Since 2011, a change that resonates with the advances in museology the world over has come about in the way museums are curated in Kerala.
Globally, there is an effort to decolonise museums, to make the display spaces indigenous and theme-based, and to show slices of life both ancient and current. An example of this is the revamp of the 150-year-old childhood museum in UK—it is being advised not by experts but by children, whose ideas are shaping the way the space is being transformed. Closer home in Amritsar, the Partition Museum narrates the desperation of those who experienced one of the biggest catastrophes India had to face.
The Pazhassiraja Museum in Kozhikode, one of the projects of the Keralam Museum.
The theme on which museums are being shaped are also varied. The Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia, which won the 2011 Kenneth Hudson Award for Europe’s most innovative museum, is where personal objects of former lovers are displayed as reminders of emotions associated with relationships. The culinary arts museum in Manipal is another marvel where artefacts used in kitchens from the 18th and 19th centuries onwards tell stories of the rich art that is the food craft of the region.
Kerala’s sweeping change
Till recently, Kerala’s museums hardly reflected the gripping evolutionary story of the State. They were mere storehouses where artefacts were randomly arranged for visitors to casually stray into as part of their larger tour of the region. The museums did not have much of a connect with the people who came to revisit their own past.
Now, massive strides are being taken to change the way museums are conceived and presented in the State. Local connections take centrestage in this movement, which experts say is sure to make Kerala a hub of museums.
The Handloom Museum in Kannur stands as a mark of recognition to the State's traditional handloom craft.
A pioneer in this movement is Dr. V. Venu, now the Chief Secretary of Kerala and earlier the Tourism Director, and known famously as the museum man for his passion to create spaces that tell stories of the past.
His stint in the departments associated with museums and heritage, both in the State and at the Centre, aided his understanding of museums as celebration of life events rather than mere inherited spaces to display the past. He says the moves happening in the State is to transform museums as zones that will challenge one to think differently. For example, migration has shaped Kerala since when traders stopped here for exchange of goods and culture centuries ago, to the 1950s when people from the plains journeyed to the high ranges to turn the tough terrain into profit-yielding spice fields, and when job hunters crossed over in dhows to the Gulf regions. “Is there a single place where these migrations are spoken about?” Dr. Venu asks.
Sensitive portrayal in museums could help present such stories, and convey their relevance in an accessible manner. “Modern museology doesn’t require grand objects. What we need are tiny ones that are remnants of what needs to be said. Like if I get a copy of a letter written by a man who migrated to UAE some decades ago written in his poor language to his wife, I could probably create a whole museum out of it. Or if I get a lantern used by someone from Pala on their way to Wayanad during the migration phase to the hills, I can use it to tell the story of that migration. So you just need one personal object and minds creative enough to create a space where the stories can be told. I am only trying to ignite such small fires. The journey is not easy but it is sure an interesting one,” he says.
The Vaikom Satyagraha Museum is yet another ofIMCK’s projects where interactive and innovative ways of conveying the story of the iconic Vaikom struggle have been adopted.
Apart from setting up museums based on this thinking, work is also on to revamp the existing ones. So far, museums including the Koyikkal Palace, Krishnapuram Palace, and Hill Palace have been thematically redone. There are many others being planned such as the Padmanabhapuram Palace and the Kozhikode Collector’s bungalow.
The work going on in the sector is slow but since the formation of the Interactive Museum of Cultural History of Kerala (IMCK) in 2011 as a niche body to oversee such transformations, there has been an added focus on recreating museums in this mould. Nicknamed Keralam Museum, the body takes up the work of ideating, curating and presenting museums incorporating global trends.
“Globally, the change has been to make museums knowledge centres and academic support systems,” says Chandran Pillai, Director of IMCK. “We began the transformation phase first with a sample museum now located on the campus of the Tourism Directorate at Park View. It tells stories about the anthropological, geographical, cultural, and artistic evolution of Kerala over the ages. The items were collected on loan from Museum and Archives repositories and were displayed in a very interactive manner. The entire museum was set up in one and half months and can be covered by a viewer in 45 minutes.”
The effort threw open the prospects of museums as communicative spaces where the displays are mere objects that aid in the storytelling. “We understood that we did not need palaces or traditional spaces. Also, we won’t get crores as fund; neither would we get rare artefacts. Yet we can make museums. What was needed was a communicative framework. That was the strength to build on,” Mr. Pillai says.
Kerala’s museum saga
Project execution
The team of Keralam Museum has a panel that consists of 84 people from different sectors of ideation, creation, building, and maintenance associated with museums. “When Keralam Museum gets a project, we have meetings to put together a comprehensive Detailed Project Report (DPR),which is the script of the movie that the museum is,” says Ruben John Abraham, technical officer of IMCK.
Galleries are then planned as per the theme, the display pattern and technique are decided, and the artefacts finalised keeping in mind the space available. After an agreement on execution of the project and approval of budget, the teams to implement the project along its different parameters such as design, civil, interior, fire and safety are finalised from the list of consultants.
The concept of modern museums as social spaces where academic study joins hands with awareness and outreach is the key factor that drives the planning phase. The texts that go in the displays are written in such a way that richness of what is being presented is conveyed to any visitor. For those wanting to go deeper, the museums double up as resource centres with facilities for study and research.
There is also the idea of building a connection with the people. “Museums need friends,” says Mr. Pillai. They help not only in the progression of the projects but also in the sourcing of raw material.
The importance of having ‘friends of the museum’ became evident during the setting up of niche museums such as the Koyikkal museum and the tribal museum coming up in Wayanad. “For Koyikkal museum, we had developed relations with the locals of the area, mostly tribal people from whom we got a lot of objects and information. Some of the ‘friends of the museum’ would also approach us when there would be old houses being pulled down or temple being revamped. The artefact that needs to restored or conserved would then come to us. We would display them with due reverence in the museums,” Mr. Pillai says.
Training and staff
The revamping of museums in this manner generates the need for professionals sensitised in the modern techniques of museology and outreach. Keralam Museums provides a 21-day training to prepare batches of students and enthusiasts as guides and resource persons for its different projects. Students of History, Archaeology and Literature are given preference.
Courses and training in museology are practically absent in Kerala except for provisions to take up the subject as electives or as undergraduate courses in universities such as Sree Sankara University in Kalady, and colleges such as UC College Aluva, Assumption College, Changanassery. Kerala’s soaring museum ambitions mean universities and institutes will need to focus on study of museology and related fields with added focus, says Jithu Dhanyan D.C., a research scholar in Archaeology from University of Mumbai who also works as a guide with Keralam Museum.
“When it comes to the museum sector, it is not just museology but also excavation and allied technology that needs to be considered. An example is the use of modern techniques such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), which uses laser emissions to spot concealed architecture. Archaeologists, thus, may be in demand. So will be conservationists who are well-versed with the chemistry behind conservation. Others to have space in the new milieu will be those with academic training in museology who can plan display and lighting of a museum, ones trained in history and epigraphy who can decipher literature on display, experts in specialised fields like numismatics and iconography, and multi-discplinary experts who can play resource persons,” says Mr. Dhanyan.
There is also scope for start-ups in the conservation and museology fields. Such groups could also take up outsourced work as well as conservation works of individuals who can afford to pay for their services. Yet training and jobs still remain challenges for those specialising in museology. Projects such as of IMCK probably could help address the situation, say academics.
Thus, strategy and technique is transforming Kerala into a grand space where the present is being inspired to save stories of the past to be told to the future.
