Interpretation will always be a work in progress. (Luckett, 2007)
Interpretation is a mission-based communication process that enriches our lives through engaging emotions, enhancing experiences and deepening understanding of people, places, events and objects from past and present.
-Association of Heritage Interpretation
Interpretive Master Planning
The current stewards of Bloedel Reserve have a delicate task at hand: balancing the need for communication with our visitors and preserving the experience intended by our founders. Bloedel Reserve’s 5-year (2023-2027) Strategic Plan aspires to expand the Reserve’s role as a valued community asset by prioritizing improvements to orientation and wayfinding, enhanced storytelling, and experimenting with amenities which will enrich and deepen the visitor experience over time. An Interpretive Master Plan (IMP) is a living document that synthesizes the Bloedel Reserve story and exists in tandem with an environmental graphic design plan (EGD) to guide communication not only across the grounds but in all marketing and outreach materials.
Bloedel Reserve’s Interpretive Master Plan will identify and provide strategies from pre-selected goals and objectives, arriving at a plan of action that seeks to clarify storytelling, enrich the visitor experience, and develop a relationship to environmental graphic design in the landscapes. It is expected that this interpretive master plan will be a living document that continues to guide the Reserve’s relationship with itself and its community well into the future.
Interpretive Master Plan Goals
1. To create a cohesive and uniform approach to interpretation at Bloedel Reserve that integrates storytelling into the visitor experience.
2. To distill and clarify the main messages we would like visitors to take away from their experience, so they leave with a deeper understanding of the place, its history, and its mission.
3. To create a safe, accessible, and informed experience for a broad range of visitors that reduces confusion, thereby increasing the chances that they have a relaxed, restorative visit.
4. To simultaneously design and adopt a uniform visual environmental graphic design language that respects the founders’ intent.
Partnerships
Bloedel Reserve has chosen 106 Group (106group.com) as the partner firm to develop the interpretive master plan for the organization. The firm’s focus on interpreting cultural institutions and heritage sites connected to tribal communities most closely aligns with the Reserve’s culture and vision for the future. 106 Group will begin work with Bloedel Reserve in September 2023, with a project close-out expected in late 2024.
106 Group’s team blends backgrounds in Indigenous knowledge, interpretive planning, and award-winning design expertise with a shared purpose for illuminating the stories of a place and its people. They have collaborated at places such as Waḳaŋ Ṭípi Center in Minnesota, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest in Virginia, and Garman Nature Preserve & Indian Mounds County Park in Wisconsin.
Get Involved
Bloedel Reserve’s Members, Donor, Volunteers, and Visitors are critically important to the development of the organization’s interpretive master plan. To provide feedback about the visitor experience, please take this survey below.
Looking Ahead
An Interpretive Master Plan will significantly enhance the economic and social sustainability of Bloedel Reserve by effectively communicating the organization’s mission and natural assets, deepening visitors’ understanding and appreciation of the Reserve. The organization anticipates that implementation of the IMP will attract a broader audience, strengthen community support, and ultimately lead to increased financial sustainability as supporters are more likely contribute to an organization that demonstrates an investment in responsibly stewarding relationships with constituents and community. It is expected that once the Interpretive Master Plan is complete in late 2024, it will be a living document that continues to guide the Reserve’s relationship with itself and its community well into the future.
Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection.
-Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage
