2021 has been a difficult year for VarnikaDesigns but we kept on our endeavour of making heritage and history accessible and inclusive, an arduous task in the global Covid lockdown year. Thank you for your constant support and motivation ♥️♥️♥️
1.) The article ‘Where Knowledge is Free’, has an epublication in the book Paradigms for Creative Pedagogy, The Art1st Educator Series, December 2021. Link here: https://www.theart1steducatorseries.com
2.) As art critic, two reviews were published on the works of Riten Mozumdar and Annie Morris and Idris Khan.
‘The Museum Memories Project’ took upon some new challenges and started two new initiatives called
3.) Museum Musafir and 4.)MuMe Matters
5.) We interviewed art historian Dr Asok Kumar Das for his personal memories of some of India’s prominent art historians, and we 6.) collaborated with 200 Million Artisans.
We definitely kept ourselves busy, tried to stay positive and kept on attempting constructive efforts. The details of all our colabs and initiatives are given below, along with their longer posts and Youtube video links.
The article ‘Where Knowledge is Free’, has an epublication in the book Paradigms for Creative Pedagogy, The Art1st Educator Series, December 2021. Link here: https://www.theart1steducatorseries.com
VarnikaDesigns and ‘The Museum Memories Project’ collaborated with 200 Million Artisans for their Auction Fundraiser to raise funds to support Indian artisans and crafts communities for relief during Covid affected lockdown. We interviewed 6 dynamic women entrepreneurs from erstwhile royal families from India.
Sawantwadi: Ranisaheb Shubhadadevi Bhonsle and Yuvrani Shraddharaje Bhonsle
Vadodara: H.H. Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad
Bhavnagar: Princess Brijeshwari Gohil
Dhenkanel: Yuvrajkumari Jema Yashasvini Kumari Devi
Mayurbhanj: Jema Akshita M Bhanj Deo
More details are here: Beyond the Palace: creating new approaches, empowering artisans design a new paradigm links to their video interviews are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5f_mSqci0Y&list=PLdPT8ywBviWixMJgB6obqWcmWGUveyOGx
We interviewed eminent art historian, Dr Asok Kumar Das, and he shared his personal memories of some of India’s private art collectors who helped create dynamic collections and museums. Links to these videos are here: Impresario:a Heritage Foundry – Private Collectors of India revealed – Part 3: by Dr Asok Kumar Das
VarnikaDesigns started MuMe Matters in July 2021. We visualise it as an interactive, invigorating, educational, exploratory and knowledge sharing catalytic space to initiate dialogues and spur conversations amongst professionals. Here, themes of accessibility and inclusion which have hitherto escaped discussions in museums would be highlighted. We spoke to Anthony Lopez, Founder and Chief Creative Director, Lopez Design, Mr Anjani Kumar Singh, Chairperson of Advisory Council of Bihar Museum, Former Chief Secretary of Bihar, who was the Nodal Officer for the Bihar Museum project, Vikas Dilawari, Conservation Architect, Ami Shroff, Managing Trustee, Shrujan, Poornima Sivakumar, Director, Aravani Art Project. Moderators were: Aanchal Mehta, Heritage Manager, Suyash Srivastava, Designer, Deeptanshu Sanyal, Illustrator and Comics Artist.
Their discussion are here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPT8ywBviWgMvnPcy8bwNsNTAofu7L33
We also collaborated with the City Palace Museum, Udaipur, as our first partnership with a museum in Museum Musafir where museum staff reveal their favourite artefacts, spaces and memories from their workplace. Their Curatorial staff – Chelsea Santos and Hansmukh Seth, Museum Manager – Tarun Sukhwal, Engineer – Ronak Rathore, Liaison Officer – Neeraj Soni and Museum Attendant – Chandra Shekhar Vaishnav – disclose to us their favourites from their Museum. It is a very thrilling ride so tighten your seat belts and join them. If you’ve never visited them then you would definitely love to, if you already have then you would want to rush there asap!!! Their fantastic journey is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSe1hPGcSsM&t=675s
We also celebrated Museum Week 2021 through daily posts, quizzes and interactive games on ‘The Museum Memories Project’
We had two amazing interns: Aakanksha Tated and Jahnavi Karnani.
As art critic for ArtFact, two reviews were published in their newsletter. These were of the exhibition of the works of Riten Mozumdar and Annie Morris and Idris Khan in 2020 in Mumbai was published The links are here:
Riten Mozumdar: Free India’s first textile designer
Review of exhibition of Annie Morris and Idris Khan
If you would like to be a Memory Producer then kindly email your museum memories to museummemoriesproject@gmail.com You can send photos, artwork, audio or video, with a small writeup, in any language.
Subscribe to the Youtube ‘The Museum Memories Project’ channel for interviews with experts on Impresario: The Heritage Foundry – MuMe Matters and our partnership with museums called Museum Musafir: a Museum Insider’s Tale where videos reveal museum staff’s favourite artefacts from their workplace. Keep following us on Instagram @Museum Memories Project
Thank you everyone ♥️♥️♥️
VarnikaDesigns 
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