Walk-through Indian Museum virtually at Google Cultural Institute

Enthusiasts can now walk through as many as eight galleries of Asia-Pacific's oldest and largest multipurpose museum, the Indian Museum here, at the click of a button, anywhere, anytime, courtesy its presence on the Google Cultural Institute (GCI) platform.

On Wednesday, the museum will formally launch digital exhibitions from the museum's collection and 360 degree panoramic imaging of its galleries on the GCI platform that allows viewers to digitally discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives around the world.

"We are starting off the collaboration by putting the Indian Buddhist Art exhibition on GCI platform. In a year, all the galleries will come on online and we hope to widen our reach through the venture. One can even see the intricate details of the sculptures and paintings," the museum's director-in-charge Jayanta Sengupta told IANS.

Initially, eight galleries - Gandhara, Bharhut, Egyptian, Shivalik, human evolution, decorative arts and textiles, coins, sculpture - will come online, the project's nodal officer Mita Chakraborty told IANS.

Chakraborty co-ordinated with the Google team during their visit to the Museum in September last year, for capturing the high-resolution images.

At the moment one can virtually walk-through the Indian Buddhist Art exhibition as well as the sculpture gallery.

Founded in 1814 in the cradle of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (at the present building of the Asiatic Society, 1 Park Street, Kolkata), Indian Museum is the earliest and the largest multipurpose museum not only in the Indian subcontinent but also in the Asia-Pacific region of the world.

According to the museum's education officer Shayan Bhattacharya, the GCI platform also serves as a way to digitally preserve the artefacts and exhibits.

--IANS

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