Starting From Scratch: Building Interpretation Practices at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University

by Meg Floryan and Molly Channon

Many museums find that adding interpretation staff to their org charts for the first time is neither clean nor easy, as it challenges existing structures and workflows. Not to mention that a greater number of institutions lack the resources to underwrite a dedicated person or team to interpretation, full stop. Instead, they may layer interpretive work onto existing roles or experiment with part-time or contract positions while leadership decides where interpretive practice fits among institutional priorities.

The Wolfsonian–Florida International University launched its Content + Interpretation department in 2023 under a mixture of these circumstances. In an environment where longstanding ways of working were suddenly being questioned, this new team had to earn legitimacy while its role, authority, and value were actively negotiated. Now three years in, we Wolfsonian interpretive specialists—two staff members who transitioned into interpretation from other departments—reflect on what it has taken to establish interpretive practices at our institution.

To supplement our on-the-ground learning, we interviewed interpretation colleagues across the country, asking about their workflows, structures, and career paths—always ending with the same question: What advice would you give a “baby” interpretation department? Their counsel, paired with our experience, shaped the principles below. We offer these guideposts for colleagues seeking not just project outcomes, but insight into the interpersonal labor required to make an institutional commitment to interpretive practices stick.

Build Trust

The curatorial–interpretation relationship is often described as an intellectual partnership. Inspired by models in larger institutions, The Wolfsonian pairs a lead interpretive specialist with each exhibition’s curator(s) with the aim of fostering trust, respect, and shared goals. We’ve often found it natural to repeat these pairings across projects, as one positive collaborative experience tends to invite another.

One piece of advice we especially valued was simple: don’t play Word wars from your desk. Sending documents with your feedback in comments and line edits can feel efficient and controlled, but it often obscures intent and tone. Live conversation—whether in person or in virtual meetings—helps us understand each other and come to resolutions more quickly, often proving more effective than sending “perfect wording” by email. We’ve found this approach so successful in advancing rapport that we’ve expanded it through monthly, no-agenda sit-downs between the curatorial and interpretation department heads. These hours can be spent any way the two parties see fit, from waxing philosophical to co-tackling concrete project-based tasks. With this repeated, structured, and human collaboration, trust builds incrementally and deliberately.

Create Common Ground

As the Wolfsonian curatorial and interpretation teams worked to iron out the boundaries and dynamics between our departments, a lightbulb moment struck us: how better to close distance than by making something shared?

Across distinct departments, it is crucial to identify and cultivate shared interests. Supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, we hired a Kress Interpretive Fellow in fall 2025 to work across The Wolfsonian’s Interpretation, Curatorial, and Education departments. Focused on cross-departmental projects, the Fellow supports alignment by maintaining an active presence in all three disciplines, bringing perspectives across teams and formalizing shared stakes. This structure ensures collaboration is visible and resourced, rather than reliant on goodwill alone.

Identify Gaps (and Occupy Them)

Any new museum department faces an uphill battle: proving its worth to leadership, even beyond exhibition development. One way to gain credibility is to solve problems your museum already has, especially those that fall between established silos. Look for rudderless or backburnered initiatives that are strategically important but institutionally unclaimed; then, make them institutional priorities.

At The Wolfsonian, we’ve cut our interpretive teeth on a wealth of such opportunities. Working with colleagues across departments, we led a holistic rethink of how the museum’s first floor orients visitors, resulting in improved wayfinding, clearer institutional context, and a fully bilingual presentation. We’ve also taken ownership of storytelling on platforms that sit between departments, such as the museum’s website and Bloomberg Connects guide, developing content in close consultation with curators and beyond. These projects have served as proving grounds for the value of a dedicated interpretation team that transforms in-between spaces into opportunities for audience-centered storytelling across the museum.

Let Data Do the Talking

Data is more persuasive than opinion alone. When advocating for a shift or decision—writing shorter text, using simpler language, or foregrounding different voices—the process is smoother when supported by clear evidence for what works. 

So how to get that data? Testing. At The Wolfsonian, we’re growing an audience evaluation practice that began with summative kiosk- and QR-based surveys and is expanding into focus groups and smaller-scale front-end and formative testing. As part of a permanent object label project, the Kress Fellow is gauging multiple writing approaches directly with visitors through intercept surveys, ensuring that the methods we use meet our primary goal: to make the stories we share accessible and memorable. The data she yields will build on years of research and experience-driven conclusions (already widely published across the field) that encourage data-informed decision-making rather than staff debates hinged on personal preference.

Champion Awareness

After launching the Content + Interpretation department, one of our biggest challenges was in fielding questions—sometimes well-intended, sometimes skeptical—about what exactly interpretation was responsible for, and why it warranted space in museum workflows. What does a formalized interpretation department offer?

Prepare to be a broken record! Codify the purpose and the bounds of the new roles. Make sure you’re in all key meetings, aligning with project managers to redesign workplans to accommodate new steps. Present at all-staff meetings. Attend conferences and report back. Share resources such as webinars, articles, and published research. Chat with folks over coffee or lunch. Communicate, communicate, communicate. 

An “aha” moment came when a colleague expressed high praise for an exhibition they visited at another museum. From interviews with that museum’s team, we knew the show had resulted from close collaboration between curatorial and interpretation, involving substantial external input and empowered interpretative specialists. According to our source, the community-driven process shifted the exhibition’s content dramatically between the first draft checklist and opening day. More significantly, it reshaped how the curator approached exhibition development writ large—so much so that they reportedly “would never work another way.”

We’re not surprised by anecdotes like this. Across departments, all museum professionals wish to create engaging experiences, strengthen relationships with our communities, and enhance our institutions. We’ve learned that interpretation succeeds not through persuasion alone, but through structure, trust, and clarity of purpose. When collaboration is formalized, communication stays human, and shared goals are made explicit, interpretation stops feeling like a disruption to museum practice. Instead, it becomes a catalyst for better work across the museum, allowing curatorial and educational expertise to have wider impact and deeper resonance.