For nearly ten years I have worked on a wide variety of projects across markets as diverse as
the UK & Europe, the Middle East, Australia and North America.

My portfolio includes planning and exhibition development services for:

NEW: Old Dubbo Gaol, Dubbo, New South Wales more...
NEW: West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide, South Australia more...
Martyrs Memorial Military Museum, Amman, Jordan more...
Midland Rail Workshops Interpretation Plan, Perth, Western Australia more...
National Space Centre, Leicester, UK more...
Fort Stanwix National Monument , Rome, New York, USA more...
The Children's Museum, Amman, Jordan more...

Department for Environment and Heritage, Adelaide, South Australia

At-Bristol, Bristol, UK
Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, Wales, UK
Derby Arboretum, Derby, UK
Boston Guildhall Museum, Boston, UK
Fishbourne Roman Palace, Chichester, UK
Centre for Curiosity and Imagination, Salford, UK
Victoria Children's Museum, British Columbia, Canada
Kingsley Plantation, Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Baltimore, USA
Sharjah Botanical Museum, Sharjah, UAE
Bahrain Children's Museum, Ain Adhari National Park, Bahrain
Sharjah Maritime Museum, Sharjah, UAE

Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, NY, is part of the network of historic sites operated and managed by the US National Park Service. The existing fort is a 1970s reconstruction of the original 18th-century fort, with interpretation intended to give visitors an insight into life in America during the Revolutionary War.

The Marinus Willett Collections Management and Education Center (Willett Center) is a new building on the fort site. It was built to provide a more suitable long-term home for the fort’s extensive archaeological collection, as well to give visitors a clearer introduction to the site and its historical context.

A key part of the Willett Center development is a 2000sq.ft. (200 sq.m.) exhibition space, the purpose of which is to introduce visitors to the site and its wider significance as a preparation for visiting the fort reconstruction.

Haley Sharpe Design was appointed in 2002 as interpretive planners and designers for the exhibition and supporting interpretation in the surrounding landscape.

At an early stage of development the team agreed that the exhibition should take into account multiple perspectives on the history of the Fort and the surrounding Mohawk Valley area. For the purposes of the exhibition, four fictional characters were developed: a Scottish fur trader who took the British side in the Revolution; a young Dutch colonist who joined the American army; a colonial woman whose family was torn apart by the War; and an Oneida Clan Mother who watched how her ancestral lands were irrevocably changed in the latter 18th century. Through audiovisual displays and graphics, these characters provide their commentary on the story as it unfolds.

Exhibition planning commenced in 2002, with the Willett Center opening to the public as part of the 4th of July celebrations in 2005. In 2006, the exhibition was awarded second prize in the Media Award, Interior Exhibits category by the National Association for Interpretation.

I was part of Haley Sharpe’s project team from November 2002. My role in the project included:

Research and storyline development
Text development
Consultation with local Indigenous groups, in particular the Oneida Indian Nation (on whose traditional lands Fort Stanwix is located)
Documentation of collections for display purposes
Writing storyline briefs for AV presentations
Management of image research and procurement
Management of design and approval of exhibition graphics

I also led two additional projects which were conducted in parallel to the main project:

Working with the Oneida Indian Nation to develop a concept for an exhibition telling the site’s history from their perspective (2003)
Developing updated signage for the site, as well as a new suite of portable signs to interpret selected sections of the reconstructed fort. (2004)

www.nps.gov/fost

www.haleysharpe.com

Images ©. Courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design / National Park Service. <back

The following is an extended version of an article which was published in the Spring 2008 edition of Interpreting Australia, the magazine of the Interpretation Australia Association.

Stories of the Dead, Insights into the Living - Interpreting West Terrace Cemetery

When I first started working in interpretation, I was introduced to the idea of “Universal Themes” – those concepts that, in one way or another, are common across the diversity of human experience and can therefore be a way of making a story more relevant to your target audience. Struggle against adversity, adapting to change, and the desire to protect kith and kin are all examples of these universal concepts which we can all relate to on some level.

When considering the commonalities of our lives, there is no experience more universal than death. And the way a society treats and remembers its dead speaks volumes about its beliefs, attitudes and values. So it follows that a historic cemetery – and the memorials carefully created and tended by generations past – can be a fascinating window into the history of our society.

West Terrace Cemetery (WTC)

On the fringes of the Adelaide CBD, WTC dates back to the origins of European colonisation of the State – its location was chosen by Colonel Light, the Surveyor General who set out the original plans for the City of Adelaide in 1837. As such it is rich with stories that chronicle the development of Adelaide from a fledgling colony to a modern city. Since 2002 it has been managed by the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority, a body formed by Parliamentary Act, and remains an operational cemetery.

