2025 Poster Session

Since 2019, Glenstone Museum, in Potomac, Maryland, has been actively involved in Summer RISE, an annual summer program organized by Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) Department of Partnerships. Summer RISE, which stands for “Reimagining an Innovative Student Experience,” offers rising high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to gain real work experience through placements with participating companies and institutions throughout the region. Over the course of four weeks in July, students work for 50 or more hours in their placement and are paid for their work at the conclusion of the program.

Glenstone’s Conservation Department has been a key supporter of this program since the beginning of Glenstone’s involvement. With help from Glenstone’s Community Engagement Department, which organizes the program on the internal institutional level, Conservation has taken at least one high school student each year. Conservation plans a variety of activities with the students in order to provide a well-rounded introduction to the field. This often includes an introductory presentation on the field of conservation, hands-on washing of outdoor sculpture, practice doing condition assessments, carrying out simple mock-treatments, and color-matching activities. Glenstone’s students, which are placed by RISE coordinators based on their stated interests, often have an interest in art but may not have heard of conservation before. By the end of July, students leave with a basic understanding of conservation and are better informed on museum careers in general as they begin to plan for college and life after high school. In one successful example, a former alumna of the program even reached out for guidance on pre-program conservation internships and education pathways after her interest in conservation was sparked at Glenstone.

Supporting the program has not come without occasional difficulties, however, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, certain aspects have been modified over the years. For example, as a small team of busy conservators, it has proven complicated to organize the oversight needed for multiple high school students throughout the summer. Conservation now collaborates with its fellow departments by sharing a slightly larger group of three or more students among the entire Collections Division. In doing so, we have been able to more evenly distribute the internal responsibilities. Although the students spend less time with Conservation, we are now able to take a larger group and broaden their experiences to include adjacent activities in Registration, Curatorial, Library, and Archives. Other challenges, such as varying degrees of student interest and scheduling conflicts are dealt with in stride and are an anticipated part of the program. In all, Summer RISE has proven to be a great success at Glenstone and has strengthened our relationship with community partners such as MCPS. Through this mode of outreach, we are able to share the field of conservation with eager students, spark interest where there may have been none before, and allow for them to experience first-hand the possibilities of working in the museum field.