CRAFTING SUBJECTS IN MUSEUM EDUCATION

Museums are an alternative to traditional educational settings. They are driven by curiosity, discovery, unrestricted exploration, and the sharing of experiences with companions. Museums in India are developing various programmes, workshops, and events for their collections and communicating their subjects to visitors from different sectors and backgrounds. Dr. Savita Kumari, Senior Assistant Professor, National Museum Institute, Who discussed about the changing landscape of museum education and its need to adopt current trends in the country. She also shed a light on the opportunities and careers in the museum sector.

The five key takeaways from the talk are:

1. Age of collaborating sectors: People have joined museums from various professions such as architecture, fine arts, management, engineering, and backgrounds other than cultural heritage and brought different sets of skills that have benefited museums and enhanced their experiences in this ever-changing time. The online presence and outreach of museums' collections, activities, and programmes are igniting interest in the young generation, which is becoming more aware of making a career in the museum or cultural sector. Today, the sector has become multi-disciplinary and has joined hands with different sectors to work across projects.

2. Organic interactions act as an invitation: In the post-pandemic era, museums have understood the importance of visitors. The manner in which museums welcome visitors is critical. Museum programmes are now live streamed, and innovative events like "museum at night" invite the public and transform the museum into a recreational space. The vast collection of museums causes the visitor to become disoriented, so personal interactions such as museum educators, guides, and security are necessary to enhance the experience. The museum space has become more inclusive, accessible, and a place where all working-class people can enter exhibitions without fear and have a positive experience. This inclusivity has also developed in the creation of community-centric workshops, events and walkthroughs, which are becoming more organic.

3. Museums are travelling for education : Museums are reaching out to remote areas and villages around them, showcasing the exhibits and history that supports the curriculum of school children with the help of object replicas, visual aids like digital pictures as well as historical narratives to connect formal education with informal approach. For e.g. Mobile Vans by the National Science Centre are used as intact exhibitions that visit rural areas to give tactile experience of museum object replicas as an initiative for museum education. The National museum is creating multiple events, and programmed by the education department in the museum to reach the various communities. 

4. A trending space for everyone: An important aspect of a museum is that it connects people, culture, heritage and stories. For e.g. an exhibition in the National Museum dedicated to ‘Company paintings’ invited different museum enthusiasts to create their own programmes, like Itahoasology, that came up with curatorial walks engaging different audiences in different contexts. Another example, The Buddhist gallery in the National Museum has a stupa with an important significance which brings audiences around the world as devotees to witness and pray to the Buddha relic that changes the view of the gallery as a meditational area for different sets of visitors. Similarly, an interactive space for young visitors in the Bihar Museum about how archaeologists work. The space has multimedia and tactile tools to engage. The museum has everything for everyone who seeks knowledge as well as leisure. 

5. Museum profession and new opportunities: In the Journal of the Museum Association of India, published in the 1950s, leaders have been involved in presenting museums as non-formal education centers. Since Independence, there has been a constant effort to evolve the museum sector and opportunities, but it is still informal and inconsistent. Today, museums are in need of professionals with different skills to work in the sector. There are new opportunities slowly rising in the sector that are no longer limited to just museum professionals; individuals with other knowledge, such as graphics, management, curation, designing, and more, are invited to work in the space. Museums are also open to providing internships to people from different backgrounds who are interested in working with museums around India.

Museums are spaces for voluntary learning, which has been evolving according to the trends and needs of the public. From involving social media to organising various educational events, the museum sector has excelled in outreach and as a learning space. The attempts have been made toward inclusivity, providing more exposure to students, reaching out to more parts of India, and creating opportunities in coming times.