New museum will provide a popular face to art: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The relevance of museums has increased in an age when historical facts are being misrepresented, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday after inaugurating the new art museum at the Thekke Kottaram at Shangumugham.The state government has adopted measures to protect and modernise museums in the state. These measures are intended to ensure continued preservation of archival matter and historical documents for posterity, he said.

Steps are on to raise the natural history museum in Thiruvananthapuram to international standards. The renovated museum will be opened to the public in three months’ time, he said. The modernisation project at the Napier Museum will also be kicked off shortly, he added. Eleven famous works by Raja Ravi Varma will be put on display at the V K Krishna Menon Museum in Kozhikode where the renovation activities are progressing smoothly. The museum will also get a new 3D theatre.The modernisation project at the heritage museum at Wayanad is nearing completion, the Chief Minister said.

The Shangumugham Art Museum, which is administered by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, shoulders a historically-important cultural responsibility, he said.The museum should be able to provide a popular face to art. That will help bring people who tend to treat art as something incomprehensible closer to it.The art museum will also help to make available to the public contemporary worldwide trends in art, the Chief Minister said.

Its location at a tourist spot will also help artists garner better attention for their works, he added.
Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran presided over the function. Noted artist Sudhir Patwardhan was the chief guest. Sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman released the catalogue.V S Sivakumar MLA launched the museum’s website. G Ajith Kumar is the curator of the museum.The inaugural exhibition features works by nine artists of the younger generation.