Public Engagement in the Time of Corona: Adapting Personal Interpretive Programming to the Digital World

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Remote Archaeology: Taking Archaeology Online in the Wake of COVID-19" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Destination Archaeology Resource Center (DARC), located in Pensacola, Florida, is an archaeology museum open to the public. It is managed by the University of West Florida's Florida Public Archaeology Network Coordinating Center, and it features exhibits that highlight the diverse archaeology across the state both on land and underwater. Additionally, DARC hosts and organizes a variety of programs inside and outside of the museum across the region with our partners. In March 2020 the outbreak of COVID-19 forced DARC to close its doors to the public and cancel all its planned programming. In response, DARC staff had to find new ways to engage the public during this abrupt and unprecedented change. This paper examines one of the many ways in which DARC's traditional personal interpretative programming has been adapted for digital platforms: creating a statewide YouTube channel and producing video content featuring a virtual hiking tour series.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Remote Archaeology: Taking Archaeology Online in the Wake of COVID-19   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology