideas, debate and networking. The association brings together people actively involved or concerned with interpretation of natural and cultural heritage. Some work as interpretation or heritage officers, park rangers or countryside managers, others as designers or illustrators, planners, teachers, curators, consultants, academics or people from many other professions with an interest in our environmental inheritance. AHI publishes its journal Interpretation three times year, produces bi-monthly newsletters and organises a series of training events each year. In 2007, AHI worked with Interpret Scotland to hold The Vital Spark Interpretation Conference in Aviemore. The vibrant annual AHI conference is hosted in different venues across Britain and brings together interpreters to meet each other, present papers on interpretation practice and visit local visitor sites to see case studies of interpretation. Recent hosts have included Bournemouth, Cardiff, Newcastle and Shropshire. The 2013 conference is in Edinburgh in October.

Awards[edit] The AHI offered Discover Heritage Awards in 2015 and 2017.[2] From 1984 to 2007 the Interpret Britain and Ireland Awards were awarded annually, "recognising innovative and inspiring interpretation".[3]

Aims & Objectives Nederlandse versie Polska wersja The overall goal of InHerit is to build heritage staff capacity for competence oriented informal learning in inspiring heritage contexts that offer visitors a low threshold entrance to lifelong learning with a European dimension.

The first aim of InHerit is to develop competences in Heritage Interpretation (HI) for key stakeholders who direct and deliver non-formal education for visitors. Therefore InHerit will try : 

to further develop HI philosophy and methodology, and teach its application for visitors' personal development, for site management goals and for European policies and values.  to establish a high quality regular Grundtvig / “Erasmus for All” IST that develops key competences for adult learning staff in HI. By 2020 the majority of managers and educators working with sites of international significance should have benefited from this IST.  to exploit the results for enhanced training and practice at national, regional and local level.  to outline advanced IST within the LLP aiming to develop the skills of educators for different HI formats, special techniques and target groups, aligned with the reference framework of key competences for adult learning staff. Heritage Interpretation originated in the US national parks where it is a highly successful approach to visitor-oriented non-formal education. However, it needs to be further developed for and embedded in the European context. It will thus be the task of the InHerit consortium : 

to reveal the links between the pedagogic principles of HI and Europe, i.e. European values and policies and educational philosophy.  to integrate state of the art competence-oriented education in HI methodology.  to apply the European key competences framework when exploiting the creative learning environments of heritage sites for LLL. Professional recognition of non-formal adult education at heritage sites must be raised. Therefore this project will also : 

develop and teach validation of visitors' learning outcomes by methods that are suitable for informal heritage environments.  develop a validation system for IST in HI, that is feasible and practicable under the financial and management conditions in Grundtvig.  relate the validation of IST learning outcomes to the EQF.  develop and promote policy recommendations for better impact from HI for lifelong learning and other European policies beyond the LLP, to enhance acknowledgement for the profession and to improve non-formal adult learning experience for visitors at museums, monuments and sites. Last but not least, InHerit will contribute to the effectiveness and success of the new education and learning trends focusing on place-based learning and learning cities & regions. Interpretation techniques offer a valuable didactic approach to place-based learning and heritage sites are ideal places for competence driven, exploratory and participative learning experiences. Heritage as such represents a valuable sector in the ‘learning ecology’ of a region or city.