Photo by Ellen Ebert
Where to go, what to see, where to shop, where to eat? Visitors and residents no longer need ask these questions about Guilford. The answers are keystrokes away (visitguilfordct.com) at the Visitor Information Kiosk and on their home computers and other devices, thanks to three years of work by the Guilford Preservation Alliance (GPA).
The kiosk, which goes live on Friday, Sept. 18, offers residents and tourists a new electronic resource to learn nearly everything they want to know about Guilford, from its historic museums, arts, and recreation to local shopping and dining. Using its events calendar, visitors can find out months in advance what there is to see and do in town and plan accordingly.
Located on Church Street next to the Nathanael B. Green Community Center, the stand-alone kiosk features an interactive touch-screen computer monitor accessible from the exterior, as well as display cases for historic and current events in the interior.
During the summer, volunteers staff the kiosk Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The computer monitor is available 24 hours a day, every day, year round.
Gallery of photos by Ellen Ebert.
The kiosk is part of a comprehensive heritage tourism plan of the GPA to encourage exploration of Guilford’s historic, cultural, and natural resources.
The Cultural and Heritage Traveler 2013, a study by Mandala Research, LLC, offers the following statistics about cultural heritage travelers:
• 87 percent want trips that combine culture, shopping, nature, dining, and exercise
• 81 percent want to take away local memorabilia
• 80 percent want to taste local food and wines
• 72 percent want to visit places that retain their historic character, and
• 66 percent want their travel to be educational.
Last year, the Connecticut Humanities Council awarded the GPA a grant to organize Guilford’s history into four themes that connect stories with historic and natural sites. Twelve 300- to 500- word essays that tell Guilford’s story have been created around these themes and are featured on the website.
The kiosk could not have been completed without the help of 26 local cultural, heritage, and natural-resource nonprofits, as well as town government offices and commissions and state agencies.
Experts in several fields collaborated on the project, including Shirley Girioni, president of the GPA, who spearheaded the undertaking as project director; Dr. Nancy Morgan, manager and heritage development consultant of Point Heritage Development Consulting LLC of Tallahassee, Florida, who facilitated meetings and created interpretive themes; and Russell Campaigne and Mary Jo Kestner of Campaigne Kestner Architects of Guilford, who designed the Visitor Information Center Kiosk.
Also, Carolyn Brackett, heritage tourism specialist of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C., who was hired to conduct a series of workshops to raise the merits of heritage tourism and consciousness of the benefits of heritage tourism as an economic development tool through analysis of existing and potential target audiences; and Jeffrey Dawson of Lees Dawson Associates, design consultants, of Scituate, Massachusetts, who conducted a survey and made signage recommendations. Hanler Building Co., constructed the modular kiosk.
Contributing to the project were members of the Guilford History Experts Committee: Dennis Culliton, a Guilford history teacher; Carl Balestracci, former principal of several Guilford schools and a history teacher; and Joel Helander, Guilford municipal historian.
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Other participants included Patricia Baldwin, assistant director of Guilford Free Library and a historian; Veronica Soell, garden curator at the Hyland House Museum and a volunteer, who serves as chair of the computer committee; and the following principals of mediaBOOM, the Guilford digital advertising agency that developed the kiosk application for the visitor’s center: Principal/Project Manager Frank DePino, Art Director Joe Cunningham, Interactive Director Matt Mizerek, and Interactive Designer Kayla Pfrommer. They worked with GPA volunteers Howard Brown, Tracy Tomaselli, Marcia Safirstein, Ellen Ebert, and Dennis Culliton.
The State Bonding Commission, the Connecticut Humanities Council, Guilford Preservation Alliance’s Marjory Schmidt Fund, and Guilford Foundation funded the kiosk, and mediaBOOM provided in-kind services.
Funds for ongoing maintenance will be provided through advertising. A campaign is currently underway to encourage corporations and businesses, large and small, to advertise. All advertising will remain on the kiosk computer and the website for one year; ads are available for $100 and $250. Those interested should contact Tracy Tomaselli at 203-671-9351 or [email protected].
