Museum goes online with Google Cultural Institute

The city’s oldest museum has now found a virtual space in Google Cultural Institute’s second Mumbai project — the first being Dr Homi Bhabha’s iconic collection by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

At an event held in the city museum on Thursday, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, director and managing trustee of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum joined hands with the Google Cultural Institute in an endeavour to bring India’s rich culture and heritage to the world.

Speaking to The Asian Age, Ms Mehta said, “Google approached us with the proposal and we were excited about it. I think it’s going to be an amazing research for the community internationally and in India. We need to make the museums exciting and not make them graveyards where you dump objects. Museums are the most magnetic 21st century attractions all over the world.”

The site also offers a 360-degree tour with the Museum View feature. With it, people can explore the museum virtually, selecting works that interest them and click to discover more or dive into the high-resolution images, where available.

Currently available only in English, Ms Mehta’s next step is making it more accessible. “We will have have Hindi and Marathi translations too and that’s the next direction we will take. The system has an interface of its own and we are still learning,” she said.

The exhibits showcased at the museum such as pieces carved from ivory of Radha Krishna, a diorama of Emperor Jehangir on a lion hunt, and a painting of a court scene from 1928 by renowned artist M.V. Dhurandhar (who studied at the J. J. School of Art in the late 19th century) are now available online.

With over 200 plus artifacts from its collection online, the museum team began their curatorial work last year. “We chose the most interesting, beautiful, and very visually engaging pieces which have an interesting story. The information provided is also not generic and a lot of research work was done for the same,” Ms Mehta said.

Specially curated virtual exhibitions have been developed for online visitors. These virtual exhibitions tell the story of the restoration and revitalisation of the Museum. Contemporary art shows such as ‘7000 Museums: A Project for the Republic of India’ by Atul Dodiya and the “ZegnArt Public/India” artwork by Reena Kallat are also online.

Amit Sood, director, Google Cultural Institute said, “Through this project we hope to preserve and breathe new life into cultural treasures around the world. BDL is the first museum from the city to be on our platform and the seven exhibitions that they are releasing are probably the best that we have had in India recently.”