Katharine Hensler, the new director of the Riley County Historical Museum, will be the featured speaker for the Riley County Historical Society quarterly meeting at 7 p.m.  Thursday, Sept. 15. Hensler’s presentation — “Behind the Scenes of Your Riley County Historical Museum: The VIP Tour” — will be in Prairie Star’s Event Center, 2121 Meadowlark Road, Manhattan, Kan. There is no charge and the public is invited to attend. Cookies, coffee, tea, and lemonade will be served.

Museums are wonderful places of learning, exploration, conservation, preservation, and research. They come in many different forms and include artistic, cultural, historical, scientific, hands-on, immersive, and other types. Usually, one’s experience with museums is that of being the visitor and encountering the public side of the institution. On Sept. 15, come to a special “behind-the-scenes” experience on the other side of the Riley County Historical Museum with a VIP (Virtual Interactive Program) tour.

Join Hensler as she takes you down the corridors of your local museum to experience that ever-present mystery of what really goes on behind the scenes. You’ll meet the talented staff who keep the operations running and hear about their roles. You’ll encounter the friendly faces who greet our visitors every day, and you’ll get to learn about some of the exciting projects they have going on, along with the challenges staff members are always striving to solve. Get a peek into the everyday world of a museum professional beyond the doors that are usually marked “staff only.”