The Government Museum was, on Thursday, a beehive of activity with numerous event for history enthusiasts and schoolchildren. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/612376/museum-day-exhibits-events-amuse.html

The occasion was Day One of the four-day celebrations as part of the International Museum Day. While antiquities and mythological figures, some even dating back to 4000 BC from Chandravalli, Savandurga and Brahmagiri, were arrayed on the left side, archaic war weapons like knives, swords and guns were displayed on the right of the museum’s sprawling hallway.

Above the hallway, in the storey above, were Islamic Persian miniature paintings, Rajput miniature paintings and ancient musical instruments, some of which were decorated.

The city’s well-established museums like human brains museum at Nimhans, HAL aerospace museum, National Gallery of Modern Art, Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum and Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad will be part of the celebrations..

Tejaswi Jain, founder and director of Rereeti, an NGO who is organising these events in association with the Department of Tourism and Department of Kannada and Culture, said there was a lot to improve. It is not even close to how it is celebrated abroad, he said.

“Museums need to be attractive and enticing enough. From the aspect of its display, curation, outreach, etc. They are currently seen as dead spaces,” she said.

At the Government Museum, visitors, especially children, were engrossed in the war stories narrated by storytellers. ‘Story of the earth,’ a mobile application that makes use of mobile phones to find relics within the museum, attracted many visitors.“We have been seeing an increase in the number of visitors every year.

Celebrations like these attract people,” said Dr R Gopal, director of the museum.

Shahi Kishor, mother of two who brought her children to see the museum, said, “My son is starting to learn history in class 3. I want him to have an experience of what he is going to learn.”

A group of Japanese visitors appreciated the outlook of the museum. They said it gave them an idea the local history.