Visualizing Interpretive Space through Integrative Teamwork (VISIT)
Project Details
Grant Program: Institute of Museum & Library Services- Inspire! Grants for Small Museums
Project Title: Visualizing Interpretive Space through Integrative Teamwork (VISIT)
Project Start/End Date: 09/01/2022 – 8/31/2024
Budget: $49,706.51
Project Description [short]: The VISIT project goal is to create a well-designed, interactive, and discovery-rich Interpretive Center redesign plan through multi-level community engagement that supports the development of new Grand Bay Coastal Resources Center’s exhibits and interpretation for various types of learners. Our proposed project’s results will enhance our museum interpretive space to encourage lifelong learning. By approaching the redesign process with community engagement rather than staff-only input, we aim to create a learning environment plan that appeals to various audiences. The community members we select for our target group are intentional representatives of learning facilitators such as local classroom teachers, community members, and informal educators who frequent the Grand Bay NERR Interpretive Center and know our community and our programs well. Engaging with this group will keep our redesign focus on learner-centered ideas, as the learners are our ultimate beneficiaries.
Project Description [extended]: The GNDNERR Interpretive Center design process began in 2004 with a small group of staff. GNDNERR staff led the effort to include topics relevant to the land, natural history, and cultural heritage, but because a public visitor center was new to the area, there was no baseline knowledge of the types of audiences that would visit the Interpretive Center. Aesthetically, the exhibits are visually appealing and combine uplands and marsh habitats in the layout of the space. The Grand Bay Coastal Resources Center (CRC), which houses the GNDNERR Interpretive Center, opened to the public in 2009.
However, over the last 12 years, there has been wear and tear expected of a permanent exhibit. Additionally, we’ve studied our audiences more and have established needs to transform the interpretive space from passive exhibits, geared towards adult audiences to something that will truly complement experiential learning for all our audiences, including K-12 and collegiate school groups, and non-traditional audiences such as artists and veterans. We’ve observed small children that can’t quite reach or observe our current displays or understand exhibit messaging at their age level. Broken technological displays decrease the aesthetic and educational value of the exhibits. As it stands, our current interpretive space does not address various types of learners or create opportunities for engagement and effective free-choice learning.
The target group for the VISIT project includes members from the local community, classroom teachers, and informal educators. Members of this target group are current end-users of the interpretive space and educators with whom we have had strong relationships within past years. Not only will this target group feel a sense of pride and ownership in the process of the exhibit redesign, but they will also have a critical role with providing valuable input for their children, students, and other community members to have an optimal learning experience at GNDNERR. The project team will identify and work with this group to integrate ideas and best practices for effective exhibit design, with the long-term goal of creating exhibits that better suit the needs of learners. Products that will result from this project include a community survey, focus group notes, exhibit assessment, and an action plan with theme development and conceptual renderings of an updated interpretive space.
Interpretive Framework
Existing Plans
Goals and Messages
Your Audiences
Existing Plans
- Do you have any master plans, interpretive plans, logic models, best practice guides, or other overarching documents that guide your site? If so, please provide them. We do not specifically have any of the above documents except our management plan. See #3 below.
- Do you have a mission and/or vision statement for your site/organization? If so, please provide them. “Our vision is to inspire our community to value, support, and practice ecosystem conservation. Our mission is to be a leader in science and outreach, in service to our community.”
- Do you have management goals for your site/organization? If so, please provide them. You can find our Management Plan here.
- Are there any institutions that you consider peers—those that share characteristics in common with your site, such as level of resources, community engagement, goals, etc.)? If so, please share. Yes! Please see the “Site Visits” box above. Our focus group participants included peers from the Alabama Aquarium, University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Education Center, MS Gulf Coast National Heritage Area, Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and Pascagoula River Audubon Center.
Goals and Messages
- After experiencing your new exhibit what would you like visitors to do? How would you like visitors to feel? Please describe in detail. For new visitors, I would like them to feel inspired to go outdoors and explore a habitat they didn’t know existed or knew existed but haven’t had a chance to explore. I would like for them to feel like they can come back any time to experience a peaceful outdoor experience, and that they might see something new the next time they visit. We have 18,000 acres of natural space that can act as its own changing exhibit space just with the seasons.
