Suzanne Keene
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!)