Online portal to map lesser known museums in India

The memories of great Urdu poet - Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib lay in the Ghalib Academy in Nizamuddin West area of the city.
The academy, inaugurated by former president Dr Zakir Hussain in 1969, was established in memory of Ghalib, but not many know that it also has a museum on the life and times of the 18th century poet.
Several such lesser known museums will now be available for viewing online with Sahapedia's new initiative to map all the museums in India.
Sahapedia, an open online resource on art, culture and heritage, will unveil the initiative on International Museum Day tommorrow.

The project aims to offer audience a digital platform to view consolidated information on museums across the country, along with the highlights and provide culture enthusiasts an opportunity to interact with museum professionals.
"Usually only government museums have a dedicated website and many of them lack detailed information. We want to map every museum in India and create a database which will not only benefit professionals but will also sensitise people," says Vaibhav Chauhan, Secretary and Project Lead at Sahapedia.

In its first leg, the project has covered ten cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jodhpur and Jaipur among others.

"We have been able to get access to 143 museums in our first leg but our research shows there are more than one thousand museums in India.
"Through this project we want to decentralise the system and create an ecosystem which makes people more thoughtful for our museums," he says.
The project will also expand its reach to universities and schools which have dedicated museums covering subjects besides art and culture.
"Museums have become more like informal centres of knowledge. We are not able to realise the variety these centres have in terms of diversity and culture," he says.
Sahapedia is using #ILoveMuseums to generate interest about the project on social media.

A series of short interviews of museum professionals and enthusiasts will also be released periodically after the launch of the project.