- Please fill in the blank. After experiencing your new exhibit, if a visitor only knows one thing, they should know….
- Essential experiences are the things that visitors can do or the places that they can go within your site to have a direct, first-hand experience of your most important stories and/or resources. For example: at a park, it may be a certain hiking trail, overlook, or landmark. At a museum, it might be a certain artifact, artwork, or collection.
“The essential experience occurs when your visitor is in the right place in the resource, realizes your message and has an ‘Ah-ha!!’ moment. Your visitor, your most important message, and the essential place have come together and meaning-making occurs.”
– Jay Miller, President (2019) of the National Association for Interpretation
What are your site’s essential experiences? Please describe them in as much detail as you can. Inside the interpretive center, we have one live animal that becomes an essential experience especially for field trip groups that we may speak to about estuaries in general. Our resident diamondback terrapin is a direct connection to the marsh and brackish water ecosystem that visitors can see from two miles upland. (Access to the marsh is two miles south of the building.) Another essential experience would be visiting the trails or driving down the road where a prescribed fire has just occurred, and new growth of grasses, flowers, etc. can be seen. Ideally, I hope visitors can see the benefits of a prescribed fire/controlled burn and understand that it is not harmful, and why our staff is dedicated to restoring the habitat.
Your Audiences
- To develop the most engaging and relevant content for your site, we need to learn about who your audiences/visitors are. We recommend selecting around three primary groups to target. 1) Families with young children 1-5 years old for sure. This is a target group that sparked my desire to redesign the Interpretive Center for more interactive learning and family time. I would like to see a space for the learning “facilitators” to really make bringing their families here worth their time. It’s free to come here, so there are no admission fees or cost barriers, but time is still money. 2) The “professionals/hobbyists” would be my next group. We have folks that seek out sites like ours because they know there’s more outside than inside, and they are very interested in coming to document things on iNaturalist, or they’re specifically looking for birds, or they have a huge camera and want to do some niche nature photography. I also feel like these people enjoy feeling like they have the space to themselves and can be quiet outside while looking for those specific elements/things they’re interested in. 3) We also have our “explorers,” and oftentimes they know to look for the brown highway signs that denote a nature place. These could be our snowbirders, or just any group passing by that want to stop and check it out. I want these people to come in for the bathroom break but also stick around and learn something cool about the Grand Bay NERR and NWR. I feel like if we are able to cater to this specific group, we will also accomplish having enough interesting content for our K-12 or college field trip groups. I would also love to convert our “experience seeker” passport stamp collectors to stay a while and become the “explorer.”
If you already have a sense of the visitors coming to your site, you may be able to quickly identify the audiences that you currently engage and those you hope to engage in the future. You may group these into broad categories such as: families with young children (1-5 years old); weekend nature hikers; annual 6th grade school trips; and/or retirees who travel cross-country in RVs every summer. If you already have target audiences identified, please provide these categories in your response. If you are unfamiliar with your audiences or would like to dig a little deeper, consider the questions below to help you develop your audience profiles.
Think about who currently comes to your site, and ask yourself,
- Are they local? Or are they coming to your site from afar? A mix. Most of our walk-in visitors visit from afar, but many locals do not know we exist so we do see this in our guest book.
- Are they young? Old? Families? Individuals? School groups? We see K-12 groups during the academic year. Families during weekend events. Families also seek out something to do over long breaks like winter, spring, summer, and fall breaks. Individuals are usually our older hobbyists. Many of our explorers are couples traveling together that like to stop by.
- What do they care about and enjoy? (E.g., learning new things, sharing experiences with others; getting out into nature; teaching others; etc.) The families with young children are looking for something for their kids to do and enjoy, and I am always honored they choose Grand Bay NERR because I hope it means they want their kids to be outside and enjoy nature and hopefully appreciate science too. If their kids are enjoying something and their attention is kept, the adults also tend to enjoy their time and their goals for their kids have been met. We also see this with homeschool groups and our special needs/life skills groups.
