The Jaya He Museum, at Mumbai Airport’s Terminal 2, is currently hosting Aaghosham, a festival of Kerala, on Instagram and Facebook. Due to end on June 18, the festival kicked off on May 18 to celebrate International Museum Week.
Jaya He Museum is a part of the 6,000-member International Council of Museums (ICOM) and organises cultural festivals around a region’s cultural diversity. The State chosen this year is Kerala.
“The focus has been to showcase lesser-known facets of the State along with a few known ones. There have been extensive collaborations for this festival with individuals and organisations invested in the protection and promotion of the State’s cultural diversity,” says curator Savitha Suri.
The themes include history, social structure, music, dance, food, festivals, architecture, textiles and jewellery, art and crafts, travel and tourism and public personalities like littérateurs, musicians, actors, social entrepreneurs, artists and others.
Some of the highlights have been storytelling sessions by Sherline Pimenta of Kathanika, Instagram live with filmmaker Bharat Bala, dancer Methil Devika, writer Anand Neelakantan, Chef Marina Balakrishnan, social entrepreneur Lakshmi Menon, and Zoom sessions with classical musician Prince Rama Varma, RJ Anjali Uthup Kurian, art educator Lata Kurien Rajeev and animation filmmaker Krishna Chandran.
Their other collaborations are with Indu Chinta (theyyam), Belraj Soni (kalaripayattu), Krishna Chandran (Humans of Thengakkola), Whistling Woods International and Tasara (textiles), Vinod Raja (Jack Journeys) and Santoshi Jain (food), Aditi Vinayan (dance), Sopanam, Mumbai (kathakali), Kadalakkadalas (storytelling) and Bhattathiri.
As part of the museum’s cultural outreach, Jaya He inaugurated the initiative in 2019 with Paoulkhuna that showcased the cultural diversity of the State of Maharashtra. Forced to go online in 2020, it did a virtual showcase of the richness of the North Eastern states in a45-day festival.
“Aaghosham will enable people to get a fresh perspective of Kerala,” says Savitha.