So here is my swan song for this series that ran for seven months beginning March this year. It’s not that the list is exhausted. In fact, there are a still few left: the National Police Museum, Dr. Zakir Hussain Museum, the National Agriculture and Science Museum, the Field Museum inside the Old Fort, the Kitchen Museum in Rashtrapati Bhawan, another museum in Rashtrapati Bhawan which was recently opened, a relatively new Heritage Transport Museum and the most notable of them all, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The list of museums covered is already long and I didn’t want to make it longer. Also, some of the spaces not featured have been in the news recently and don’t require coverage so soon again. But they are no lesser museums so you should go and explore them.
The problem isn’t that we don’t have museums — the city is full of them — but that we don’t know about them. Even if we do, we don’t feel particularly enthused to go there. To achieve a turnaround in this attitude, the Ministry of Culture launched a well-intentioned Museum Renewal Programme which included a Leadership Training Programme focusing on the development and training of in-service museum professionals so as to work in the areas of museum management, museum strategies and audience engagement. There was a joint initiative undertaken by the Union Ministry of Culture and the British Council whereby museum officials were familiarised with cutting edge knowledge of the best practices at museums abroad. When the impact of all this would start to reflect, and if at all…remains ambiguous at the moment but some of the museums seem to be on track.
The National Museum with its programming, visitor-friendly atmosphere, curated walks, curation and display seems to be the best bet in the Delhi lot. And it should be. After all it’s the National Museum. But we still need more such inviting spaces, smiling curators willing to share information with visitors and activities to attract and engage them. Most places I went to wore a dead look.
Museums are supposed to be quiet but not lifeless. Museum after museum, I realised, none of them lacked in collection but struggled with how to present it to the viewer.
I believe if the National Museum of Natural History — which already receives a good number of visitors with lots of kids frequenting it for their class projects — ups its ante, it will do even better. Same with the National Science Centre and Shankar’s International Dolls Museums. Where is the museum staff, except security guards I wondered at these museums. Very rarely did I come across a curator leading a group of visitors except at the Gandhi Museum on Rajghat, once at the National Gallery of Modern Art and at the National Museum.
Quite a few of them have upgraded themselves technologically, while some lie in utter neglect, like the Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangrahalaya on Dr. Ambedkar Marg. The museum is maintained by Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh (BASS), a non-governmental organisation working for the welfare of tribals on scant funds. It can be a real discovery of tribal life for school children.
The other two museums in the city dealing with tribal and folk culture — the National Crafts Museum located at Pragati Maidan and the Malliah Memorial Theatre Crafts Museum — are both under renovation and they urgently needed it. While the Malliah Memorial Theatre Crafts Museum on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg is completely out of bounds for people, the Crafts Museum isn’t. The complex is huge and renovation is being taken up in parts. One of the biggest additions to the museum is Café Lota which has made the place a little more alive for me. The newly done up shop looks amazing too.
Maybe you can start with the Crafts Museum this winter, because it gets even more lovely and lively in the cool weather.