- What are their needs, expectations, and limitations (particularly related to mobility, information processing, and sensory sensitivity)?
- What gets their attention? Who do they listen to?
Think about audiences you do not currently reach. Are there any groups that you wish were coming to your site or that you hope to attract with your new exhibit(s)? Use the questions above to help you develop profiles for these groups.
- On average, what percentage of your total visitors are newcomers/first-time visitors vs returning visitors? How satisfied are you with these percentages? Hard to know. This isn’t a question we ask our walk-in visitors, and for our major public events I think we ask that question just for one event (the one I organize). I don’t think the events from the actual Education Program asks if they’ve returned. I know we recognize people that sign up again and again, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re coming back for the Interpretive Center. Rather, they are there for another program in the classroom.
- How would you characterize overall attendance at your site: strong, moderate, low? Please describe. Definitely low. We are lucky if we get 2 walk-in visitors each day inside our interpretive center. There may be visitor use outdoors that we don’t capture, but we are currently trying to capture through trail counters (another project I’m working on). On the flip side, we do not have a full time staff member out at the front desk. We have a law enforcement officer that’s super friendly but he is at the front desk on days he’s not patrolling in the field. So, the low visitation numbers are okay for us on the daily basis. For school groups, we may have 10-50 students here for field trips, and it is rare we have more than one school just based on staff capacity. Occasionally, we have larger public events on weekends. Our largest event has brought about 350 people from the community (mostly families with children, average groups of 4) to the building in one night.
- Which of the following communication channels are most important/successful for you in reaching your visitors and patrons: social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), email, text messaging, direct mail, or something else? Please describe and share an example, if possible. We use Facebook and Instagram as our primary social media outlets. Emails are sent to listservs that target visitors that have signed up for events, coastal science teachers, and volunteers. Emails mostly advertise upcoming events and workshops or volunteer opportunities. They are sent possibly monthly or less.
- If you use social media, are you able to share any audience from data collected through Facebook, Instagram, Google business, etc..? If so, please share. I am not consistent with keeping up with this, but here is my best attempt. According to Instagram (500+ followers), 94.8% of our followers live in the US, and they mostly fall on coastal towns between Mobile, AL through New Orleans, LA. The age breakdown is as follows: 13-17 (0.3%), 18-24 (8.9%), 25-34 (32.2%), 35-44 (25.4%), 45-54 (17.1%), 55-64 (11.2%), 65+ (4.6%). Two thirds of our followers are women, and one third are men. According to Facebook (3000+ followers), 97% of our followers live in the US. The Facebook reach slightly differs from Instagram in that most people live in coastal towns from Mobile, AL through Gulfport, MS, with the heaviest concentration of followers in Ocean Springs, MS; Mobile, AL; Grand Bay, AL; and Pascagoula, MS. The age breakdown follows a similar bell curve, except we saw more 25-34 year old followers on Instagram. About 13% of the Facebook followers are 25-34 years old. Most of our Facebook followers fall in the 35-44 (~28%), 45-54 (~24%), 55-64 (~18%), and 65+ (~16%) age ranges.
- Are there any other ways that you evaluate success? If so, please share.
Resource Checklist
Your Site
Existing Exhibits
Future Exhibits
Content Research and Writing
Your Site
- How is your site staffed? By what means (if any) are visitors supervised in the exhibit area? There is not a full-time staffer at the front desk. When the building first opened, we had an AmeriCorps volunteer at the front desk full time, but that has changed. At the moment, we have a Marine Patrol law enforcement officer that uses the desk sometimes when he’s not on patrol, but he does interact with the public when they walk in and seems to enjoy it. We have a small outreach team that use the public spaces and classrooms. Other staff are researchers that don’t necessarily engage in the public space. With our one live tank, we split duties with cleaning the tank/feeding, but it’s mostly a one person thing and if that person isn’t available to do some TLC, they’ll ask if someone else can.
