T
he Office of Strategic Partnerships at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture completed its third Interpretation Workshop in Charleston, South Carolina, January 28 -February 3, 2018. The professional development training started as a pilot program, offered exclusively to individual and organizational members of the Association of African American Museums, beginning in January 2016. The workshop has since grown into an annual offering for museum professionals engaged in historical and cultural interpretation focused on difficult and/or contested stories within African American history and culture. The original intent for this training was to provide a professional standard and benchmark for the field for ethical interpretation and ways in which museums and cultural heritage sites can begin to incorporate these guidelines into interpretation practices at their own institutions. Through a partnership with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), workshop facilitators from the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission lead participants through a weeklong, immersive training program that skillfully layers NAI’s thirty-two hour Certified Interpretive Guide curriculum with an additional eighteen hours of content-rich experiences including visits to a variety of historic sites in Charleston—McLeod Plantation, Nathaniel Russell House, Seashore Farmers Lodge and the Old
Slave Mart Museum. Cohort members close out their residency-based training with a literature review and thematic interpretive presentation to demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge, methodologies and interpretative techniques taught throughout the week. Participants who successfully complete the requirements ultimately receive certification from the National Association for Interpretation as recognition by the profession for their newly-acquired skill set. But perhaps the most serendipitous part of the experience, for cohort members, facilitators and sponsoring institutions alike, are the strong bonds established by fellow workshop participants and the network of support that inevitably develops through the sharing of personal experiences, challenges, frustrations and the collective desire to initiate large-scale social change across the field. In the true spirit of collaboration and collegiality, the professional network in support of this workshop has also evolved into a coordinated effort that, to date, includes the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission, the National Association for Interpretation, Association of African American Museums and the program’s newest sponsor, Southeastern Museums Conference. In 2017 alone, the Interpretation Workshop experienced a 123% increase in participant applications from the first 36