Why in news? Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the International Museum Expo 2023 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

Highlights:

• The International Museum Expo is being organised as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to celebrate the 47th International Museum Day (IMD).
• The IMD theme for this year is ‘Museums, Sustainability and Well Being’.
• The Museum Expo is designed to initiate a holistic conversation on Museums with museum professionals to enable them to evolve as cultural centres that play a pivotal role in India’s cultural diplomacy.
• Prime Minister also unveiled the Mascot of the International Museum Expo, the Graphic Novel – A Day at the Museum, the Directory of Indian Museums, the Pocket Map of Kartavya Path, and Museum Cards.
• The Mascot of the International Museum Expo is a contemporized version of the Dancing girl made of wood in the Chennapatnam art style.
• The Graphic Novel portrays a group of children visiting the National Museum where they learn about the different career opportunities that are available at a museum. The Directory of India Museums is a comprehensive survey of Indian museums.
• The Pocket Map of the Kartavya Path highlights the various Cultural Spaces and institutions and it also traces the history of the iconic pathways.
• Museums Cards are a set of 75 cards with illustrated facades of iconic museums across the country, and is an innovative way to introduce museums to people of all ages and each card holds brief information of Museums.

International Museum Day

• Every year on 18th May, International Museum Day is commemorated to improve public awareness of museums.
• The significance of International Museum Day stems from the belief that museums are critical tools for ensuring “cultural interchange, enrichment of cultures, and growth of mutual understanding, collaboration, and peace” among people all over the world. Museums are essential because they allow us to track a country’s progress from prehistoric to present times. It is not wrong to argue that museums are the closest thing to time travel.
• International Museum Day was instituted in 1977 by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

Importance of museums:

• ‘A museum is a site where nothing is lost, only rediscovered,’ after all.
• It engages people with the past and presents fact and evidence-based reality and it provides inspiration from the past and also gives a sense of duty towards the future
• Museums are becoming a career option for the youth.