Roll Up! Roll Up! The Magical Myth-History Tour

Thursday Luncheon Plenary Keynote for the 2007 NMC Pachyderm Conference

A brief lunchtime journey down a road less traveled by in order to illuminate “the way we do the things to do.” What do James Burke, Douglas Adams, and John Cowper Powys have to do with Pachyderm? More importantly, why are hard-boiled eggs often more useful than sledgehammers in the educational process?

Holly Witchey is currently Director of New Media at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In addition, she serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Museum Computer Network, and is an AAM appointed member to the National Committee for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (CALM). From 2002-2007 she served as a member of and, eventually, chair of the American Association of Museum’s Media & Technology Standing Professional Committee. For reasons that are still unclear to her, Witchey has a Ph.D. in 15th Century Italian Painting and Sculpture. As Associate Curator of European Art at the San Diego Museum of Art, she began developing content-rich projects for museums using new technologies. In 2000 she left the curatorial world to start the New Media Department at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Witchey writes and speaks about museum ethics, accessibility, and issues that have arisen as a result of the use of new technologies in museum settings. She is the author of three books none of which have anything to do with new media and can be purchased at significantly discounted prices on Amazon.com. They make excellent door stops.