Capacity building for Tamil Nadu museums

A series of workshops was initiated in Chennai today, 6 January, to assist capacity building for museums in Tamil Nadu.

Thirty participants from twenty district museums in Tamil Nadu, eight State archaeology museums, and the Government Museum, Chennai, participated in the workshop.

The initiative is a partnership between the Government Museum, Chennai and AusHeritage, Australia's International Cultural Heritage Network. It was launched by Sean Kelly, Consul-General of Australia for South India, in the presence of Dr. Jagannathan, Director, Government Museum, Chennai, and Mr. Vinod Daniel.

Mr Daniel said "The objective was to assist in developing better storage and display conditions for cultural collections in Tamil Nadu."

"Ten variables that can affect cultural collections were discussed at the workshop. As follow-up steps, participants will be trained in a risk matrix on which of the ten variables would be relevant to their particular museum based on both observation as well as using scientific data. They will then be trained to develop both low cost and medium cost mechanisms to deal with the variables that would be relevant to their particular institution" he said.

Mr Daniel added that "Each institution will go back and develop a simple collection risk management and mitigation framework for their institution. In two months' time we will have a follow up workshop where they will present their observations and mitigating mechanisms. There would be additional follow up workshops in future that will deal with specific aspects including Pest Management, Disaster Management, Museum Displays, and Documentation."

Vinod Daniel is the Chairman of the Board for AusHeritage (Australia's International Cultural Heritage Network), and Board Member of the International Council of Museums (International Museum peak body with 35,000 professionals, 20,000 museums, 140 National committees and 35 international committees).