Thorns on the Side

A window to the past

Museums are repositories of knowledge. They are a window to the past. They keep old memories alive.

A museum need not be necessarily about culture, in that sense of the word. A museum can focus on virtually anything under the sun - a case in point is Sri Lanka’s first wildlife museum, which is to be opened on December 16 at the Wildlife Training Centre in Giritale.

Earlier the museum was not open to the public. There were only a few animal skeletons, but the Wildlife Conservation Department has improved the museum. Replicas of indigenous animals as well as exotic foreign animals will be displayed seven days of the week.

The objective of opening the museum is to provide knowledge on Sri Lankan and foreign wildlife to the public. Several officers will be on duty to brief the public and conduct sessions for schoolchildren.

This is a commendable move, as a wildlife museum will be a novel experience for Sri Lankans although a natural history section is part of the main museum in Colombo. Sri Lanka does have an abundance of wildlife but the people lack knowledge about their fauna resources. While a zoological garden fulfils a useful service by exhibiting live animals and engaging in research, a museum can display everything from fossils to preserved animals to educate schoolchildren and the public.

Sri Lanka has a number of museums all over the island. The main one is located in Colombo. There are provincial museums as well, such as the one in Anuradhapura.

There are specialised museums such as maritime, gem and tea in their areas.

Museums themselves need not be dimly-lit, staid, musty places devoid of ‘life’ so to speak. They should be dynamic entities that create a positive impression in the minds of visitors.

Gone are the days when a simple plaque placed beneath a given exhibit was sufficient by way of explanation. Today’s savvy visitors expect much more. For example, if an ancient sword is displayed, it could be accompanied by a touch-screen audio-visual guide on all its aspects.

Most museums also have multi-language audio guides which can either be pre-downloaded by visitors to their own MP3 players or given over to visitors at the point of entry in the form of a headphone unit embedded with the audio data. The latest rage is iPhone or other smartphone apps which have all details on a given museum’s exhibits.

Some of these apps, still in their infancy, will let you point a camera equipped phone at an exhibit and an ‘Augmented Reality’ engine will give you all the details on the screen. Our museums should explore these options and our museum curators should be exposed to these trends. Such technology, which is not all that expensive, also reduces the need for ‘human’ guides, who add to the operational expenses.

All museums should be upgraded in line with modern trends. Installing the latest climate control systems is necessary for the preservation of exhibits. There are even more specialised preservation methods for paintings and documents. Security is also important for museums as stolen antiquities fetch millions of dollars in the underground artifact market. Some of them may even end up at legal auctions. Museums should thus be equipped with the latest security systems.

There should be an awareness raising campaign here and abroad about our museums. With domestic as well as inbound tourism on the incline, museums stand to benefit immensely. Again, we can turn to other countries to take a cue.

The Smithsonian Institution of the US celebrated September 25, 2010 as Museum Day 2010 with free entrance, fun activities, prize giveaways and special guided tours at over 1,000 museums US-wide.

It was a huge success, with people thronging museums with enthusiasm. While emulating these initiatives, we could also have exchange programs with foreign museums to bring down various objects and hold exhibitions.

A similar day or event could be organised by our museums to generate enthusiasm among the people. After all, museums are not only for history buffs - they are for anyone with even a passing interest in the past and in the world around us.

There are many places which we do not even think of as museums, but which could really be considered as museums. The planetarium, which can show, for example, the history of the solar system can be considered a museum. A botanical garden which has very old plants, can be thought of as a museum. Any library is a museum in a way, for it contains books that dwell on the past. And Sri Lanka has plenty of cultural and heritage sites which are like open-air museums, though we hardly think of them in that sense.

Our museums have also not fully exploited the souvenir shop concept, where (mostly miniaturised) replicas of exhibits, t-shirts and other promotional material are sold. Many museums abroad have superb restaurants as well.

These bring a substantial income to a museum, which helps cover overheads.

It is a long shot, but if museums are made more attractive, it would help to attract more students for subjects such as history, anthropology and archaeology, which have lost their appeal over the years to more ‘rewarding’ subjects.

On the subject of ‘rewards’, there is no proper recognition scheme here for people who discover antiquities and report them to the authorities. It is often a case of ‘finders keepers’ so the authorities must provide an incentive for those who turn in ancient archaeological objects to museums instead of selling them to treasure hunters and antique dealers. Laws on treasure hunting, which seems to be on the rise, must be tightened.Museums are not only about the past.

They relate to the present and are a pointer to the future. Innovation will help increase their appeal and ensure their existence in an increasingly ‘connected’ world, where the ancient world can come alive in 3-D right in our living rooms. Museums should be more innovative to compete with these new developments and flourish.