In the original 1837 survey, WTC was designated as an oval-shaped 32-acre plot of land on the south-western corner of the city. Prior to 1840 there was no site plan or systematic approach to burials, and as a consequence the cemetery’s earliest burials are distributed haphazardly across the site.

A distinctive feature of WTC is the division of the cemetery into Denominational areas. This began in 1843 with the establishment of a Jewish Section, and two years later a Catholic cemetery was established (on land adjacent to the main public cemetery). Over time the Catholic section expanded, and later denominational areas include Afghan, Druses, Society of Friends and Islamic sections.

There is also an area dedicated to the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF): Light Oval was established in May 1920 and became the first soldiers’ burial ground in the Commonwealth - and predates the establishment of the Office of Australian War Graves (1925). The Cross of Sacrifice was unveiled in 1924 and was the first such structure in an Australian burial ground.

WTC also had the first crematorium in the Southern Hemisphere (1903), amidst much publicity and controversy as cremation took some time to gain acceptance amongst Christian communities. Attitudes eventually changed, and the crematorium was replaced by more modern facilities elsewhere in 1959. The crematorium site was the subject of a recent archaeological investigation.

WTC also has environmental significance: several native species such as the SA Box Mallee, Quandong and Native Apricot, which have long since been lost from the rest of the Adelaide Plains, continue to grow in WTC. The cemetery is currently participating in a seed collection program which aims to re-propagate these species in other parts of the Adelaide Parklands.

Today, WTC is the only capital city cemetery still operating in Australia, and is registered as a ‘place of State heritage significance’ on the Register of State Heritage items. West Terrace Cemetery is considered unique in Australia in that:

It dates back to the origins of European settlement in the State
It was part of Colonel William Light’s original plan for City of Adelaide
It contains a significant record of the historic, cultural and social development of the State.

Interpreting the Cemetery

In late 2007, I was part of a team that was commissioned to develop an Interpretation Plan for WTC. When I was first embarking on the project, I admit I had my concerns: aren’t the needs of heritage visitors and private mourners somewhat contradictory? How can we make the site welcoming and accessible for heritage visitors, while maintaining an air of solemnity and respect for those coming to visit a lost loved one? It turns out to a large extent my doubts were unfounded, and the visitors management issues are minor, at least for moderate visitor numbers. Indeed, as popular interest in our collective roots grows, cemetery-based heritage and tourism is growing in popularity across the world.

The Interpretation Plan will still need to address several practical concerns, for instance:

The modern site covers some 27.6 ha, or 68 acres – more than double the size set out on Light’s original plan. This area is larger than most visitors will wish to cover on foot, and there are few suitable places for rest areas
Parking in the cemetery is limited to the verges at the edges of roads – it is undesirable to attract a large amount of vehicular traffic (particularly when it could obstruct funeral processions, etc)
Signage must be kept to a minimum and avoid detracting from the heritage character of the cemetery

However, there are also opportunities:

WTC is well-known locally and is in a good position to have links with other heritage and tourism sites
Distinctive features which are not common to other cemeteries: denominational zones, AIF cemetery, etc
The headstone designs and inscriptions, and the way they change over time, tell a wider story of the evolution of Adelaide’s society and cultural attitudes
The Adelaide Parklands cycle path runs through WTC – perhaps people could be encouraged to explore the site by bicycle?
The limitation on signage opens up possibilities to be creative about the use of audiotours, podcasts and self-guided brochures as the main interpretive media

Main Themes

Based on our site visits and research, we identified the following main themes which will form the basis of the site interpretation:

Indigenous significance
The site, along with the rest of the parklands, has a long and continuing history of inhabitation and use by the Kaurna people. (This theme will be developed in greater detail through consultation with Kaurna representatives)

Cemetery developments
The cemetery has undergone several changes over the course of its history for practical, social and political reasons. The remnants of some of these changes can still be seen on the site today. The denominational areas can give us an insight into the way different ethnic and religious groups bury and remember their dead. (For instance, the orientation of graves with respect to the rising sun, or the location of Mecca)

Beliefs, attitudes and customs
This theme addresses how the cemetery reflects and exemplifies wider society: evolution of different religious and social attitudes; as well as to how other changes in society were reflected in the way the dead are commemorated (For instance, there is now a dedicated memorial for stillbirths, whereas a generation ago stillborn children were buried in mass graves with parents expected to forget and move on.)

SA Personalities
WTC’s headstones read like a roll-call of the early founders of South Australia – early industrialists, entrepreneurs and parliamentarians are all represented, with many of these family names still well-known locally today.

