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Museums of South Asia Project

Museums of South Asia Project is a Project initiative taken by a few South Asian GLAM enthusiasts to document the rich cultural heritage collected in different museums in South Asia.

Museums of South Asia Project

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Why this Project

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Museums in different parts of South Asia have extensive collections of artifacts, but most of them lack proper digital documentation. Some of the museums do not have their catalog of collections, whereas catalog of some are inaccessible to common people. A typical character of government museums in South Asia is the long chain of bureaucratic red-tapism, which hinders people to take photographs of their collections, of course there are exceptions. Adding to that, museum authorities and staffs are sometimes unfriendly, secretive, rude to photographers. May be, these are the reasons, South Asian museums are so less documented in Wikimedia Commons. These experiences led us to believe, that a typical style of GLAM program, involving museum authorities officially may be too difficult to handle in South Asian scenario, for the time being. We have experienced and quality photographers documenting the rich South Asian cultural heritage in for many years. In this program, GLAM Wikimedians will engage them to target museums systematically to photo-document their exhibits and bring them to Wikimedia Commons. Next step will be to generate metadata in Wikidata and later create articles in Wikipedia. This targeted approach will enrich the online content of the museum collections.

The overall purpose of this project is to increase the amount of free license materials regarding museums of Bangladesh, India and Nepal as well as related documentation and photographs in Wikimedia Commons. It'll also develop the quality and quantity of Wikipedia articles in relation to particular documentation of museums of any location of South Asia to be contributed in GLAM. The Museums of South Asia Project further aims at broad spectrum of outreach programme, knowledge sharing and interest growing among people about Museums as well as of Wikipedia, Wikimedia commons, GLAM, contributing quality images on Museum related events to Wikimedia commons involving more users. Apart from that the Wikimedia movement and local chapters will gain visibility and impetus through the success of this Museums of South Asia project.

The Idea

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We have got the idea of Museums of South Asia Project from our regular travels & Tours. In the last eight years (2016-2023) we (User: Dolon Prova & User: Anup Sadi) have visited severel times Bangladesh, India and Nepal. At the time of tours, we visited some Museums of these three countries and took Photographs of the collections. But we did not upload the photos for many years. When we counted that we had already visited more than TEN museums, we thought that we should upload the photos on Commons. Our idea of uploading Photos on Commons also can be in such a way where other Wikimedians could get inspirations and support and share our tasks within a Project. After a long discussion, We started the project on 10 June, 2023.

Interested participants (Include your name)

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  1. Galib Tufan (talk) 13:32, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Targeted museums

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Please add any museum of South Asia, you want to document.

Bangladesh

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  1. Khulna Divisional Museum, Khulna
  2. Bagerhat Museum, Bagerhat
  3. Mymensingh Museum, Mymensingh
  4. Zainul Abedin Museum, Mymensingh
  5. Land Museum, Netrokona
  6. Mahasthan Archaeological Museum, Bogura.

Nepal

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  1. International Mountain Museum, Pokhara
  2. Patan Museum, Patan Darbar Square, Kathmandu
  3. Narayanhity Royal Palace, Kathmandu
  4. National Museum of Nepal, Kathmandu
  5. Natural History Museum, Kathmandu
  6. Swayambhu Buddhist Museum, Kathmandu
  7. Royal Palace (Bhaktapur Durbar Square), Kathmandu.

India

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  1. Kolkata Museum
  2. Victoria Memorial Museum
  3. Koochbihar Rail Museum
  4. Koochbehar Palace Museum.
  5. Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bangalore.

See also

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Our Collections, Our Works

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  • Anup Sadi & Dolon Prova in Panel Discussion Wikimedia Vibrance During WikiConfrence India 2023
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    Discussion with the Authority of Dinajpur Museum, Bangladesh
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    Meeting with the Authority of Dinajpur Museum, Bangladesh
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    A Sculpture at Dinajpur Museum, Bangladesh
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    An overview of the building of Bagerhat Museum, Bangladesh
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    Interior of Natural History Museum, Kathmandu, Nepal
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    Cochran Boiler at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM), Bangalore, India
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