The Art of Interpretation: Talking with State Park Interpreter Elise McFarland

On this week’s podcast, I talk with Elise McFarland, an Interpretation and Education Manager for the California State Park system. In her far-ranging job, she’s responsible for several parks’ cultural resources and, of course, many levels and modes of interpretation. 

Like many informal educators – especially outdoor educators in regional parks – Elise calls herself an interpreter. Since Freeman Tilden published Interpreting Our Heritage in 1957, the idea of interpretation as a cultural activity has spread throughout the community of naturalists and museum educators and spawned organizations like the National Association for Interpretation. On the blog this week, I describe some of this history and current state of the term: Thematic Interpretation as an Art and a Science