National Museum Institute has started a new training program- Yuva Saathi- youth volunteer guides. The programme is aimed at training the Volunteers in taking guided visits of the school groups and family groups at the National Museum. She said that she was happy to see that youngsters are enthusiastic and willing to be associated with National Museum.
The Yuva Saathi training programme aims to train young people in the field of heritage, museum education, public communication and creative learning in order design and conduct tours for young visitors to the museum. It also aims to enhance the sense of belonging towards our collective heritage and leadership towards preserving and sharing it.
The trainees will be trained to fulfill the specific needs of Young Visitors to National Museum. In museum, young visitors learn when their interests are motivated and engaged. The programme proposes to equip the Guides to make National Museum a place of learning and fun for the young visitors and their accompanying adults.
The programme includes –historical perspectives, introduction to museum, guided gallery talks and tours for all the galleries of National Museum, communication and creativity skills, design and facilitation skills, heritage trails and self development –initiative etc. The medium of transaction would be bilingual, Hindi English.
National Museum Institute (NMI) is a Deemed University and offers MA and PhD Programmes in Museology, Conservation and Art History. The Department of Museology has been involved in Research Projects in the field of Museum Education for many years. The department has worked with various audience categories like school children, children from minority faith schools, specially challenged children, under-privileged children, teacher-trainees’, teachers etc. exploring museums’ potential for them. Considering NMI’s long experience in the field of museum education, the task of designing and developing the Yuva Saathi training programme was entrusted to the department of Museology, National Museum Institute. This is the first time a comprehensive training program for youth volunteers is being undertaken by the institution.
National Museum, as is well known, is the first premier museum of National importance to be set up in the post-independence India. Today its collection consists of about 2, 00,000 works of art, both of Indian and foreign origin, representing almost all disciplines of art, archaeology, sculpture, paintings, epigraphy, numismatics, decorative arts, jewellery, textiles and anthropology.