The Government Museum looked like never before. Enthusiasm, excitement and a new energy pervaded the second oldest museum in South India during the International Museum Day Celebrations from May 18-21. Families after families arrive in spacious cars, tourists in buses, and couples hand-in-hand. While some would quietly soak in the sight of beautiful exhibits, curious children and adults alike, would participate in several activities – mobile treasure hunt, storytelling sessions, story writing workshops – organised by Rereeti-Revitalising Museums.
Rereeti has been trying to bridge the gap between audience and museums through such activities since 2015. Pursuing her ATSA (Art Think South Asia) scholarship and various interactions and workshops with museum professionals in Delhi and Scotland, Tejshvi Jain realised the absence of engagement between people and museums. “Seeing museums there, I wondered if these spaces can be so powerful. Another thing I noticed was the strong network of museum professionals, strong bonding, sharing of knowledge. I was with NGMA (National Gallery of Modern Art), Bengaluru at that time and felt that too was missing in India,” recalls Tejshvi. The idea of Rereeti was born during ATSA. Tejshvi stresses on the need to cultivate the audience by curating experiences for them. “We are not telling the visitors about the museum collection. We bring to them stories, related to a particular artefact, an exhibit they would find relatable,” says the young museum professional.
Institutions were slightly apprehensive of Rereeti. “It was difficult interacting with them. They were not sure about our ideas. They were not ready to partner with us but we made a beginning with Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological museum. We organised activities for school kids around cells and they were so fascinated. We then celebrated International Museum Day with Janapada Loka. I am really grateful to both the directors of Janapada Loka – Indira Balakrishna, and KG Kumar for believing in me,” expresses Tejshvi.
Besides audience development, Rereeti is also working on capacity building. The museum has talented professionals but their strengths are not utilised properly. “We have started a blog on museums in India which enable museum professionals to share ideas, talk about challenges they face. We organise workshops for museum professionals, we call in experts to conduct these workshops. The staff needs to be inspired and motivated.”
Tejshvi also identifies another problem for Museum which is related to funds. “About 33% of museums in our country are State-owned. They are the ones which are suffering due to lack of funds. Even if they have funds, it is not utilized properly. We can become mediators between the Government and these museums so that funds are utilised.”
Due to their continued activities in Government Museum, Rereeti has built a special relationship with the space. Tejshvi wants to involve further with the museum and is working on a year-long programme for it involving different communities – locals, non-locals, various professionals of Bengaluru, only if the Government gives us a go ahead.
