On ground, visitors at the Bihar Museum will be able to go 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 leading architect Rahul Gore and, another, which will showcase the rich collections of 19 local state museums of Bihar.

The inauguration of the Bihar Museum Biennale will be followed by a two-day international virtual conference aimed at viewing the museum as a site of incubation, inventiveness and ideas. Each session has been specially created to initiate a discourse around the cultural objects of the museums of antiquities, of modern art, of contemporary art and the vision for future museums, which will now be hybrid – physical and digital and experiential.

“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,” affirms Alka Pande, project director, Museum Biennale. The Biennale aims to sensitise 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. Laudable aims indeed, and despite its curtailed avatar, the Biennale will be a test for further such initiatives by museums across India.

Participating museums in the Biennale

• 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, Madhya Pradesh

• Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi

• Museo Camera, Gurgaon

• Museum of Art & Photography, Bengaluru

• Museum of Goa, Panaji

• National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi

• Piramal Museum, Mumbai

• Virasat-e-Khalsa, Anandpur Sahib