Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati

Component-I (A) – Personal details: Tourism in India Museums and Art Galleries in India Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Dr. E. Sivanagi Reddy Former Director, NITHM. CEO, The Cultural Centre of Vijayawada Dr. E. Sivanagi Reddy Former Director, NITHM. CEO, The Cultural Centre of Vijayawada Prof. P Narayana Reddy REVA University, Bangalore. 1 Component-I (B) – Description of module: Items Description of the Module Name of the Subject Indian Culture Name of the Paper Tourism in India Title of the Module Museums and Art Galleries in India Module Id IC / TI / 26 Pre-requisites Museums and Art galleries, Museum Tourism in India Objectives To study Museums and its scope and importance in Tourism Key Words Museums, Art galleries E-Text (Quadrant-I): Introduction Museums are a central part of the tourism industry in India. Museums are cultural institutions whose prime function is education, learning and recreation. However, with the development of cultural tourism in the country, museums have become key partners in the cultural tourism industry. Learning Outcomes This chapter provides an overview of the various museums and art galleries in India, their importance and different exhibits. After reading this you will be able to understand the following: What is a museum and an art gallery? Importance of Museums in Tourism Major museums and antiquities in India Importance and functions of museums and art Galleries 1.0 Introduction to Museums and Art Galleries A museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums’ ownership can be public or private. According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM) statutes, a museum is defined as a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. The general mandate of most museums is to educate their visitors about the history, cultural and natural heritage of a city, region or country or about a chosen subject of special interest, while also preserving these elements for future generations. The presence of a museum is commonly understood to indicate the presence of something valuable and relevant to be shared with the public. 2 As people are becoming more interested in getting cultural experiences and more tourists are becoming interested in ways to explore and understand the culture of their destination, museums have become even more important in supporting tourism by both educating and entertaining visitors. Museums are especially important to this process because they are part of an evolving, interconnected cultural life that encourages discovery of culture as a whole fabric. Museums have always been a popular choice of tourists because they offer a chance to learn about their destination as one of the primary institutions that actively exhibits and interprets local culture for them. The museum acts as a guide for a destination’s history and heritage, by providing information-in-context. The museums of a destination have become a must-see for a cultural tourist as part of a complete and authentic cultural itinerary. In Art galleries paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, water colours, collages, prints, artists' books, photographs, and installation art are also displayed . Galleries are categorised into galleries in museums, contemporary art gallery, vanity galleries, university art museums and so on. 2.0 Major Museums and Art Galleries in India Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad The Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad is a depository of the arty achievements of varied European, Asian and Far Eastern countries of the world. Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, popularly known as Salar Jung III has acquired the major collections in the museum. The Museum has a splendid collection of art substances and antiques of Indian origin as well as of Western, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern origins. According to the nature of collections, the Western /European collections are displayed in the Western block and Eastern collections in the Eastern block. Mixed collection including children's section, Rebecca, musical clock, Jade, Ivory etc., galleries are located in the central building. Allahabad Museum, Allahabad The Allahabad Museum is centrally located in the forested historic park called Chandrasekhar Azad Park. There are sixteen galleries in Allahabad Museum. It houses a variety of collections those include stone sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, modern painting, archaeological objects, coins, arms and armour, Ttextile, manuscript, farmans etc. The Medieval sculpture section comprises of Vaisnava, Satka, Saiva and Jaina images. In the modern Art Gallery, paintings of Anagarika Govinda and those of the Russian artists Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich are displayed. The Bengal School collection comprises the works of Asit Kumar Haldar, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy and Sudhir Ranjan Khastgir. These works are the exquisite collection of Allahabad Museum. Indian Museum, Kolkata Indian Museum was established on 2nd February, 1814. The Indian Museum, earlier known as Asiatic Museum and subsequently, as Imperial Museum, grew into the largest institution of its kind of the country as an epitome of human civilization. The Museum aims at acquisition, preservation, study in all objects of national importance and dissemination of knowledge and recreation through them. The collection highlights the oriental culture, history and natural sciences and contains some specimen of other countries also. There are six sections viz. Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Geology and Botany with about one million holdings. 3 Archaeological Survey of India, Goa The museum was established in 1964 and reorganized in 1981–82. It is housed in the convent portion of the church of St. Francis of Assisi. Antiquities displayed in eight galleries include the objects from the prehistoric, early historic period and late mediaeval period. The major displays are the portrait paintings of governors and viceroys, wooden sculptures, pillars, capitals, postal stamps. Likewise, many other objects which belong to the Portuguese period in Goa are also part of the display. Archaeological Survey of India, Nagarjuna Konda, Andhra Prdaesh This is a unique island museum established to collect, preserve and exhibit the antiquities retrieved from the excavations in Nagarguna Konda area. In five well organized galleries, the museum presents precious artifacts of all cultural periods through which the valley and the region have passed. Major portion of Gallery - I is famous for the master pieces of Ikshvaku art and architecture. Located in a large hall, Galleries II and IV exhibit the decorated drum slabs, dome slabs, cornice beams and other architectural units of a stupa, and a few brahmanical sculptures of the Ikshvaku and subsequent periods. Gallery-III presents the miniature models of important excavated sites. In Gallery-V inscriptions written on pillars forming part of the structural complexes, sculptures, pedestals, memorial pillars and detached slabs are displayed. National Museum, New Delhi National Museum, New Delhi, was inaugurated in the Rashtrapati Bhawan by Shri C. Rajagopalachari, the Governor-General of India on August 15, 1949. The Museum continued to grow its collection through gifts that were sought painstakingly and artifacts were collected through its Arts Purchase Committee. The Museum presently holds approximately 2,00,000 objects of a diverse nature, both Indian as well as foreign, and its holdings cover a time span of more than five thousand years of Indian cultural heritage. Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata The Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH) was founded on the initiative of Lord Curzon as a period museum in memory of Queen Victoria with particular emphasis on Indo-British history. Built on a 57acre land, it is called the ‘Taj of the Raj’ because of its recognition as the finest specimen of Indo-British architecture. The VMH collection has 28,394 artifacts displayed in nine galleries that encapsulate the history of our nation extending over three centuries beginning from 1650 A.D. The collection includes paintings in oil and water color, sketches and drawings, aquatints, lithographs, photographs, rare books and manuscripts, stamps and postal stationery, coins and medals, arms and armour, sculptures, costumes, personal relics and other miscellaneous archival documents. National Gallery of Modern Art, Benglore The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru was set up in the place of the Manikyavelu Mansion at 49 Palace Road, Bangalore and open to the public on 18th February, 2009. Spread over an area of 3.5 acres, the gracious heritage building was transformed from a residence into an Art Gallery, with a display space of 1551 square meters to which a new gallery block with a display space of 1260 sq. m. was added. The architecture of the additional block was designed in such a fashion that it merged with the style and ambience of the heritage Manikeyavelu Mansion while fulfilling the requirements of a modern museum at the same time. The collection of NGMA mainly comprises of paintings, sculptures, graphic prints and examples of early photography in India which showcase the historical

Load more