The Culture and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja has inaugurated Leadership Training Programme for in-house Museums Professionals. There are over a thousand museums in India, both large and small. Over 90 percent of these are funded and maintained by the Central and State Governments and few renowned museums have also been set up through private efforts. The Archaeological Survey of India itself manages 44 site museums located near important historical sites, some of them in the remotest parts of the country like Dholavira and Lothal in Gujarat and others at well-known World Heritage Sites such as Agra.
The Leadership Training Programme has been organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the British Museum. The programme is especially designed for Indian museum professionals. The programme will include intensive training sessions on duration, museum education, design and display, scientific storage, conservation and preservation, museum marketing, outreach and collection management.
The Minister said that she is happy to note that 20 professionals from 12 national level museums will be participating in the Leadership Training Programme. She trusts that the programme will generate Museum leaders who will further train museum professionals all across the country to create a rich web of world class museums in India. “More importantly, I hope this will help shape each and every museum to be people centric institutions and not remain centres of eclectic study and scholastic pursuits.”
The Minister further added that training and capacity building are an intrinsic part of the development of Human resources of any organization. Improvement in the functioning of museums is a felt need today. Her Ministry has made efforts to organise suitable trainings for our museum professionals to open up their imagination and improve the working so that we are able to replicate the best practices being followed by international museums.
This Leadership Training Programme has been developed in collaboration with the British Museum, a world leader in its field with a strong history of providing tailor-made training for curators and museum professionals across the world. The British Museum has used its experience to develop the first programme of its kind, focusing specifically on developing the leaders of tomorrow.
