What’s Your Story?

Interpretive Planning with the 5-M Model

Lisa Brochu • lbrochu@interpnet.com

What Makes Your Museum Meaningful?

•  Collections

•  Compelling Stories

•  Emotional and Intellectual Connections

(Tangibles and Intangibles)

Why an Interpretive Plan?

•  Keeps the project on track with clear objectives.

•  Provides a way of explaining the project to funders, supporters, designers, fabricators and others.

•  Provides an evaluation tool at every phase.

The 5-M Planning Model

Management

Message

Markets

Mechanics

Media

Management

•  mission, goals, objectives •  policies & regulations •  key issues •  revision and update strategies •  operational resources

– staffing – budget –  facilities & equipment – maintenance

Logic Model

•  Impact (benefit you’re trying to achieve over the long term - for the resource, agency, or individual)

•  Outcomes (observable behavior changes,

either immediate or short term) •  Outputs (what you provide through media

choices)

Markets

•  product - what you have to offer •  price - perceived value •  place - relationship to what’s around •  promotion - how do people know about

you •  publics - market segmentation

– users & support – existing & potential

Message •  Why is this place or

collection significant? •  What interests

visitors? •  What is management

most interested in communicating?

Theme = Power

•  It’s what sticks

•  Thorndyke’s 1978 research

•  People forget facts, but remember themes

•  Ham’s Lindblad study

Message Development

Resource Management

Audience

Developing the Message

•  Central theme - the message behind the collection

•  Subthemes - framework for stories •  Storylines - individual ideas

Thematic Framework

Storyline

Storyline

Storyline

Subtheme A

Storyline

Storyline

Storyline

Storyline

Subtheme B

Storyline

Storyline

Storyline

Subtheme C

Central Theme

Central Theme Characteristics Ü Should include tangible/intangible connection Ü Should include visitor, management, and

resource considerations

Ü Should be a simple sentence Agriculture sowed the seeds of change for 20th

century Boulder County.

Subtheme Development

Ü Groupings of stories

Ü Miller’s 7 plus or minus 2

Ü Should reflect the language of the theme

Ü May dictate development of site or building layout, but may not

Storyline Development

•  Theme of the piece (exhibit, brochure, sign)

•  Message elements – Facts – Anecdotes – Quotes –  Illustrations – Graphic design

Mechanics

Large Scale Design Balance – Site or landscape features – Facilities and buildings –  Interpretive stories

Visitor Experience Model

Entry Exit Connections

Decision

Commitment

Mechanics

Smaller scale – Functional

relationships

– Accessibility

– Space programming

– Placement

– Physical opportunities

& constraints

Media

• Publications • Signs • Exhibits • Souvenirs • Food items • Visitor centers • Auto tours • Guided tours

  Products for children   Demonstrations   Living history   Audio tours   Landscape features   Art & sculpture   Playscapes   Drama & music

Texas State Aquarium

China National Tea Museum

Hangzhou#

The care of rivers is not a matter of rivers, but of the human heart. --Tanaka Shozo