India, Met Museum sign agreement extending conservation fellowship

New York, Sep 30: The Indian government and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) have signed an agreement extending the Indian Conservation Fellowship Programme to promote modern museum practices.

India's Consul General Riva Ganguly said she hoped that the programme would enrich both sides through learning from each other and that it will help Indian conservationists improve scientific methods of conservation and management.

She was speaking at a reception at the consulate on Tuesday to mark the signing of the memorandum of agreement extending the programme for five more years.

The Andrew Mellon Foundation has given $1.55 million for the new phase of the conservation fellowship programme, according to the foundation's database.

It was started in 2013 as a pilot programme and its success led to the renewal, a consulate statement said.

Under the agreement the MET will work with the Indian Ministry of Culture to develop a broad range of knowledge on modern operations of museums like conservation and planning of exhibitions.

The MET's Deputy Director for Collections and Administration, Carrie Rebora Barratt, said the rich cultural heritage of India needed conserving and the interaction of the participants from India and the United States will lead to a mutual learning process.

The Mellon Foundation's Executive Vice President, Mariet Westermann, said she was happy the foundation was participating in a program that will contribute to conserving the rich cultural treasures of India.

The MET is a premiere cultural institution of the US that was recently named the world top museum for the second year in the TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Awards.

Last year, over 6.7 million people visited the museum that features 5,000 years of art from around the world.

The museum has a large collection of cultural artifacts from India and features special programme about the country's heritage.

It is currently holding an exhibition, Poetry and Devotion in Indian Art, featuring 22 of the dozens of Rajput and Pahari paintings in its collection.

Recent exhibitions have included "Divine Pleasures" painting from India's Rajput courts, "Company School Painting in India" and "Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama."