The Chief Minister has promised aid for private museums, but execution is key
May 18 is celebrated as the International Museum Day to raise awareness about the vital role museums play in cultural exchange, education and the preservation of global heritage. This annual commemoration was started by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1977. The event highlights a specific theme which changes every year; this year the theme being ‘Museums Uniting a Divided World’.
Museums are no longer the places they used to be! Originally they were designed as quiet, contemplative spaces like say, libraries or temples, and supposed to encourage deep reverence for art and history. The changing times, especially the information boom dominated by reels, screens and algorithms, have resulted in evolution of museums into vibrant, interactive hubs. Today, most of the museums have adapted to multimedia exhibits, educational workshops and community events to engage diverse audiences. Besides their efforts to remain relevant to the new generations in a digital age, the museums are facing other issues such as humidity, rising maintenance costs, ageing collections and changing visitor behaviour. And above all, funds required for maintaining museums have been a major problem for those who run them.
The Goa State Museum is the premier treasure house of the ancient artefacts and is currently located at the Adil Shah Palace in the capital city, following the deterioration of its erstwhile premises at Patto. It is a great place to learn about the local culture, however, it needs dedicated larger premises. Unfortunately, the construction of the new building of the Goa State Museum at Ela, Old Goa has been stalled, with its Detailed Project Report (DPR) yet to be approved by the Union Ministry of Culture. The government is, however, confident of completing the project within three years from the commencement of construction. Today, the Goa State Museum is forced to limit its exhibits to only four galleries depicting Goan culture through the ages, the Portuguese phase and Goa’s freedom struggle.
The Goa State Museum is constantly upgrading itself through acquisitions of new artefacts. The recent example of this enhancement is a donation of 98 Indo-Portuguese and post-Liberation period coins. The museum curator, Manisha Govenkar, maintains that with awareness about museums and heritage preservation increasing in recent years through various workshops and programmes conducted by the directorate of museums, people are approaching museums to donate historical objects from their personal collections. In fact, the Goa State Museum has also acquired other artefacts recently, including a linga found at Bogmalo beach and a marble Gopal Krishna idol from Kundai. The museum has around 10,000 sculptures in its collection, including metal, stone and wooden objects.
In March 2024, officials of the department of archaeology opened a chest kept in the old treasury located in the Fazenda building, which once housed the department of accounts. The chest contained massive number of gold, silver and copper coins, along with antique currency notes, jewellery, ancient crockery, household and religious utensils, etc. Some of these artefacts were proposed to be displayed in the new museum building for their public exhibition.
Goa also has many private museums. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said his government is ready to support the private museums by providing them with financial assistance. He also said that he has directed government departments to prepare a mapping of all private museums in the state and make the information available on the government website to help public access and visit them. Though the moves are positive, they, however, need to be implemented in the right spirit.
