Leading Museum Professionals from 9 countries and more than 20 cities in India are participating. President, The International Council of Museum (ICOM), Paris was part of the discussion
An International Conference and Intensive Seminar on ‘Strategic Transformations: Museums in 21st Century’ is organised to discuss the future structure of the museums of India. Leading Museum Professionals from 9 countries and more than 20 cities in India are participating in this first of its kind conference. Prof. Hans Martin Hinz, President, The International Council of Museums (ICOM), Paris delivered a Keynote Address on transformation of museums citing examples from transformation of museums in post reunification of Germany. His session was followed by a discussion on the Sub-theme ‘Museums and Human Resource Development’. The session was aimed to discuss about the future HRD in museums of India. What best practices of already transformed museums of other countries could be adopted in India was discussed during the session.
Another session on ‘Museum and Relevance’ was held in the afternoon where relevance of museums was discussed with reference to community engagement, benefits and active citizenship. How Underprivileged Children could be engaged with the Museum, How schools and communities could be connected with the museums was discussed in the session. Some of the case studies of different type of museums from different parts of the world were discussed to have better understanding on the practices which could be adopted by museum for future. One of the major highlight was presentation of Roberta Altman of American Museum of Natural History through Skype. She presented her views on connecting communities and schools with the museum citing examples from USA. She wasn’t able to come physically but the organizers connected through her virtually.
The conference is organized by the National Council of Science Museum (NCSM), an autonomous body under Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in collaboration with Indian Museum, Kolkata, National Museum, Delhi and National Committee of ICOM and British Council. The Delhi leg of the conference on the Sub-themes ‘Museums and Transformations’ and ‘Museums and Digital Domain’ was already held on 10th and 11th February 2014. The Kolkata leg of the conference was held in the Science City today and another session on ‘Museum and Relevance’ shall be held tomorrow at Indian Museum, Kolkata.
Key International persons attending the conference are Prof. Hans Martin Hinz, President, ICOM; Martin Roth, Director, Victoria and Albert Musuem, UK; Prof. Amareswar Galla, Executive Director, The International Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Denmark, Dr. Gordon Rintoul, Director, National Museum of Scotland; Mark Taylor, Director, Museums Association, UK;Dr. Steven Englesman, Director, Weltmuseum. Wien, Austria, Dr. Carolyn Royston, Head of Digital Media, Imperial War Museum, UK; Prokash Chandra Das, Director General, Bangladesh National Museum, Bangladesh.
