Museum to be a place of learning, relaxation for all visitors

The government today stressed on the need to make museums not only a place of knowledge but also a place for relaxation, where learning would be fun for the young visitors and their accompanying elders.
"Museums should not only be a place of learning for young visitors and their accompanying elders, but it should be a place for relaxation, combined with knowledge of 5,000-year-old history," Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch said during the launch of the training of Young Volunteer Guides for Young Visitors to the National Museum here.
The National Museum today launched 'Yuva Saathi' with an aim to train young people about the heritage, museum education, public communication and creative learning in order to design and conduct tours for young visitors to the museum.

Katoch said the programme aims to engage young minds in dialogue with the objects of National Museum to widen the understanding of the story of civilisation across time and space.
The training programme designed by the National Museum Institute aims at guiding young visitors, who come in school groups or with their families around the galleries of National Museum.
About 42 volunteers, mostly college students, have been selected for the 15-day training programme during which they would be trained in 22 sessions about the museum and its artifacts.

"A sense of belonging and ownership towards collective heritage can be sown in young minds through such programmes as it is for these young visitors every museum hopes to preserve, safeguard, display and interpret its collection," Katoch said, adding, the programme would create awareness among young people about the museum's role in the society.

National Museum showcases the cultural history, tradition and heritage of India through its collection of over two lakh antiquities.
These objects have been put on display for the visitors in 20 galleries of the National Museum.
"A visitor to the Museum would like to know, understand and appreciate these objects for their context, history, and unique features and the programme launched today will help in that direction," she said.
The Minister also said that she would convince the government to allow the 50 per cent of revenue collected through entry fees and parking should be given back to the museums for its perusal.