Insights into the everyday
Death is a great leveller – there are many poignant stories of ordinary people; families and individuals that are immortalised in the memorials.

Some of these themes are specific to WTC; others are more general and could be equally applicable to other cemeteries elsewhere. I think as the interpretation develops, these will turn out to be engaging and revelatory themes that will satisfy a wide variety of visitors.

NB: The the WTC interpretation plan was developed in partnership with Arketype Pty Ltd. Images ©. Courtesy of Adelaide Cemeteries Authority.

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The National Space Centre, in Leicester, UK, was developed as one of the landmark Millennium projects funded by the National Lottery. It boasts over 3000 sq.m. of exhibition space, a state-of-the art planetarium and a 42-metre “Rocket Tower” which is a distinctive feature of the Leicester skyline. Since opening in 2001, the National Space Centre has become one of the UK’s major educational visitor attractions, with around 250,000 people visiting annually.

Exhibits consist of a combination of audio visual displays, immersive experiences, objects, interactive exhibits and graphics, giving visitors of all ages the opportunity to find out about the cosmos from the earliest beginnings of time to the expanses of known space.

The Centre opened with five permanent exhibition zones:

Into Space - spaceflight technology and manned space exploration
Exploring the Universe - astronomy, in particular the use of space-based telescopes
The Planets - our changing understanding of the universe, from ancient myths through to the most recent exploration missions
Orbiting Earth - use of satellites to monitor and study the Earth
Space Now - presenting the latest news in the fast-paced field of space science

I was a member of the National Space Centre’s in-house exhibition development team from 1999-2001, playing a major role in the development of all the permanent galleries but with particular responsibility for the Planets gallery. This role included:

Researching and selecting the subject matter to be included in displays, including liaison with a panel of scientific advisers
Working with design consultants Haley Sharpe Design to select exhibit media based on interpretive, budgetary and design considerations
Preparing briefs for physical interactives, AV and IT-based exhibits and managing their development by the appointed specialists

In 2004, the Space Centre was awarded funding to develop an additional permanent exhibition space, and again appointed Haley Sharpe Design as the design consultants. This time around I was a member of the Haley Sharpe team, working with the Space Centre’s in-house team, IT specialists and a panel of scientific advisers to develop the content and exhibits.

The 200 sq.m. Lunar Base 2025 gallery opened in 2005. Themed as a lunar base 20 years in the future, visitors play the role of astronauts who have just arrived at the base and must complete their final training before being allocated their crew designation.

www.spacecentre.co.uk

www.haleysharpe.com

Images ©. Courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design / National Space Centre.

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The Children’s Museum in Amman, Jordan is the first institution of its kind in the country and arguably the region. The project was developed under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, who made the commitment to establish Her vision of the National Children’s Museum as part of Her special interest in children, education and childhood development.

Working with Haley Sharpe Design, I was a key member of the team who developed the Museum from initial concept through to completion. A project scoping exercise was completed in early 2002. This work formed the basis of a local architectural competition, and following appointment of architects and the selection of a Project Steering Group, Haley Sharpe was re-appointed to complete the concept development, design and implementation of the Museum from November 2003. The Museum was opened in May 2007, with celebrations attended by the King and Queen of Jordan along with their children.

The Museum’s vision is to inspire children up to the age of fourteen years to explore and discover their immediate environment as well as the world beyond. It engages children and their families in unique, fun, interactive learning experiences through hands-on exhibits and role-play opportunities in addition to innovative and educational programs, activities and multi-media resources.

There is over 2000 sq.m. of indoor exhibit space including:

A role-play town square including a bank, supermarket, garage and police station
An archaeological dig pit featuring replicas of items found in Jordanian archaelogical sites, surrounded by displays showcasing Jordan’s rich heritage
Dedicated play space for the under 3s
Exhibits on science, nature, technology and the body

There is also over 3000 sq.m. of outdoor exhibit space.

I was an integral part of the project team throughout the conceptualisation, development and implementation of the exhibition. My role, spanning many different elements of the project over the course of nearly five years, included the following:

Interpretive masterplanning
Assisting the client team in project scoping, defining and selecting exhibits
Defining briefs for all exhibit elements and overseeing their development and implementation
Client and contractor liaison
Content co-ordination and project management for all graphic elements (bilingual graphics: Arabic and English)

www.cmj.jo

www.haleysharpe.com

Images ©. Courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design / Forrest Cultural Consulting.

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The Martyrs Memorial, a landmark building in Amman, Jordan, is located in a hilltop setting within the city’s cultural quadrangle. Built in 1977 as a symbol of Jordanian national identity and as a monument to those fallen during times of war, the Memorial currently houses a military museum covering the key periods in Jordanian military history from the Great Arab Revolt to the present day.