- Does your site struggle with any of the following visitor behaviors: vandalism, wayfinding, trespassing, or something else? Please describe. The reserve/refuge as a whole struggles with littering, but the interpretive center itself doesn’t have any issues. Wayfinding could be an issue, but it’s not something I’ve looked at or paid attention to know if it’s a true issue.
- Does your site offer volunteer opportunities? Please describe. How would you characterize your current level of enrollment/participation: strong, moderate, or low? We do, but it’s not consistent. Without the AmeriCorps volunteer coordinators we used to have, volunteer opportunities have shifted to “as needed” and there’s not a long-term volunteer program in place. We have a handful of people that might help out here and there on projects, and then I have recruited student volunteers to assist in our large on-site events. I would say volunteer participation is low, if we look at it throughout the year. We just have large pulses of volunteers at one-day events. We do have a Friends Group that, if they get some momentum going, would be our volunteer base. It just hasn’t happened yet.
Existing Exhibits
- Are there any existing exhibits you would specifically like to see reused or referenced? If so, please describe. I would definitely like to see materials repurposed if we can. Many people are a huge fan of the Fibonacci pine cone design on our cork tile floors, but floors would have to be redone for an overhaul of the exhibit space. Mostly due to the floor color being faded in spots exposed to the sun. The cultural heritage section needs to stay or be repurposed to maybe include more stories. Many of the people showcased are part of the site’s history, and we don’t want to lose that. Some of those folks’ kids and grandkids still stop by because they know someone featured in the exhibit. We would like to reach out to these family members to add to the stories, just to capture any of their thoughts on how the land has changed. We also have huge panels of pretty painted-looking artwork that perhaps we could reuse in a smaller capacity, perhaps in decorative squares or add to the bathroom spaces or hallway?
- Are there any existing props or artifacts you would specifically like to see reused? If so, please describe. One educator uses the longleaf pine tree to begin her lesson and introduce students to that tree before she takes them outside on a walk. She has requested to keep that element. It does not have to be in the same spot, but it is one of her primary teaching tools. Many of us also use the map in the center of the interpretive space. The map is important, but I think the map could be improved. I have a few ideas for this that might be a 3D model or topographic model of our estuary and uplands, that not only show our research sites but also our watershed.
- Do you have any Native American artifacts that you are displaying or would like to display in your exhibit? If so, please describe. We do. There are some photos below. I don’t really know if anyone here uses them as teaching tools, mostly because I don’t know the story of how they were acquired or know the background of how they were incorporated into the interpretive space many years ago.
- If applicable, have you reached out to any Native American tribal representatives to discuss the use of artifacts, or the inclusion of Indigenous histories, stories, or perspectives in the exhibit? If so, please describe. We have not.
- Do you have any taxidermy that you’d like worked into the new exhibit? If so, please describe. We have a fox squirrel and I think a river otter somewhere in our freezer that we would love to be taxidermy some day and incorporated. We also have a few frozen birds as well that I bet could be taxidermy.
Future Exhibits
- How do you see a revamp of your current exhibits bringing in more visitors? As an example, are you looking for a big wow to highlight in a social media campaign? Social media campaigns are not a primary motivation to do anything we do. We don’t have much visitation as far as numbers, but we are also not a center that relies on visitor numbers or admission fees bringing in operational funding. However, I would love for any visitor to come in and spend more than 15-30 minutes in our interpretive center, and also be inspired to explore our outdoor spaces and trails around the building or drive down the road to get to the water. Through our focus groups and from talking with staff, I think having more elements of things they can see outdoors would be something to incorporate inside. Have those really intriguing, attractive things (pitcher plants, flowers, fish, etc.) inside to invite them to find those things in real life outside. It would also help if for rainy days, the indoor interpretive space can accomplish a fun field trip too.
- Are there enough directional signs (in your estimation) to get to your site? Probably not. I think this could be an issue with the MDOT process. We do not have a sign on the interstate that directs people to our site. We do have signs on the highway.
- What becomes of your central theme? Were you thinking of changing the overarching message?
