The people of the city, Kolkata, have not had a chance to see the emerald ring, the emerald-ruby inlaid wine pot of Emperor Shah Jahan. Next Wednesday, May 18 is IMD, International Museum Day. From that day onwards, the Indian Museum will have the opportunity to visualize a number of such rare archaeological materials. The exhibition, which runs until Friday, May 20, will begin at 11 a.m. daily.
At least 51 items from the museum’s arts, archaeology and anthropology departments will be on display on Museum Day. Along with that there are some rare historical materials, which have never been shown to the public before. For example, the gold coins of the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir, the Mahasthangarh inscription, the urns of the third century BC. In addition, there will be different types of masks, different materials made of ivory.
In addition, the Indian Museum Authority has organized various events throughout the week on the occasion of International Museum Day. Today, there will be drawing competitions, stone and earthenware making and origami workshops on different days from Monday to next Friday. There will be concerts and storytelling sessions. For this, enthusiastic visitors will be able to enter the museum for free from 11 am today.
Sayan Bhattacharya, the education director of the museum, said that the main idea of this year’s museum day is ‘Power of Museum’. For that, various rare items of the museum will be displayed for the first time on that day. “Every piece of material carries with it a history. This exhibition will try to tell those stories to the common people.” He said.
Museum Director Arijit Datta Chowdhury said, “The main attraction of this year is the exhibition of rare objects. Museum staff will also be in the exhibition to explain the significance of the materials to the general public. This will inspire not only history students but also the next generation. For now, the exhibition will run for three days. However, if there is a good response from the audience, the days of the exhibition can be extended beyond Friday.”
Along with IMD, the VMH (Victoria Memorial Hall, Science City, IM (Indian Museum) and BITM (Birla Industrial and Technological Museum) has decided for hosting various types of program each day from Monday until Friday. It is in sync with ICOM which declared the theme of this year’s IMD.
The VMH will hold a variety of fun and interactive events and workshops. They are especially geared for little children as the group of target. Flash mob performance along with drone photography, ghost storytelling, VMH collection’s single object exhibition – a writing desk that was used by great Bankim Chandra while writing Anandamath, fountain pen of Netaji Subhas Bose deserves special mention.
Workshop on astronomy, sky observation during evening, open air show of science will be Prime attractions of BITM. There will also be a launch of a full-dome digital film at the Science City. It is going to be one of the outstanding attractions in the whole event.