An active platform is required for museum professionals in India to share the best practice and build skills and resources, Martin Bellamy, the head of the research and curatorial team at Glasgow Museums said.
Bellamy, along with Tim Corum, Director, Curatorial and Public Engagement at Horniman Museums (UK), came to the city to participate in a workshop, being held for museum professionals from across the country, from February 18 to 20 at the National Council of Science Museums here at the initiative of British Council.
The two museum experts were talking to PTI here last evening.
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The experts said the workshop will be the road map in building up the active platform for museum professionals to share and exchange.
"We visualise a day when both digital museums as well as museums in their present physical form will co-exist in another 30 years time. People will access exhibits with the click of mouse. But seeing and sensing the object in the physical form is important. So digital museum cannot altogether replace a museum as we see it in the present form. They can supplement each other," Corum said.
Bellamy added, "Yes, I am looking forward to an era when
all the objects in different premier museums all over the world will be digitally catalogued in different heads and one can see and know about them by logging in from any part of the world."
Asked if there can be lack of interest about the exhibits and maintenance among the lower-level staff of state-run museums, who might consider it as more of a job and less of a passion, Bellamy said, "On the contrary I found the motivational level quite high among everybody I had interacted with. They are keen to exchange views and tips with us."
"We interacted on ways of collections management - policy and practice, including how to explore the digital method, and found the participants quite passionate about preserving the subjects in their custody," Corum said.
The duo went through the exhibits of Victoria Museum and found the treasure trove fascinating with modern preservation techniques put to use.
Nearly 35 museum professionals from - Victoria Memorial, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai, City Palace Museum Jaipur, Sulabh Museums Delhi, Indian Museum, Salarjung Museum Hyderabad and others attended the workshop at NCSM.
"We would love to go through the private museums in the city and know how the owners keep the exhibits, in our next visit," they added.
