Summer Work Projects
Two eight-week summer work projects complement coursework with practical applications in collections care or remedial conservation at another institution, conservation laboratory, or historic site. These national and international experiences present our students with opportunities to solve problems outside the classroom, drawing upon their knowledge and abilities to address real-world preservation challenges.
In these national and international projects, our students have redesigned storage for small historical societies with no paid staff, conserved outdoor sculpture (such as the Iwo Jima Memorial or Calder’s mobiles), consolidated historic wallpaper and documented original decorative interiors, (Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage in Nashville, TN and the Aiken-Rhett House in Charleston, SC), developed earthquake mitigation procedures (Gene Autry Museum in CA), rehoused ethnographic materials, collections of early costumes, fragile ship models, and painted silk banners (Peabody Museum at Harvard University, Canterbury Shaker Village in NH, Penobscott Marine Museum in MA, and the National Park Service), and treated highly vulnerable collections of photographs and manuscript materials (National Center for Afro-American Artists in Boston, MA and Chicago Historical Society), and archeological artifacts on site at digs in Turkey and Norway.
In many cases, our students work with collections in desperate need of preservation assistance in underserved regions of the United States. These institutions often lack both the financial resources and staff expertise to maintain in-house preservation programs.
Recent summer work project sites include Katrina recovery in Jackson, Mississippi, the Barnes Foundation, the Walters Art Museum, Chateau de Parentignat, France, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Museum of the American Indian.
