For the series on "Women leaders in art and science" wieninternational.at spoke this week with Beatrix Patzak, director of the Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum in Vienna. The woman who reigns over about 50,000 anatomical and pathological specimens reported from her workplace in the so-called Narrenturm (Madhouse Tower) about her first activities at the museum, her everyday experience with overwhelmed visitors and the special features of the building.
Since the beginning of her era Beatrix Patzak has succeeded in turning the Pathologic-Anatomical Museum into an open, accessible building. Yet even so the 'Madhouse Tower' appears deserted on this morning of the 2nd of November. The doors of what was once the world's first psychiatric ward are closed, and only after ringing the bell does the door to today's museum world of pathology and anatomy open. Silence reigns on the path leading past the public exhibition on the ground floor through the courtyard up to the first floor to the study collection. There we finally came face to face with Beatrix Patzak who in 1993 became the youngest director of an Austrian state museum and the first woman to hold such a high position. Two skulls are quickly removed from her desk before our interview begins.
<http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/23853>Link
