Dr. Philip Smartt, professor of natural resources management in the Department of Agriculture, Geosciences and Natural Resources, was announced as the winner of the 2024 Fellow Award at the National Association for Interpretation’s annual conference Dec. 3-6 in St. Augustine, Florida.
The Fellow Award is the highest honor given by the National Association for Interpretation. Only one Fellow Award is given each year to its national membership.
Smartt was unable to attend the awards ceremony, but he did send them a video of acceptance for the award to play at the ceremony.
“Even now, it’s still kind of surreal,” he said. “Dr. (Todd) Winters (the dean of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) posted it (Jan. 2) on Facebook and a lot of people responded. For me, it’s one of those career pinnacle moments.”
Smartt said some of the things the Fellow Award committee considers are long-term service to the NAI and being active at different levels.
Smartt has served on the NAI board and been a director in certain areas of the college and university section. He has also provided interpretation training, which he continues to do.
A native of Grundy County, Smartt has been a member of the NAI for 30 years and said that, in this instance, “interpretation” is a means of providing information to public-area visitors of a site.
“(Interpretation) is when you go to a park or historic site and someone tells you the story of the site or explains what’s going on there,” he said. “It really is the profession of folks who connect people to the resource.
“Very often, you may show up at a park and you might see monuments and you might see things, but you may not know the history and you may not know the story. So, basically, it’s a communication method that helps connect people to the resource.”
He added that interpretation also helps bring an emotional connection to the park or historic site to its visitors, encouraging the upkeep or renovation of the site.
“(In training and classes,) we talk about the fact that our audience is going to be across the spectrum and they’re going to be non-captive – they can leave whenever they want to,” he said. “So, we need to do a better job of making sure that we connect and we help get them interested.”
Smartt is the first certified interpretive trainer in Tennessee and teaches classes in interpretation at UT Martin through its park administration program. He also teaches these classes for Tennessee State Parks.
“(Interpretation) is very much people-oriented, so I like dealing with it for the people aspect of it. It allows me to help my students get connected to the profession.”
For more information about the field of interpretation or interpretation classes, contact Smartt at 731-881-7954 or psmartt@utm.edu or the Department of Agriculture, Geosciences and Natural Resources at 731-881-7262.
More information about the University of Tennessee at Martin can be found at www.utm.edu or by calling 1-800-829-UTM1 (-8861).
PHOTO: Dr. Philip Smartt, professor of natural resources management in the Department of Agriculture, Geosciences and Natural Resources, is shown with the 2024 Fellow Award, presented in December by the National Association for Interpretation.
