Giving a Tour

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Giving a Tour

• By Rachel Coleman

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Tours in the Past

• The guide is clearly in awe of the location, but
  may not explain enough to the audience and may
  almost appear to be worshipping at a shrine.
• The guide may tell a grand narrative story, but
  may not connect it or make it relevant, and may
  actually be repeating myth.
• The guide may use objects, but only to point out
  how old they are, or what theyre called, rather
  than to make them meaningful.

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Tours in the Present

• The guide makes the past meaningful to the
  present.
• The guide draws connections between various
  periods of history, and various ideas, and
  connects history to the present.
• The guide uses objects to make tours hands-on and
  engaging.
• The guide may use interpretive techniques like
  first person interpretation or aspects of museum
  theatre.
• The guide challenges visitors misconceptions of
  the past and asks them to think.

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Various aspects of tours
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What Kind of Institution?

• Art Museum
• House Museum
• Small History Museum
• Large History Museum
• Outdoors

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First or Third Person?
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Hands-on or Hands-off?

• Children often become bored if tours are devoid
  of any hands-on aspects.
• Even adults like having hands-on elements in
  tours it makes things more real.
• A hands-on tour can be as simple as having
  objects placed along the route of the tour for
  the guide to handle and pass around.

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Space

• Tours of museums in historic houses or buildings,
  or in battle fields, often make careful use of
  space.
• The historic space an old house or other
  location may inspire a sense of awe, but this
  needs to be appropriate and awoken in visitors,
  not assumed.
• The guide needs to show visitors why the place is
  important, and how it is relevant to them.
• Visitors have a question Why should we care?
  answer it.

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Grand Narrative

• History that is specific needs to have a
  narrative of its own the grand historical
  narrative of model aviation, for instance.
• No matter what history is being covered, it needs
  to be connected to the wider (national, even
  global) historical narrative where does it fit?
• This historical narrative needs to be connected
  to the present and made relevant why should
  they care?

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Objects

• Objects should be used to show specific things
  for instance, what late eighteenth century
  American school supplies looked like, or what
  kind of shoes colonial gentleman wore rather
  than just this is old, isnt that cool?
• The tour guide should ask the audience to think
  about the objects what do they tell us about
  the lives and values of people in the past?
• If possible and practical, the visitors may be
  allowed to hold the objects.

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Pay Attention to Your Audience!

• Is your audience a group of senior citizens or a
  group of school children? You should be able to
  individualize your tours for all kinds of groups!
• Watch your audience for cues are you boring
  them with a specific topic, or are they
  completely enthralled by something youre talking
  about? Respond to their cues.
• Strive to let your audience guide your tour, but
  be careful not to take this too far!

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Make Things Relevant!

• Visitors want to know why should they care?
• Explain things in ways the visitors can
  understand.
• Make the history you are interpreting relevant to
  the visitors lives.
• Draw connections between the past and the
  present.

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Ask your Visitors to be Participants!

• Engage your visitors!
• Encourage your visitors to ask questions and
  ask them some questions yourself.
• Involve your audience in helping you solve
  problems or puzzles (i.e., just what was this
  object for? Or, why were the windows were shaped
  like that?).
• Make use of museum theatre for the purpose of
  audience involvement.
• Make use of demonstrations using volunteers.

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Ask your visitors to THINK.

• Carefully challenge your visitors misconceptions
  of history.
• Involve your visitors in making connections
  between the past and present.
• Reveal parallels and contrasts between the past
  and present.
• Help your visitors replace myth with reality.
• Discuss various myths and misconceptions with
  your visitors.

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Always Smile and be Cheerful!

• Always appear interested in what you are talking
  about.
• Be friendly and outgoing.
• Create rapport with your visitors.

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Reality Strikes!

• No matter what you do with your own tours, there
  will always be other guides who give
  uninteresting, uninvolving, sometimes inaccurate
  tours.
• YOU cannot control other tour guides!
• Training only goes so far some guides are set
  in their ways and wont change.
• If you are in charge of volunteer tour guides,
  this often becomes all the harder.

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Any Input?
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The End