Participants with their creations

They were then taken to the conservation laboratory wherein they were briefed by the in-house conservators, Ms. Bhasha Shah, Ms. Anuja Mukherjee and Ms. Vasundhara Kar, on the functioning of the laboratory; the process of deterioration and how it must be contained through careful processes of preventive, restorative and curative conservation. The various terms with illustrative examples were already provided to the participants at the MMCF Conference hall, which prepared them for this session. The equipments used in the laboratory was a major attraction for the students.

Exploring the equipments in the conservation laboratory

Two very important aspects in a museum; documentation and storage, was also dealt with. Mr. Ankit Mehta and Mr. Chayan Doshi, Database Executives, Museum Collection Management System, spoke about documentation and safe-keeping the information for future research; a long, tedious process that involves inputs from various experts in the field, and which ensues immediately after an object is procured and brought into or made part of the Museum.

Mr. Prashant Lohar, Museum Archives Executive and Conservation Technician, explained the concept of archiving, and the requirement of storage facilities within the space of a museum, the appropriate conditions to be maintained to ensure sound-health of the artworks housed within, etc. The participants were briefly toured around the Photograph Storage, for a better understanding.

Physical and digital storage of museum archives and database

The final session, on structural conservation, was led by Mr. Rahul Shukla, Civil engineer/ Projects' Head and Mr. Omkar Adhikari, Architect, with a site visit to the Salehkhana to provide a peep into the ongoing work and the several measures that were borne in mind while going about the project; considering the materials that were originally used, its nature, and the fact that the structure in itself is very old.

Identifying the strengths of the building (Session on Structural Conservation)

To conclude the sessions, a questionnaire and a feedback form was provided to evaluate the efforts of the staff and attentiveness of the participants.