I am particularly delighted that the event is taking place here in the British Museum  which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.  The museum's own celebrations very appropriately tie in with the Museum and Galleries Month 2003 theme, 'Cultures – then and now'. 

 

I remember all too clearly being dragged as a child to museums as part of my education. It was presented to us as something akin to cough medicine  - vaguely unpleasant but undoubtedly good for you.

 

That was 40 years ago. And your world has turned upside down in that time. Every time to go to a museum now I see it is packed with people who are there because they want to be, because they enjoy it and because they are learning about our world.

 

Dulwich Picture Gallery is in my constituency. Last year I met a school girl who lived nearby who went on a trip with her school.  She  loved it so much, she took her mother there. Her mother hadn't been inside a gallery in her life. 
I love that sense of excitement at discovering how museums and galleries have changed.

 

The continued success of free entry is undoubtedly a big part of fostering that excitement.  But so is the welcome people get when they walk through the doors.  And that is the success Directors and their staff should be proudest of.  People don't just want to go, they want to come back.

 

The tightrope between banal and accessible is not an easy one to walk, but right across the country, the very fact that visitor numbers are still increasing is proof that you have got the balance right. 

 

And anyone who moans about the dumbed down British public haven't seen the queues outside the Titian exhibition, Picasso-Matisse, the new Saatchi gallery, or just about anything at the Baltic.

 

But I am preaching to the converted.  The reason tonight is special is that we are launching the third annual month long Museums and Galleries Month, a month when, throughout the country, all museums make a concerted effort to draw in new visitors.

 

And if ever there was a time to appreciate the scholarship and research which are your great purpose, it is now.

 

The horror which the looting of Iraq's treasures has provoked is proof that the world understands how precious are these memories of the origins of civilization.

And now the world has turned to the guardians of that memory – the BM, UNESCO and of course Donny George among others - to use their wisdom and expertise to help pick up the pieces.    

I can't think of a more noble use for their skills, or a more urgent need. 
 
So good luck to them. Good luck to the Month, and good luck to the entrants for the Gulbenkian Prize.