- If there is one thing you wish you were known for, what would it be? Perhaps it’s being dedicated to the land and water and its story here. How it’s gone through changes for the better or worse, and how we’re trying to be stewards of this land for the ecosystems to thrive and for people to enjoy at the same time.
Content Research and Writing
- Are there any books, journals, or like that you’d like us to reference during the project? They can either be about a specific topic we will be covering or perhaps something written specifically about the site. If so, please share.
- Have there been any reports or studies done at the site that we should be aware of or refer to during copywriting? If so, please share.
- Should we be aware of any materials that are wildly inaccurate, or materials we should not use when doing research for content? (example: books or authors that promotes misconceptions)
Graphic Design
Reviewing Deliverables
Wish List
Graphic Design
- Does your site (or institution) have existing brand standards/guidelines we should adhere to in this exhibit, and/or an existing graphic style or brand voice (distinct personality or method of communicating) we should reference? If so, please share. We created a Branding Guide in 2018 because I was tired of everything looking inconsistent. I worked with our Public Affairs office, who created the final branding guide for us. For fonts, I actually used Adobe Capture to take a photo of our exhibit panels to figure out the font, so that we could use that font in our physical spaces as our headers or serif fonts for our digital spaces. It is the same font I’m using to type here now, Chaparral Pro! Our sans serif font is Futura, which our PA person chose for us because it is consistent with the rest of the agency’s branding (See dmr.ms.gov). The colors we chose reflect the different habitats we have at Grand Bay NERR. The logo was updated during the Branding Guide development. As far as our communication/brand voice, we aim to be politically neutral, scientifically factual, but also want to be good storytellers to bring our visitors on a journey to find a sense of place here.
- Do you have branding colors that should match or complement the exhibits? If so, please share. See Branding Guide button below.
Do you have access to photos taken at the site (an archive)? If so, are you able to give TSI access?
- Do you have staff that can take specific requested photos of the site? It’s me! Dennis can also take specific photos.
- Do you have any professional photography that you’d really like to feature in the exhibit? If so, please share. TBD. No local photographers come to mind, but many of our staff take amazing photos.
Reviewing Deliverables
- How many people will be reviewing design deliverables? Will all of the reviewers be internal members of your organization, or will some reviewers be outside stakeholders? (Examples of outside stakeholders include but are not limited to local community members, elected officials, Native American tribal representatives, staff of other local cultural institutions, etc.) Will you include members of marketing/communications departments? (These individuals may be important to guide design and voice early on.) For sure me and my boss, the Director. She has more insight on funding and also holds a lot of decision-making power. I have not considered other stakeholders or Public Affairs departments, but those are great ideas. We may loop in Public Affairs just thinking about availability, but they are not aware of the project.
- Are there any individuals or organizations who will be contributing funding or other resources to this exhibit? If so, please describe.
Wish List
- Is there anything you would specifically love to see/feel/hear with this exhibit? Please describe. Seasons! Seasonal changes in our surrounding habitats are subtle, but they’re there. I feel like if we could show how our habitats change seasonally, we could maybe encourage people to visit again a different time of year. This may help with just showing visitors what it could look like. For example, if it looks unproductive in the winter, we can show them what’s to come in the spring. I imagine some sort of movable or even modular exhibit, that maybe we could change out panels 4 times a year and we have a permanent, but changing gallery? In a couple of the focus groups, we heard highlighting pitcher plants in an interactive way. A map that a group could gather around 360 or so and still be able to see features and elements of the land and waterways we have here.
- Are there exhibit elements at other sites that you are inspired by? For example: a diorama at a natural history museum, an interactive sculpture at a mall, well-placed trail signage at a state park, etc. Please describe. Binoculars with a table that’s signage, showing things you can see out of our big window space (seen at MS Museum of Natural Science). Dioramas, maybe invertebrates (no IACUC really needed for upkeep/collections?), or terrestrial animals that don’t need a life support system (we are elevated and with well water). A space we could try to encourage graduate students doing research here to think about communicating their science to the public.
