The Program for Capacity Building along the Silk Road: Museum Technical Training Course
This program was planned as a five-year project starting in 2006, and is currently in its fourth year. We executed a training course on the conservation of historical buildings from this spring to summer, followed by a museum technical training course for three months from September 14 to December 11, as the second program for 2009.
A total of 14 trainees from Shinjang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, and Henan provinces and autonomous regions gathered along the Silk Road in China, took theoretical course lessons in Beijing for two months, and then took practical course sessions at the Ningxia Museum in Yinchuan city of Ningxiahuizu Autonomous Region for one month from the middle of November. During this period, a total of 15 instructors participated in these courses from the Institute, the Tokyo and Kyushu National Museums, universities, and studios producing materials for protection of cultural heritage, and conducted classes with the Chinese instructors.
The training at Ningxia Museum was on the measurement and analysis of the storage/exhibit environment, and the creation of theme exhibition design plans based on an actual museum’s stored items and exhibition rooms. The trainees had learned enormous amount of ideas and technical theories through the classes, conducted over many hours by the Japanese and Chinese instructors and were able to gain an secure understanding of the ideas and techniques through on-the-job training. This systematic museology training course provided with both theory and practice was first realized in China. The Ningxia Museum, which was completed in 2007 and is equipped with the state-of-the-art hardware, presented a challenge in that it was not in satisfactory condition on how to do the daily operation. We were glad that the acceptance of these training sessions inspired the museum’s staff. The completion ceremony on December 11 was attended by more than 50 of the museum’s staff members.
The Program for Capacity Building along the Silk Road will be finished when the training course for conserving and restoring textiles and mural paintings is conducted in next year.