Projects

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. [Project Profile; Interpretive Plan]
  • Drayton Hall (Charleston, South Carolina):  strategic and interpretive planning for a new visitor center, preparing grant applications to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services [Project Profile]
  • Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, State of Delaware:  plan and facilitate strategic planning meetings, conduct staff focus group interviews, and advise on strategic plan elements to meet or exceed the standards of the American Alliance of Museums. [Strategic Plan]
  • Sandy Spring Museum, Maryland:  facilitate community focus group meetings, develop community and supporter profiles, advise board and staff, and design and review strategic vision report to revitalize a local history museum. [Strategic Vision]
  • 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):  interpretive plan for an historic house museum owned and operated by San Francisco Heritage, a city-wide hitoric preservation organization. [Project Profile].
  • Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument (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 Ken Turino (Historic New England), 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 articles and one-page summaries of recent projects below or contact Max van Balgooy at Engaging Places, LLC: