NEW DELHI: The culture ministry has planned an International Museum Expo to showcase precious cultural heritage exhibited in different museums across states. The three-day exhibition will serve as a knowledge-sharing platform, where domain experts will discuss best practices and standard operating procedures. According to the ministry, the objective of the programme is to educate and sensitise the people about museology, conservation and heritage.
The expo--scheduled to be held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, starting May 18--will be a ‘learning experience’ for those who wish to develop new museums or upgrade existing facilities. In view of the proposed exposition, the ministry has started identifying museums so that a directory of museums could be brought out.
The directory will contain details of each museum; run by the Government and private individuals or organisations. There are more than 300 prominent museums in the country which are being maintained by the ministry and respective states and union territory (UT) authorities.
National Science Centre Delhi, a unit of National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), is the nodal agency, which will be organising the Expo for the ministry.
The event is part of the second phase of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, celebration and commemoration of 75 years of India’s independence. The exhibition coincides with the International Museum Day.
The three-day event will focus on various theme museums through workshops, seminars, master classes, panel discussions and other events in which invitations will be extended to artists, dignitaries and professionals from various fields across the globe.
In its recent report, the standing committee on transport, tourism and culture recommended the ministry to collect relevant meta-information about the museums such as their location and contact details and put the details on its website. The directory may also be shared with the ministry of tourism for promotion, which will help to increase footfall to museums, the panel has noted.
“The Committee feels that it is important to ignite the interest of Indian citizens towards museums. Increased footfall at museums would make it viable for the Government to come up with more museums across the country. This, in turn, would give a strong push to the tourism sector in the country…The Committee recommends that the ministry may undertake a case study of the best international museums with the highest footfalls. The best practices observed from such case studies may be fine-tuned in light of Indian context,” observed the Committee of parliamentarians.