COVID-19 outbreak: Assam State Museum to go online due to lockdown

Now stay connected with heritage of Assam through digital platform

A Correspondent

DHUBRI: The Assam State Museum has decided to go online and digital due to COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. From May, announcements of online programmes will be given from time to time. The museums were one of the first public institutions in Assam to get a complete closure notice from the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus as they were catering foreign nationals as well as locals.

Since lockdown, the curatorial staff of the Directorate of Museums headed by the Director of Assam State Museum, YS Wunglengton, formulated a programme schedule to bring all the museums of Assam closer to the audience through the virtual platform available in the internet. A series of video talks, presentations and interactive sessions has been designed by the museum professionals for the benefit of the audience of all categories and these will be available in the Facebook page of Assam State Museum.

Initially, it is likely to expand in all other social media platforms. The already published first video by YS Wunglengton gives a glimpse of the Assam State Museum, describing vividly the masterpieces housed in the museum.

An official source in the Assam State Museum informed that topics such as ‘Costumes of Ahom Royalty’, ‘Sericulture Tradition of Assam’ , ‘Terracotta Playthings: Tradition, Continuity and Change’, ‘An Introduction to the Ambari Archaeological Site and its recovered masterpieces’, ‘Importance of Conservation in Museums’ and others would be delivered by Project Curator Namrata Sharma, Jorhat District Museum Officer Abantika Parashar, Dhubri District Museum Officer Mrinmoy Das, Assistant Curator Nripen Roy and Conservation in-charge, Ashok Das in the coming days.

Talking to The Sentinel, Director of Assam State Museum, YS Wunglengton said that the upcoming presentations would be advertised regularly in the Facebook page of Assam State Museum. Apart from deliberation and lectures on the varied subjects and objects, a live question and answer session would also be conducted on alternate days for two weeks by the end of May where students and general public can directly ask questions related to the museum and its collections, Wunglengton further said.

Wunglengton said, “The entire programme is planned to utilize the digital platform available and make the museum objects accessible to the general public virtually. This will help the students, young scholars and general public to learn and stay connected with the material heritage of Assam”.

When contacted, Dhubri District Museum Officer Mrinmoy Das said that this platform would provide an opportunity to the District Museum Officers of Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Barpeta,Tezpur, Mangaldoi, Jorhat and Diphu as well as the museum curators of Assam State Museum to work together and contribute for the benefit of the society during this pandemic.

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