Presented at Institute of Conservation's (ICON) virtual International Conference

'Taking Conservation beyond the Lab: Initiatives at The City Palace Museum, Udaipur' was a short talk presentation by the Museum's art conservators, Ms. Bhasha Shah and Ms. Anuja Mukherjee at the London based Institute of Conservation;s (ICON) virtual International Conference, held on 24th and 25th May 2022. The theme of the conference was 'Reaching out for Recognition'.

Their presentation discussed ways in which they as conservators have reached out and collaborated with various groups like the Museum staff, students, and individuals beyond the Conservation sector, over the last three years. Different activities and programmes which were conducted before and during the pandemic, both physically and virtually, were showcased in the presentation, along with its impact.

From Palace, to Palace Museum: Udaipur's City Palace as a 'Cultural Hub'- Blog piece for Rereeti Foundation

In a collaborative venture on behalf of The City Palace Museum, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Udaipur, with Rereeti Foundation, Ms. Chelsea Santos, Assistant Curator, wrote about the City Palace / Museum as being a 'cultural hub' with changing definitions. She highlighted how as a Palace, it continues to celebrate its rich history & culture, and engage people, but as a museum, it has certain limitations in doing so.

As a historical site, it has been transformed with its change in context i.e. from a Palace to a Palace Museum. She indicates that one has to weigh the pros and cons effectively in such situations, assuring that there is a balance between conservation of the site & the collections it contains, and the facilitation of age old traditions that continue to happen there. Patronage is an important aspect that she additionally discuses in her article.

Read article:
https://rereeti.org/blog/from-palace-to-palace-museum/

World Environment Day

On the occasion of World Environment Day, WWF - India Udaipur Division conducted Bird Census - 5th Big Bird Count Program at The City Palace, Udaipur on 04th June 2022. The team was supported by Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation. The team included Mr. Vinay Dave, Bird Lover and Expert; Dr. Satish Sharma, Retd. Rajasthan Forest Services and Bird Expert; Mr. Sharad Agarwal, Bird Lover and Expert; Mr. Deepal S. Kalra, Mr. Devendra Shrimali, Ms. Kanishka Mehta, Mr. Hitesh Ameta, Mr. Nishchal Shrimal, Mr. Alok Upadhyay, Master Niramay Upadhyay and Mr. Arun Soni, Officer In-Charge, WWF - India, Udaipur Division (Program Coordinator).

Experts and Bird enthusiast for Bird Census at The City Palace, Udaipur

Development in Maharana Mewar Special Library

Maharana Mewar Special Library (MMSL) is an excellent resource for scholars and researchers. It has a collection of more than 35788 books on different subjects. The Library has special collection of books dedicated to Literature, Religion, History, Arts, Zoology, Sports and General Geography of different parts of India and the globe, and a rare collection of books on the Mewar dynasty.

11 new books were added to the library in the month of March 2022 and these books were processed in Accession Register. The classification was done by Dewey decimal classification; 19th Rev. Edition, Cataloguing (AACR II) and Bibliography. The details were uploaded in the Library housekeeping software, Libsys, and on the Eternal Mewar website http://eternalmewar.in/mmsl. Stamping, tagging and scanning were also performed on all these books.

Books received included It's a Wonderful World: A Memoir, Strive for Perfection: The Royal Edition, Sanskriti Ke Path Par, Kala Anubhav-Vol-1, India-ji: The Land of My Birth.