The Memorial site is currently undergoing an expansion, with the construction of formal landscaped plazas, a visitor services building, and a dedicated museum building.

The collection which is currently on display in the Memorial building will be relocated and redisplayed in the museum building, complemented by newly-acquired objects, additional interpretation, and audiovisual displays. This will allow the Memorial building to return to its original prime function, which was one of reverence and contemplation.

In 2006, Haley Sharpe Design was appointed as the design consultants for the new display spaces. In 2007, Forrest Cultural Consulting was appointed by the Haley Sharpe team to provide Interpretation and Content Development services.

This role includes:

Identifying key themes, supporting messages and media
Assisting the Client team in documenting and classifying the collection to facilitate the design process
Developing briefing information for exhibits and other display media

The project is currently at Concept Design stage.

www.haleysharpe.com

Images ©. Courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design / Forrest Cultural Consulting.

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From the time of the town’s founding in the 1840s, the site of Old Dubbo Gaol (ODG) has had links to law and order. Indeed, the need to maintain a presence of the law in the Western Plains was a major factor in the establishment of the town of Dubbo.

Originally a police lockup, ODG operated as a prison facility from 1887 until its closure in 1966. In 1974, it opened as a tourist facility. Sited in Macquarie Street, ODG enjoys a prominent and easily accessible position within central Dubbo.

In March 2008, Dubbo City Council (as managers of the site) appointed Exhibition Services (with Forrest Cultural Consulting as Interpretation Consultant) to prepare a Masterplan for Old Dubbo Gaol (ODG). The purpose of this Masterplan was to:

Review the site and its heritage assets

Identify suitable themes around which interpretation may be organised

Propose a signage strategy for the site for immediate implementation

Suggest ways which the site and its collections may be presented

Make prioritised recommendations for future works, to be implemented over the next 3-5 years

Existing interpretation of the site had been developed in a piecemeal fashion over the past 20 years, and consisted of a range of different styles of signage, aging animatronics, and some AV displays of varying quality. Overall, the experience felt dated and, in the absence of a wider theme or sense of narrative, lacked a sense of coherence.

As a first step to restructuring the site’s interpretation, three main themes were developed:

Theme 1 ODG and the development of Dubbo
The development of Old Dubbo Gaol closely mirrors the development of the town of Dubbo itself.

Theme 2: Crime and Punishment in the Colonial Era
The 19th century criminal justice system reflected a more unforgiving attitude to social problems than today.

Theme 3: Life and Death in ODG
Life in ODG was tough – sometimes for warders as well as prisoners!

Within each theme, a selection of topics, content objectives (what we wanted to reveal to visitors) and affective objectives (how we wanted visitors to feel) were identified.

These themes formed a framework for a signage strategy, which is currently being implemented. Additional improvements to the interpretation and overall visitor experience are scheduled to be rolled out over the coming years.

Forrest Cultural Consulting’s role included:

Interpretive assessment of the site

Development of the signage strategy and forward plan

Writing / editing text for new signage

The Midland Workshops were the principal workshops of the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) from 1904 until their closure in 1994. During their heyday the Workshops employed over 3000 people and were a vital component of the WA railway infrastructure. Today, the extant buildings, machinery and social history associated with the 70ha site together embody an important chapter of Western Australian and Industrial history. As such, the Workshops site is listed by the Heritage Council of WA as a site of significance.

Following the closure of the Workshops, the Midland Redevelopment Authority (MRA) was established in 1999 to oversee the redevelopment and regeneration the Workshops and surrounding precincts. Part of the MRA’s remit is to conserve and redevelop the Workshops in a way that respects their heritage significance while ensuring a sustainable economic future for area. To this end, the Workshops buildings are in the process of being restored and converted to form a mixed-use precinct incorporating residential, commercial and creative industries.

Forrest Cultural Consulting (in association with Geoff Speirs Museum and Editorial Services) were appointed in September 2007 to conduct an Interpretation Plan to identify how interpretation of the site’s heritage may be incorporated into the adaptive re-use development of the Workshops precinct, thus keeping the people and stories of the Workshops alive and accessible to the public.

This work included:

Assessment of the site and its heritage assets: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
Consultation with stakeholders including heritage organisations, tourism and local government
Identification of the key themes and storylines associated with the site and how these could be communicated to different audiences
Outline assessment of market, financial and operational parameters
A strategy for implementation including display ideas and indicative budgets

The Final Report of the Interpretation Plan was presented to MRA in February 2008. The Plan will subsequently be presented to the MRA board for approval, with a view to implementation.

regan forrest
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