The bell rings and class VI students of Chennai School Kodambakkam head to the playground for their PT period. They do the unusual. They ignore the football field and run to a parked bus.
Like students from many other schools, they cannot resist the Museum on Wheels.
The bus, built at a cost of Rs. 35 lakh by New Delhi-based unit of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) for the Government Museum in Egmore and launched last year, consists of portraits and photographs that can be viewed from outside through glass panels. Stone sculptures, metal craftworks, coins, art and craft, writings and manuscripts are displayed inside the bus, which has a walking space for visitors.
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“Initially, a curator accompanied the team in the bus. As the exhibits go with detailed descriptions on the glass panels, we send only a staff with the museobus (as it is called),” a source said.
Nearly 35 select collections of rare photographs, manuscripts, portraits and coins of historical importance are displayed on the glass panels. A handful of portraits tracing India’s history, including art and architecture, are displayed on both sides of the bus.
“I was excited to see a few portraits which I have seen only in textbooks. The exhibits are interesting,” said B. Sathosh, a student.
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According to museum officials, the museobus is aimed at promoting conservation of heritage among children.
The bus visits institutions based on requests made by school heads to the Commissioner of Museums.
The mobile museum has visited most of the schools in the city and also some in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.
“During vacations and examinations, the mobile museum does not visit schools. During those times, the bus is stationed at the Egmore museum for its visitors. Schools do not have to pay for the bus to visit the school as it has been designed in the first place to serve an educational purpose,” said a museum official.