Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum In Pune
At the entrance to the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, the ornate wooden arch depicting Agni and Indra greets you… a breathtaking lamp welcomes you…
and at once you are transported into a world of wonders. A world of artistic splendour and awesome beauty. A world that unfolds a veritable treasuretrove of art and craft; where you cannot but marvel at the munificence of human genius, and bow to the vision and zeal of the man who opened our eyes to this glorious world. The 12.5 % of the total collection of every day art and craft of India, is displayed in six galleries. The main sections are Ivory, Wooden Objects, Lamps, Objects of Beautyculture, Arms & Armours, Tambool, Mastani Mahal, Terracota, Toys, Musical Instruments, Leather Puppets, Paintings, Sculptures, Coins, Earthenware, Writing Implements, Bronzes, Textile, Kitchen Utensils, etc. Apart from this, the highlight of the Museum, the Mastani Mahal and a special exhibition are displayed separately in the same premises.Museums are required to preserve the Cultural Property of any society. It is of utmost importance to accurately do the Documentation of the artifacts. There are more than 21000 artifacts in the RAJA DINKAR KELKAR MUSEUM segregated into 42 sections. There are textiles, paintings, arms and armour, object of beauty culture, woodwork, ivory, nut cutters, bronzes lamps etc and the initial documentation of the artifacts has been religiously carried out.
The Museum has also made an initiation towards the DIGITALISATION of the accessioned artifacts of the Museum. To carry on this next logical step in the field of Documentation of Artifacts the ‘Kamalnayan Bajaj Graphic Art and Multimedia Studio’ was established with a generous aid from the renowned BAJAJ GROUP. The Studio is equipped with number of Computers, Inkjet Laser and Big Banner Printers, A4 and A3 size colour laser printers, Digital Cameras and necessary accessories like stands, reflector, lenses etc. The Digitalisation is being done on a tailor made software developed by M/s C-DAC especially produced for the field of Museum Documentation, called “Jatan”. The Documentation of the artifacts is being done on this software at Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum. Various Operating Systems like Windows XP/2000, Photoshop, CorelDraw, AutoCad assist the Documentation work
The steps involved in Documentation Process are to take the digital photographs of each object. It is then edited to remove the blemishes occurring while photography and then numbered properly as per the Accession Register and then the image is made suitable so as to work in C-DAC’s s/w ‘Jatan’. The entry of the information is done on Jatan Software including aspects such as its dimensions, its provenance, its time period and actual description is mentioned. The entries are done and checked at three levels namely Operator, Curator and Director. The Graphic Studio also undertakes activities as graphic designing of Gallery Textual Panels and Labels, Signage's in the Museum, and production of Canvas Posters of paintings in the Museum’s collection for the Museum Shoppe.
Audio-visual presentation for guests is also conducted here on large screen TV.
This studio thus serves the purpose of Digital Documentation, Collection Management, System Automation, Audio-Visual Presentation alongwith generating publicity and enriching the masses through dissemination of education about rich multifaceted cultural heritage of India. The next phase of this ambitious studio facility will be developed in proposed new museum complex city.
The year 2007-08 saw Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum take marvelous strides in the up gradation of its Permanent Galleries, Publication, Documentation, Conservation Studio and Museum Shoppe. The Museum was enthusiastically supported in undertaking the projects for the preservation of the Cultural Heritage housed in here and then presenting to the Museum Visitors the artifacts in better display conditions. The Institution was fortunate to have received funds from :
The Ministry of Culture, Government of India
The R.D. Tata Trust
The Foreign Office of the German Government
The Museum offers its gratitude towards the donor organizations for having whole-heartedly encouraged us in upgrading the Museum and its various departments. The Museum fore mostly thanks the R.D.Tata Trust managed by the Corporate Giants, TATA. The funds extended were utilised on these aspects.
Constructing eighty (80) new display cases for four of the permanent galleries. The new display cases are being custom built to suit the need of the artifacts and keeping in mind aspects as strength and durability, aesthetic appeal, with modern lighting such as CFLs and LEDs, adequate storage capacity for space utilization and fore mostly they were made to make them visitor friendly. The Museum each day welcomes children, adults, students and foreign visitors and we owe them to make the display most appealing and informative. The galleries would receive a major facelift with the new display cases and the redone display. In addition to making the display attractive the Museum would also ensure to impart correct knowledge about its exhibits. The textual material would certainly contextualise the display appropriately for our visitors thus making each’s visit very enriching.
The Funds from the Tata Trust also enabled the Museum to acquire an Elevator to make all the four floors of the Museum accessible. This facility was certainly required for the Senior Citizens, Physically Impaired Visitors and for shifting the heavy exhibits from one floor to another.
A portion of the funds was also utilised in acquiring an LCD Plasma TV with a Home Theatre Set up to enable the continuous screening of the DVDs on the Museum for the visitors. These documentaries brief about the various sections of the collection of the Museum in detail and also promote the Museum Products for sale in the Museum Shoppe.
For up keeping the state of cleanliness the Museum was able to purchase Vacuum Cleaners and Floor Washing devices. These have been very useful as the Museum is located in a dusty environment. Also was purchased a Water Purifier and Refrigerator for the Museum’s usage.
The year 2008-09 is also special for the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum as for the first time the Museum received funding from an international organization. The museum was chosen for funding through a competition of the cultural preservation programme of the German Government. For this project the Museum submitted the proposal ‘Bringing India’s Heritage to The World’ which was approved by the German Government and hence the allocation of funds was made. The German Consulate in Mumbai readily helped the Museum in this project. Also the max Mueller Bhavan in Pune forwarded a recommendation letter for the approval of the project. The utilization of the funds was to be made under three heads.
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