What Being in Education Taught Me: A Museum Educator Looks Back

This question has, knowingly or unknowingly, shaped and guided my career in museum education in India.

Setting out to reinvent the education system of a country/culture is not an easy task. Nor is it something to show quick results. The education system tends to move slowly, shaped by politics and policy, and there often isn’t much room or willingness towards new approaches. This is where museums step in and become spaces of experimentation and play — a kind of classroom-lab hybrid where creative and radical teaching ideas can be explored.

I joined the Education and Outreach team at the National Museum (NM), Delhi, as a starry-eyed fresher in 2014. Here, I was privileged to have worked with a passionate and driven Director General, Dr Venu Vasudevan, and be part of an equally passionate and a driven, all-women’s team. Spending time at the NM, first as a student and then as staff, opened up a world of possibilities for me, especially those that lie at the intersections of curation, production and learning. I was excited then, as I am now, by the power of objects to tell stories - about ourselves and about the world that we inhabit.

Over time and some more work experience, I found myself moving to Bangalore to join an exciting new institution - the Museum Of Art & Photography, or MAP. Being part of the founding-team of a new organisation like MAP has been the most opportune moment in my professional life. MAP provided me with the space and support to experiment, introspect, learn and grow with the organisation. As the world shut down during the 2020 pandemic, the team had to reorient and reprioritise in developing alternate strategies and approaches to continue the work, especially under Education. With the museum’s public opening in 2023, there was another moment of reflection and reorientation - to focus our energies on physical interventions, to develop community partnerships and to make the museum building as welcoming as possible.

MAP hopes to change the way museums are perceived in India—I am reminded of this line from our PR deck, as I complete close to six years of being part of the Education team here. I find myself wondering—have I played my part towards pushing this agenda? Am I doing what it takes to foster change and help reimagine museum learning in India?

The Education department at MAP has been operational since 2016, bringing young people into a space full of art that encourages critical and creative thinking. We have worked with several schools, NGOs and other organisations in the city over the years, leading to a relationship of trust, care and collaboration. Today, these organisations resonate with our values and have become regular engagers with our offerings. This, to me, is the first step towards something bigger - a hope that museums begin to be seen as valued spaces of learning, thereby affecting changes in systems, policies and practice.

One of the oldest running programmes at MAP, and one that I have been involved with since I joined the organisation, is Schools@MAP - which means, quite simply, that schools come to MAP. As various exhibitions open at the museum, the Education team designs interactive engagements for young learners that encourage them to look closely, think critically and share opinions. It has been heartening to see the kind of dialogue that such engagements have facilitated, with learners opening up about personal experiences and thoughts around stereotypes, sexuality and even death. I take pride in the fact that our work with and around museum objects has provided the kind of space and agency to young people, where they feel safe and comfortable enough to share unabashed opinions, experiences and emotions.

Reflecting on moments like this give one joy. And hope. To think back and realise that one may not entirely be there, but one is on the way.

As another year of doing and creating begins, what grounds and orients me is not just the work, but the relationships that I have built along the way. Whether in the historic corridors of the National Museum or in a dusty under-construction new museum, I have experienced friendship, support and the feeling of a genuine connection being formed — all through a shared passion for museum learning. These instances of solidarity, however small, feel like the quiet beginnings of something far greater.

In moments of overwhelm, dullness or even disappointment (of which there are many in our sector!) one is reminded of this connection, and of the people who are trying their best, despite the overwhelm and the disappointment. And one is certain that the work must go on.

View original pages, photographs & credits