Past Interns, Conservation Internship Program
Several interns take part in our Conservation Internship Program each year. Learn a bit about our conservation interns from the past years.
Winter 2013 – 2014
Laura Siegfried
Laura Siegfried received her Master of Arts degree in Art History in 2011 from the University of California, Riverside, concentrating in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art with a particular focus on science in art. Her research was on the influence of medieval optical science on the development of Renaissance perspective techniques. She earned her undergraduate degree in Physics from Pomona College and worked as a physicist for four years in the U.S. Air Force before returning to school. She has previously interned with a private painting conservator in South Carolina.
Robin Allison
Robin Allison is a native of Jackson, Wyoming. She holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota–Duluth, with minor studies in studio arts, art history, and women’s studies. Credit received for her internship at the Center of the West will be applied towards her master’s degree in Museum Studies through the University of Oklahoma–College of Liberal Studies. Formerly the Assistant to the Executive Director at the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, Robin is shifting her focus from museum administration to museum collections management and exhibition design.
Shelly Buffalo Calf
Shelly Buffalo Calf lives in Cody, Wyoming, and is receiving her master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in Museum Studies. She has worked and volunteered for many years at the Center of the West with the McCracken Research Library, the Papers of William F. Cody, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, and many other departments. After graduation, she wishes to continue at the Center of the West.
2013 Interns
Yacoub Soleman
Yacoub Soleman came to the Center of the West’s conservation lab as a student in the manuscript conservation program of Cairo University. He has participated in two ICCROM courses of study—one on organic material in heritage sites, and the second on the conservation of built heritage. He was a courier with the King Tut exhibition in 2012, and worked at the Mary Tree site in Al Mataria, Cairo, Egypt.
Abby Brown
Abby Brown is from Boone, North Carolina. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Wake Forest University with Honors in Art. She double majored in Studio Art and German and minored in Art History. She was the founder and president of a student-run art club on campus, worked as a teacher assistant for introductory painting classes, and was a member of a German honors society, Delta Phi Alpha. She discovered the field of conservation during her final semester as an undergraduate student when she visited NYU’s Conservation Department, and immediately knew conservation was a perfect match for her. During her internship at the Center of the West, she gained experience working on a variety of objects. She is a candidate for a 2014 – 15 Fulbright Grant to conduct research on conservation ethics while working in the lab of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.
Grace Walters
Grace Walters is from Orlando, Florida. She graduated from Clemson University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a minor in French Language. In summer 2012, she interned with the paper conservation lab of the National Library of Ireland. She then interned with the Biltmore Estate before coming to the Center of the West. From here she plans to intern with the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston to work in their Decorative Arts department.
Allison Rabent
Allison Rabent is from Jamestown, New York. She graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2013 with a bachelor of science in Museum Studies, and minors in chemistry and art history. She has previously interned at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute where she worked with daguerreotypes, and will be interning at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, following her time at the Center of the West.
Josefina Maldonado
Josefina Maldonado is from El Paso, Texas. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. In 2010, she did a conservation science internship at the Library of Congress developing Portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) calibration curves for metals in paper. In the fall, she will be working with a paintings conservator at Pace Art Conservation in Honolulu, Hawaii. During her time there, she will apply to graduate programs in art conservation.
Ben Regal
Ben Regal is from London, England, and is currently in his final year studying at University College London for a Master of Science in Conservation for Museums and Archaeology. He had previously undertaken five-month internships at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and the Science Museum, London. During his internship with the Center of the West, he analyzed peace medals and treated a range of objects including outdoor sculpture, Plains Indian objects, and musical instruments.
Stephanie Carrato
Stephanie Carrato is from Monroe Township, New Jersey. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 with a BFA in Writing. She has interned for the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, and the Museum of Chinese in America, both in New York, New York. She spent two years as the Curatorial Assistant for the Monmouth County Park System, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Stephanie plans to specialize in works of art on paper.
Tiia Yli-Kankahila
Tiia Yli-Kankahila is from Helsinki, Finland, and she is an Interior Conservation student at the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. After interning at the Center of the West, she returns to school for her final year for her Bachelor of Culture and Arts degree. During this internship, she worked with books, textiles, and Native American objects. In Finland, she has interned at the National Board of Antiquities and at the Governing Body of the Suomenlinna fortress.
Laura Elez Villar
Laura Elez Villar is from Spain. She finished her studies in conservation and restoration of paper and books in Madrid in 2012, and did different summer internships such as: the conservation of bones at the University of Barcelona, and conservation of papers and books at the Institute of Cardenal Cisneros in Madrid and Historical Library Marqués de Valdecillas in Madrid. Her practices at the Center of the West focused on books and maps.
2012 Interns
Marissa Stevenson
Marissa Stevenson is from Toledo, Ohio, and received her undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of Toledo. She has worked in conservation labs at the University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library, and the Toledo Museum of Art prior to coming to the Center of the West. At the end of her time here, she returned to Toledo for an internship at the Toledo Museum of Art, and then applied for graduate school in art conservation.
Emilie Kracen
Emilie Kracen is from Bridgewater, Connecticut. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation with minors in Museum Studies and Chemistry from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At the end of her summer at the Center, she traveled to work in the labs at Colonial Williamsburg for six months, after which she will be applying to master degree programs in Art Conservation.
Fran Ritchie
Fran Ritchie is a graduate student at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York, earning her Master of Arts and Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art Conservation and Anthropology from the University of Delaware, and a Master of Arts in Museum Anthropology from Columbia University. She has worked in art conservation labs at Winterthur Estate and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and Patronato Panama Viejo in Panama City, Panama. Working at the Center of the West provided experience with a variety of materials from Native American objects to taxidermy bird specimens.
Jaclyn Rubino
Jaclyn Rubino is from Harwinton, Connecticut. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford with a painting major and an art history minor. In her internship at the Center of the West, she treated Plains Indian objects, ceramics, outdoor sculpture, and books. After her time at the Center, she interned in the paintings lab at Winterthur Estate in Delaware.
Jamie Gleason
Jamie Gleason is a graduate student in the Buffalo State College Art Conservation Program, with a concentration in objects conservation. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the State University of New York at Albany. After completing his undergraduate studies, He worked for seven years as a picture framer and operated an art gallery in Albany. He has worked in the objects conservation lab at the Peebles Island Resource Center and for the Citywide Monuments Conservation Program in New York City. In fall 2012, Jamie began his third year internship at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. While at the Center of the West, he treated outdoor sculpture and Plains Indian artifacts.
Katie Belton
Katie Belton is from Sheridan, Wyoming. She graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Biology and minor studies in Art and Art History. At the Center, she worked on Plains Indian objects, including a warrior headdress from the Hunkpapa tribe, circa 1850. She particularly enjoys repairing ceramics and inpainting. She has done volunteer work for the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, where she helped to rehouse paper objects. After this internship, Katie headed back to San Francisco for her second internship before applying to graduate school in Art Conservation.
Kyoung-eun Park
Kyoung-eun Park is from South Korea and received her Master of Arts in Conservation of Fine Arts with a specialty in works of art on paper from Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. During her graduate studies, she interned at the Museum of London, the National Maritime Museum, the University College London library services in the U.K. and Rest’Arte in Venice, Italy. Before entering the conservation field, Kyoung-eun studied Landscape Architecture and Urban Design for her bachelor and master degrees at Seoul National University in Korea. While at the Center, she treated archives, drawings, and prints on paper.
