Odisha’s Kala Bhoomi to Digitalize Museum Artefacts, Signs MoU with American Institute of Indian Studies

Bhubaneswar: Kala Bhoomi, also known as Odisha Crafts Museum today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Center for Art and Archaeology (CA&A) of the American Institute of Indian Studies for the digitalization and documentation of artefacts.

Kala Bhoomi was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in March 2018 to preserve and promote the heritage of Handicrafts and Handlooms of Odisha, promote research in this sector and to attract tourists from all over the country and abroad.

Systematic documentation of artefacts is imperative to advance the sector and create a bank of knowledge. Such knowledge can be generated by digitising all the artefacts in Kala Bhoomi.

As part of the process, the artefacts will be photographed, documented and cataloged in a universal format. AIIS is an autonomous consortium of over 89 well- known Universities and Institutions of Higher Education in the United States of America, set up in 1961 with the objective to promote and sustain academic relations between India and the United States.

AIIS is recognized by the Government of India in the Ministry of Education as a research and teaching institution. CA&A of AIIS has been carrying out photo documentation of ancient monuments, sites, museum objects, temples at various sites in India since 1965.

Kala Bhoomi keeping in view the above experience and technical expertise of CA&A in the field of Digitisation and Documentation has decided to enter into an agreement with CA&A for carrying out Photo Documentation and Metadata Preparation of the artefacts in the museum.

Sitikant Sarangi, Member Secretary, SIDAC signed the MoU on behalf of Kala Bhoomi- Odisha Crafts Museum.

The MoU contains a detailed framework for mutual cooperation in line with the MoU signed between the Kala Bhoomi – Odisha Crafts Museum and CA&A, AIIS.