THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Napier Museum attached to the Thiruvananthapuram Museum and Zoo is organising an international seminar and a four-day workshop on ways to conserve artefacts. The seminar will be held on Feb 8, and in the following four days, a workshop on preserving the artefacts kept in storage at the Napier Museum will be held.Last year under the aegis of National Museum, New Delhi, a roadmap for the complete renovation of its structure was held. But a top department official told DC that the museum would have to be closed down for almost two years when the work resumes in a few months time.
Last February, museum and zoo department had organised an international four-day long seminar which saw experts like John Scott, president New York Conservation Centre, Gabriela Krist, Institute of Conservation University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and B. V. Khabade, director, National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property, attending. “The latest is a follow-up, but on ways to improve the conservation facilities of those artefacts locked up in storage. Apart from museum students from New Delhi attending, an Indian conservation expert based in Vienna, Thanushree Gupta, and researcher Johanna Wilk will be leading it”, said K. Gangadharan, museum and zoo director.
Institute of Conservation, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, National Museum, New Delhi, and the museum and zoo department are jointly organising the event.
Currently, the department has invited expression of interest and the contract for preparing a detailed project report for the renovation of the structure of the Napier Museum has been awarded to Centre for Heritage Initiative, Bengaluru. Department officials told DC that a temporary system of having a small-scale exhibition of artefacts would be displayed during the closure for renovation so that visitors are not denied their privilege. Napier Museum has a proper inventory, and the condition of the objects is good. The museum collection includes more than 550 objects, including textiles, stones from the first century, bronze items dating to the 8th century, and wooden objects from the 12th century and more than 5000 coins.
