Full sculpture from RE-ORG event, Assam State MuseumThe first 2016 RE-ORG project has started in India at the Assam State Museum, running from 29 February to 11 March 2016.

This project is the fourth one organized in India, the result of collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and ICCROM. The RE-ORG Assam project is part of the campaign launched by Sh. Preetom Saikia, Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of Assam, Cultural Affairs Department, with the goal of improving the state of museum storage in Assam. The project offers a great opportunity to strengthen the network of professionals who can support and spread the RE-ORG methodology, so as to improve museum storage and collections preservation practices in India and make museum collections available to the wider community.

The importance and variety of the Assam State Museum collections (stone sculptures, various weapons, utensils, old royal garments, coins, age-old metal sculptures, painting, stones and copper-plate inscriptions) make them a unique and perfect case study for the workshop.  Sixteen participants from the principal Assam museums are currently implementing the RE-ORG methodology. During the first week of the workshop, they moved more than 2,400 objects and created four different storage units dedicated to archaeological objects, ethnographic objects, paintings and natural history specimens.

As part of the event, a temporary exhibition entitled “#REORG_ASSAM: The REORG discoveries” has also been organized. Over the course of one week, twelve never-before-seen treasures found their way out of storage and are being displayed in the Stone Gallery of the Assam State Museum. The objective was to invite the community to discover those items and find inspiration in them.

A drawing competition was also organized for children; the winners will have an exclusive guided tour of the reorganized Assam State Museum storage areas. The winning drawings will be on exhibit during the RE-ORG closure ceremony on Friday 11 March 2016.  The winners will also receive a recent book published by the Museum.  It's a beautiful way to inspire and engage a new generation in the importance of sharing and conserving heritage.

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