ITP’s Room 3 Legacy – “From Temple to Home: Celebrating Ganesha” goes on tour

Most of you know and have experience of the ITP’s Room 3 Exhibition Proposal Project. An exciting climax to the annual programme, participants are asked to come up with an exhibition idea for the British Museum’s Room 3, using an object from our collections.

In the 2011 ITP we hosted Manisha Nene, Assistant. Director (Gallery) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai. Her exhibition proposal, “Visions of Ganesha” primarily focused on the story of Ganesha and popular legends associated with the god, depicitions of Ganesha in different art forms, Ganesha’s influence in Hindu religion and how he is celebrated in the public and the domestic space.

Statue of Ganesha. Photo credit The British Museum.

Statue of Ganesha. Photo credit The British Museum.

Neil MacGregor and the BM were so impressed by the proposal, that it eventually became an actual Room 3 Exhibition – “From Temple to Home: Celebrating Ganesha”, and had over 62,000 visitors from February to May 2014.

Now we have even better news – “From Temple to Home” is going on tour! As part of the Museum in Britain programme, the BM’s and Manisha’s Room 3 exhibition will be touring seven venues across the UK – including:

Russell Cotes Museum, Bournemouth

Oxford Museum

Cartwright Hall, Bradford

The Bowes Museum, Durham

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (one of our ITP UK Partner Museums)

The Horniman Museum, London (an ITP programme partner)

and Brent Museum, London.

This is a great opportunity for the Museum and for Manisha – and we hope that this tour will help us create new connections and new possibilities for our ITP participants and their projects.