Dame Janet Mary Vitmayer (born 2 September 1952) is a British museum director.

Early life

Vitmayer was born on 2 September 1952 to parents from Czechoslovakia
Erno (a.k.a. Arnost) and Maria (née Pichler) Vitmayer
She studied History and American Studies at Keele University.

Career

In 1976, Vitmayer started work at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

as a research assistant. In 1983, she became director of the

Livesey Museum for Children The Livesey Museum for Children was in the Old Kent Road, within the London Borough of Southwark, London, England. The Livesey Museum was one of very few children's museums in the United Kingdom, which used to show a completely new hands-on ex ...

, a role she held until 1993. During this period, she completed a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Museum and gallery Management at City University. She became head of public services at Horniman Museum in 1993, holding this role until 1998, when she became chief executive for the same museum. She held the role of chief executive until March 2018. During her tenure, she led several fundraising campaigns and annual visitor numbers increased from 200,000 to more than 900,000. She worked at Pitt Rivers Museum from 2000 to 2015. At this time she was chair of a

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

awards committee in 2008–2009 and from 2011 to 2013. She was a trustee of the

London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...

from 2001 to 2013, a trustee of the Collections Trust from 2008 to 2015 and has been a trustee of the

Hunterian Collection The Hunterian Collection is one of the best-known collections of the University of Glasgow and is cared for by the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery and Glasgow University Library. It contains 650 manuscripts and some 10,000 printed books,

since 2013 and of the

Florence Nightingale Museum The Florence Nightingale Museum is located at St Thomas' Hospital, which faces the Palace of Westminster across the River Thames in South Bank, central London, England. It is open to the public five days a week, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00am u ...

since 2016. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' noted that Vitmayer was one of few female museum directors at the time.

Honours

Janet Vitmayer was made a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in 2011 for services to museums, before being elevated to Dame Commander of the same Order in 2018 for services to museums and diversity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitmayer, Janet 1952 births Alumni of Keele University Directors of museums in the United Kingdom Women museum directors Living people Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire British people of Czech descent