Welcome to
Hands-on Heritage!
Hands-on Heritage is a professional services firm that develops exhibit content for specialty museums and sports-focused venues. Our team of researchers and storytellers will work with you to explore novel ideas and write narratives that bring your topic to life.
We collaborate with government, corporate, association, education, and museum clients to develop outstanding visitor experiences and forge creative connections among people, ideas, and communities.

Whether you need stories and artifacts for an exhibit, research to celebrate a milestone, or collections support, our museum specialists can help.
HANDS-ON
HERITAGE
Our mission is to find and share stories that bind the past, present, and future, and use these stories to help create connected and resilient communities.
WHAT WE DO
We are storytellers, and we collaborate with other creative people to develop outstanding visitor experiences. We specialize in researching, writing content for exhibits, and books. Our projects connect communities and conserve cultural and environmental legacies with an emphasis on interpretation and education.
PARTNERS & PROJECTS
It’s our pleasure to work with distinguished partners, both locally and nationally, on legacy projects. Organizations like the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, ProMedica Health System, CambridgeSeven and SSOE Group architects trust us for their museum project planning and content development needs.
WHO WE ARE
Hands-on Heritage is the professional communications team of Robin Van Auken, a registered professional archaeologist, and Lance Van Auken, a museum specialist. The team is unique for embedding itself within communities, developing relationships with citizens, and finding the unheard voices, the unseen images.