Bihar museum announces biennale, to open in March on Bihar Divas  

The Bihar Museum has announced the Bihar Museum Biennale, to be held in March at the museum premises in Patna. Organized by the Department of Arts, Culture and Youth affairs, Government of Bihar, the museum biennale will open on Bihar Divas on March 22.

According to a statement from the organisers, the biennale aims to sensitize the public to the importance and significance of a museum culture in India and facilitate an understanding of our culture, building a strong sense of identity, nationhood and the self.

"Bihar Museum is a cultural hub dedicated to the spirit of enquiry, exploration and creativity of the people of Bihar and the world. The soft power of art and culture has a special space of engagement in our development strategy for Bihar. Bihar Museum Biennale is a step forward to highlight the rich heritage of India and bring alive the extraordinary history of Bihar and also celebrate the cultural narratives from various parts of the world," Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said in a statement released by the Museum.

The Biennale is anticipated by art lovers and visitors as a key initiative of Bihar's cultural calendar of 2021. Initially conceived as a physical, three-month long event, the Biennale will now be held as a hybrid event -- physical and digital, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the course of the seven days, from March 22-28, specially curated virtual tours of the participating national and international museums will be streamed online as well as at the Bihar Museum in Patna. The participating museums from India are Assam State Museum; Bihar Museum, Patna; City Palace Museum, Udaipur; Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai; Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal; Kanha Museum of Life and Art, MP; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Museo Camera, Gurgaon; Museum of Art & Photography, Bengaluru; Museum of Goa, Panaji; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Piramal Museum, Mumbai; Virasat-e-Khalsa, Anandpur Sahib.

"Bihar Museum has been a project very close to my heart, driven by a personal passion to create a cultural retreat for the people of Bihar to revel in the historic past. Under the vision and guidance of our honourable Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar Museum Biennale is our initiative to celebrate the strengths and uniqueness of museums from India and around the world fostering an inclusive culture and bringing a global internationalism to a national identity", said Anjani Kumar Singh, Nodal Officer of the Bihar Museum and Advisor to the Chief Minister of Bihar.

The Biennale will also witness participation of eminent personalities like Neil MacGregor, British art historian who will be a key note speaker at the event; Hilary Knight, Director of Digital, Tate Galleries, UK; Souraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director at Louvre Abu Dhabi; Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director-General of CSMVS, Mumbai; Javier Baron, Museo del Prado among others, said the organisers.

Alka Pande, project director of the Museum Biennale, said, "As an art historian, I can say that the soul of India, the heart of India in many ways is Bihar, whether it's Pataliputra or Magadha. Bihar Museum Biennale will be an opportunity to bring out a compendium of the Indian museums, and to celebrate their respective collections, each telling its own story."

Visitors who will physically be present at the Bihar Museum will be free to embark on a curated, audio-guided tour of the highlights of the collection.

Additionally, they will also have the opportunity to explore two curated exhibitions at the museum: one on the 'Making of the Bihar Museum' by the leading architect Rahul Gore, and another that will showcase the rich collections of 19 local state museums of Bihar, said the statement.

To explore the changing modes of display and perception of museums, the inauguration of the Bihar Museum Biennale will be followed by a 2-day international virtual conference, said the organisers.