Board Member

email: suzanne.keene@ucl.ac.uk

I became a member of the Collections Trust Board because I enjoy working with organisations at a strategic level, attempting to see how they can respond to and, hopefully, help shape the context in which they operate. Why the Collections Trust? I have had contact with the Collections Trust/MDA almost since it was founded, and I have always admired the work it has done on documentation, without which collections are meaningless.I have worked with very large collections (and very large objects!) in the Museum of London and the Science Museum. I love collections, the more mixed and bizarre the better. I want to see them better organised, better looked after and much, much more accessible to people.

At present I work at University College London, running the MA in Museum Studies. I also teach two of the component courses in Collections Management and Care, and Digitisation and Museums. These reflect two of the areas of museum operations that I am specially interested in. Running an MA degree is a chance to inspire the new generations of people in museums with a love and knowledge of the collections – and also, I hope, the skills and knowledge to manage and preserve them. Three PhD students who I supervise are researching aspects of collections and museums, from the conservation of art works in time-based media to the values and uses of theatrical archives. And I am also currently researching full-time into the stored collections of museums as a public resource.

I’m also chair of the organising committee for EVA London – an annual conference series on aspects of the digital arts (www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/)

My interests outside museums include my family, going to the movies, various aspects of computing and, at present, planning the renovations of a little cottage in Wiltshire – with extensive research into green technologies (all rather costly at present – go for insulation!)