- How do you see a revamp of your current exhibits bringing in more visitors? We would probably get a pulse of visitors interested in seeing what’s changed. I think our education programs would use the exhibits more to complement the lessons/activities during field trips. I hope for longer visitor retention when they’ve come all this way to check us out.
- Are there enough directional signs (in your estimation). Probably not.
- Some exhibit elements can be more easily incorporated when we begin planning as early as possible. Please let us know if you are interested in exploring any of the following exhibit elements or techniques. Note, many of these items will have a significant impact on your budget, so including several of them may decrease the likelihood of being able to include complex interactives, immersive theming, audiovisual components, etc. in your exhibit space.
- Bilingual content
- Environmentally sustainable materials
- Audio tour
- Braille text
- Frequent use of QR codes throughout the space
Walking into front door, this panel is to the right.
Shows green features of the building design
Some building material samples for people to touch
Welcome panel with seats added on, mostly used for an event and we haven't put it away.
Partners are highlighted at the front. Not a huge fan of that being a first impression/wow piece because...it's not.
Highlights green features and a LEED certification.
View of front desk.
Sightings board and iPad kiosk for visitor surveys (usually works, I just didn't have it on in the photo.)
More recognition plaques I'm not sure people see.
Guest book
Our live animal, an addition to the interpretive center since I've been here.
She's super cute.
This content was all that's on the panel to begin with, so it made sense for us to put Tobi's tank right next to this. Plus access to electricity.
Swash tank was constructed by a partner, but we don't have a true place for this. Would love for it to go somewhere but perhaps not in the interpretive center?
I actually used Adobe Capture and took a photo of the signage to begin our rebranding process in 2018. We have incorporated the heading fonts as one of our fonts in our branding guide. For the sans serif font, our Public Affairs office chose Futura so that it's consistent with the agency's branding.
It really is a neat panel but we could probably move this information elsewhere.
Swash tank itself is a neat table.
However, it stays empty because the well water we have makes for interesting looking water and deposits on the tank, so it may be filled once or twice a year for larger events.
I was also okay with blocking this screen since it's a pain in the butt to keep on.
Loved that these panels used the NERR map as its background graphics.
I do think it looks neat, but would have rather had this information be in the front where the welcome and partners are.
Panel of info as it looks now.
Pull panel
The "impact" blurb with the arrow doesn't match what the pull out panel says.
Large map in the middle, coworker for scale. We use this map a lot to get students and visitors oriented. It could definitely be improved though.
How it sits, slightly wider angle.
Uplands
Artwork
More uplands, but also showing the circular hanging things to indicate different areas of the center.
This thing with buttons and sounds
Example
Pitcher plant x 3. In the background art, pulled to the front in the 2D/3D graphic, and in the background as an ID thing.
ID thing up close.
Map buttons
Map legend
Love this feature
This on the floor is very cool, but re-doing the space here will have to be thought out with floors being faded over time.
Longleaf pine demo tree. Used a lot in education and field trips to introduce students to the plant before we walk outside to see them in real life.
Cultural Heritage section
artifacts- not sure how these were aquired
This man was instrumental in getting the Grand Bay NERR and NWR designated for conservation. He is still alive and was just on the phone with staff about an hour ago.
These people still have family here and they often come by to listen to their relatives' stories. Very important to keep this somehow.
Suggestion from a focus group was to add more stories of people born later that might be related. Perhaps children or grandchildren of these people.
Resource Management section
Added this somewhat recently (Taylor Studios)
There is a view of the environment outside.
Very meta photo and info panel.
The screen works if I put effort into it, but it also faces the window.
Added this. The cabinet was empty and so I put some biofacts in there.
Added this to the hallways so people had something to do to stay a little longer. It also works well at events.
Small classroom that could have an extension for interpretative space.
Someone from focus group suggested making this an art changing gallery and encouraging people to come in here when there aren't meetings.
Added this corner to encourage small children to color and explore.
Saw this at another NERR in the Northeast.
Added reading shelf and dress up shelf, although there's only one "costume" with the monarch wings.
View from staff door looking towards interpretive center.