Anubhav Gallery National Museum
Making a difference for sightless visions

Apurva Sinha

Through this article, the writer shares her thoughts on her visit to the ‘Anubhav’ gallery of National Museum, New Delhi. Her exploratory nature brought her in conversation with a visually impaired enthusiast who is striving for ‘universal accessibility’, and is fighting the odds to visualise things presently inaccessible to his perception.

‘Care and preservation of heritage’ was the foremost idea that propelled in setting up of museums over a century ago. The basic conception was ‘creating knowledge’ which later on transformed into ‘sharing of knowledge’ where the purpose was about public education for everyone in society. Preserving national as well local heritage, helps prosper a nation’s identity and ruminate historical linkage. Heritage museums also play a vital role in harnessing a symbiotic relation between artefacts and a visitor by stimulating the sensory organs. Well, hundred percent positive visitor responses are a subject of conjecture and the question arises whether heritage interpretation which is the process of translating heritage information in an understandable and meaningful way so that the audiences appreciate and develop a close relationship with it is actually benefitting the major mass or not? The question here is not about elitists or non-elites but the people with disabilities who visualise things in their own way.Visual art has a gleaming history of well-known painters with disabilities who have ingrained their names in gold.