The Tourism Ministry of India has proposed that all government offices around India Gate, a war museum in New Delhi, be shifted out and the buildings converted into museums to turn the area into a bigger tourist destination. There are also plans to set up open-air theatres for music concerts and introduce laser and sound-and-light shows. The proposed new rail, war, space and earth museums among others would add to the existing clutch of edifices that house the National Museum, the National Gallery of Modern Art and the National Archives.

(At the same time) hundreds of beautiful museums across the country lie in various states of disrepair due to public and bureaucratic apathy. It might, therefore, be a better idea to spend money to make them more attractive to Indian and foreign tourists than to create new ones that too would eventually fall into disrepair in the years to come due to poor management and lack of expertise.

Read article ‘Imagine: a museum hub at India Gate’ (Hindustan Times, May 23, 2007)
Read editorial comment (Hindustan Times, May 24, 2007)

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Although this is a blog written in English, as Amsterdam residents we cannot help to occasionally post articles that address the Dutch. But, these projects should be of interest to the international community, and thus we write about these on museumlab.org.

The Amsterdam Hetveem Theater has just produced an audiotour with stories of change about the history, present and future of the IJ bank west of central station. In one hour of speech, sound and music, you get stories by residents, architects, children, artists and shop owners, about the change of this part in Amsterdam that has been under construction for some time now.

It is yet another interesting example of the use of new media and the appreciation of the ‘people’, to reveil a complete mosaic of stories about our heritage, architecture and culture. Hopefully they will improve the interface and the usability in the future (more on this - nachtgeluiden! - in the future)

Website Hetveem Theater