Historic Southern Indiana

OUR TOWN: USING YOUR COMMUNITY AS A FORM OF INTERPRETATION

Presented by Folklorist Jon Kay

In this session folklorist Jon Kay explored the nature of folklife interpretation in state historic sites. Kay offered examples of community traditions and groups that could be utilized as possible sources of site interpretation. Through the use of two interpretive games participants identified their own folk groups and traditions. The works was interspersed with ideas and examples of community tradition based programs. One such method was the sue of a narrative stage. In this impromptu program, Kay demonstrated how bringing together people with shared experiences or interests could be developed into an interpretive program which could be used in a wide variety of applications. The thrust of this session was the empowerment of community members and patrons in a more democratic and representational look at history and historic programming.

8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600