Winslow Homer Studio Reinterpretation

As lead interpreter on a three-person team, I helped reimagine the visitor experience at the Winslow Homer Studio, where the scarcity of the artist’s personal effects presented a distinct interpretive challenge. To inform our approach, I visited over a dozen artists’ homes and analyzed visitor surveys about their experiences at the Homer Studio. Based on this research and visitor feedback, our team opted to activate the space through multiple interpretive approaches rather than create an unsupported recreation.

"A custom soundscape immerses visitors in the auditory world Homer experienced."

Drawing on the only existing photograph of Homer in his studio, we reproduced several paintings and drawings known to have been created there and sourced period-appropriate artmaking tools to evoke his practice. To further activate the space, I collaborated with a sound designer to create a custom soundscape evoking the studio’s sensory environment, featuring his Jack Russell terrier, Sam, barking in the distance alongside the sounds of brushstrokes and a crackling fire.

Upstairs, we curated a photo gallery of Homer, his family, and visitors at Prouts Neck, alongside reproductions of botanical watercolors by his mother and a replica of his camera. I also developed a kiosk where visitors could listen to narrated letters from Homer to his family, read by Portland Museum of Art staff. To extend the experience beyond the guided tour, we developed an interactive field guide that visitors could use to explore the site independently. For rainy days when the Cliff Walk, where Homer painted many of his iconic scenes, was inaccessible, I produced a short film that takes visitors along the walk through all four seasons, in collaboration with p3.