FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Marc Pachter explains Why Museums Matter to
UK museum professionals
Prior to the opening of the exhibition September 11:
Bearing Witness to History at the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of American History, Director Marc Pachter
launched the mda 2002 Conference with an impassioned
keynote speech about the unique role of museums in the
world today.
Whilst acknowledging the educational, social and
entertainment roles of museums, Mr Pachter emphasised
their unique role in enabling authentic ‘attendance’ with
objects. A firm advocate of the use of new technologies, Mr
Pachter predicts that as surrogates of artefacts become all
the more easy to reproduce, the need and desire for the
authentic artefact – the ‘object as witness’ - will become
even stronger.
In line with mda developments to provide easily accessible
and quality-assured information for people working with
collections, all the conference papers will be available from
its portal, including a downloadable audio file of Mr
Pachter’s speech.
mda Director, Louise Smith commented: “We were
extremely fortunate to have had Marc remind conference
delegates of the underlying purpose of our work and why
museums and collections touch people at the most
profound level. We are delighted that, thanks to new
technology, mda is able to share Marc’s thinking in his own
words with a much wider audience via our website.”
Notes to Editors:
* Marc Pachter is Director of the Smithsonian’s National
Portrait Gallery and Acting Director of the Smithsonian’s
National Museum for American History. His keynote speech
Why Museums Matter was delivered on 4 September at the
mda 2002 Conference in Birmingham, UK. His speech can
be downloaded from
www.mda.org.uk/conference2002/keynote/
For details of how to obtain a printed copy of the full
conference proceedings please contact:
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* mda (formerly the Museum Documentation Association) is a
UK-wide body which supports museums and other collections
holders in the management of their collections and
specifically with documentation and information
management. Each year mda holds an annual conference in
the UK for professionals throughout the sector. For further
information see: www.mda.org.uk
Louise Smith
Director
mda
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