Webinar: Revitalising Museums and Cultural Spaces
Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces, Ministry of Culture hosts a webinar on ‘Revitalising Museums and Cultural Spaces’ on International Museum Day.
Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces, Ministry of Culture, Government of India is hosted a webinar on “Revitalising Museums and Cultural Spaces” on 18th May, 2020 at 4.30PM IST to celebrate the International Museum Day and kick start conversations around creating sustainable cultural organisations in post pandemic India.
The webinar started with a presentation from CEO, DMCS, Ministry of culture, Mr. Raghvendra Singh, on various initiatives of DMCS. This was followed by a conversation between CEO and Ms. Deepa Sahi on how PPP model can be explored in the creation of a robust cultural space.
This was followed by a panel discussion that featured some of the best experts in the museum and cultural spaces domain such as:
Mr. Abhishek Poddar,Founder Trustee, Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bengaluru
Mr. Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi Biennale Foundation
Mr. Brendan Ciecko, Founder and CEO, Cuseum
Mr. Raghvendra Singh, CEO Museums and Cultural Spaces, Ministry of Culture, Government of India (Moderator)
Mr. Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts
The discussion touched upon several important points such as:
In the post-covid 19 scenario, digital access is growing in importance and building capacity with respect to digital infrastructure is the need of the hour. However, a hybrid between the digital and physical experience will have to be devised in order to promote museums and cultural spaces. This crisis presents an opportunity for a number of new cultural digital products to come up.
The importance of a National Culture Fund was stressed upon in the context of Government supporting cultural initiatives.
Some policy level innovations were proposed such as making every ‘Smart City’ an ‘Art city’, provisioning for tax holidays and benefits for culture, making culture a part of CSR objectives and so on
The topic of pricing and membership in museums was taken up and ideas of dynamic ticketing and flexible pricing were explored in the context of competing with month-to-month subscription economy which includes OTT platforms and the ways cultural institutions can stand out in the digital world, which is going to be more competitive and cluttered in the near future.
With regard to cultural spaces and festivals, several models such as the Manifesta European Biennale which moves from one location to the other was discussed along with the importance of packaging and promoting rich cultural wealth of India.
PPP emerged as the way forward and the mindset shift as to how philanthropy is practiced in India was also discussed.
With lockdowns across the globe resulting lost revenue and throwing up the need to devise new revenue streams, it was proposed that museums and cultural spaces take active efforts to embrace entrepreneurial spirit and become modern, digital forward organisations.
The office of CEO, Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces would be publishing a white paper on the topic based on the discussions between speakers and participants.
The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) created by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has supported DMCS, Ministry of Culture by providing technical assistance for conducting of this Webinar.
