We’ve helped a wide variety of places better engage with their audiences and develop long range strategies, including:
- Arroyo Seco Byway National Scenic Parkway (California): identification and evaluation of assets (museums, historic sites, commercial districts, and natural areas) and preparation of an interpretive plan with themes, target audiences, and strategies.
- Drayton Hall (Charleston, South Carolina): strategic and interpretive planning for new visitor center
- Pennsylvania State Museum (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania): facilitating staff retreat to develop consensus on vision and purpose for an interdisciplinary institution.
- Philip Johnson Glass House (New Canaan, Connecticut): preservation philosophy and interpretive strategy for opening this complex modernist site to the public
- President Lincoln’s Cottage (Washington, DC): developing interpretive themes and strategies for opening this little-known presidential site to the public
- Peerless Rockville (Maryland): transitioning a local preservation organization from a traditional committee-based form of governance to a community-based structure
- Haas-Lilienthal House (San Francisco, California): assessment of current house tours and future business scenarios for a historic house museum operated by a regional preservation organization
- Sewall-Belmont House (Washington, DC): interpretive planning and collections management for one of the nation’s premier women’s history sites
- Cooper Regional History Museum (Upland, California): site selection, fundraising, construction management, and programming design for a new local history museum in an historic downtown
- Seward House Museum (Auburn, New York): community engagement assessment through the Museum Assistance Program of the American Association of Museums
- Louis Kahn’s Fisher House (Hatsboro, Pennsylvania): facilitating an assessment of programmatic and financial sustainability for a potential historic house museum
- Kykuit Symposia on historic sites (2002 and 2007): coordinated a national gathering of directors, funders, and associations to identify national issues and solutions to the challenges facing historic sites and house museums
- James Madison’s Montpelier (Orange, Virginia): interpretive planning and strategy for newly restored house through visitor research and scholarly assessments
- Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum (City of Industry, California): designing public programs to engage local and regional audiences
- Decatur House (Washington, DC): advising on the interpretation of African American history and culture through exhibits, cell phone tours, and teacher institutes
- Neighborhood Place Project (Southern California): developing and presenting walking tours of diverse neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area, ranging from Beverly Hills to San Antonio Canyon to Rose Hill Cemetery
- National training workshops on historic house museum management, community engagement, interpretive planning, and intentional practice sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History in collaboration with such leaders in the field as Dr. George McDaniel (Drayton Hall), Randi Korn (Randi Korn and Associates), Steve Long (Lower East Side Tenement Museum), and Tim Merriman (National Association for Interpretation)
- Online media: Developed and managed HistoricSites.WordPress.com, a blog and website for National Trust Historic Sites; assisted several sites in upgrading their websites, including Belle Grove, Lyndhurst, Woodlawn, Pope-Leighey House, and Shadows on the Teche
For more details on our approach and capabilities, check out the one-page summaries of recent projects below or contact Max van Balgooy at EngagingPlaces, LLC:
