By IANS,
New Delhi : The International Council of Museums (ICOM), the apex body of museums worldwide, will help India’s prestigious National Museum in its modernisation process by extending expertise in areas like conservation and display, a statement said here Wednesday.
The Indian chapter of ICOM has been asked to co-ordinate with the expert groups under the ICOM to channelize expertise, besides hosting workshops and seminars in the National Museum Institute (NMI) to train
resourcepersons here, the statement said.
“The National Museum is on a modernisation drive and we require expertise. The ICOM has a vast pool of international experts. By linking with the ICOM, we can source required expertise and connect to other global institutions,” V.M. Nair, head of the department of conservation, said.
“The National Museum and the ICOM can jointly work towards capacity building of museum professionals in India. On the International Museum Day May 18, 2011, the NMI plans to support ICOM in celebrating this years’ theme of ‘Museum and Memory’ through a one-day working seminar,” he said.
In a recent conference of the Conservation Committee of the ICOM (ICOM-CC) on March 10-11 and the March 14-15 seminar on “Museology and Conservation: A complementary concept involving modern science”, the national museum stressed on the need for foreign expertise to upgrade facilities.
The seminar addressed the potential of two important disciplines – museology and conservation for management of invaluable heritage which involves science as complementary concept.
The seminar was inaugurated by C.V. Ananda Bose, administrator of the National Museum.
He said the museums were vibrant and dynamic entities and they must re-discover and re-interpret themselves by becoming people-oriented.