The International Museum Day celebrations at the Dutch Palace in Mattancherry on Monday (May 18) will be a low-key affair, unlike in the past.
While the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which protects the museum, organises elaborate programme programmes, including seminars attended by experts every year, it will just be a photo exhibition on the palace premises this time around.
“While several historians and academics came down to speak at the seminar last year, the audience was missing. The day falls during the summer vacations, with schools and colleges closed. Only members of the museum staff were there listen to the lectures by eminent speakers. We could not bring the student community in. So we have decided to cut down the seminar part and the entire programme has been scaled down to just an exhibition of photographs from our collection on the monumental heritage of Kerala and the release of a brochure on the museum,” said M. Kalimuthu, assistant superintending archaeologist, in-charge of the museum.
Academics who participated in the seminar last year had urged the authorities to set up ‘living museums’ in culture-rich localities as also to permit photography of exhibits in museums.
On Monday, the exhibition will be opened in the presence of general administration secretary K.R. Jyothilal, District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam and Cochin Devaswom Commissioner K.R. Haridas.
The museum at Mattancherry is a favourite haunt of researchers and tourists alike. “Indian and foreign nationals have the same entry fee of Rs. 5 and on an average we collect about Rs. 1.5 lakh by way of this, which demonstrates the huge popularity of the museum,” said Mr. Kalimuthu.
“The Mattancherry Palace has probably the richest secular murals in the State with allusions to some fantastic aspects of Kerala’s classical performing art forms, including Mohiniyattom,” said Vini. A., researcher and the author of ‘Navodhanam Classical Kalakalil’ on renaissance in Kerala’s classical art.
