Vishi Upadhyay

Biography

Vishi works as Curatorial Associate at Bihar Museum. Her role sees her involved with collection management activities, exhibition development, the development of public programmes and museum publications.

While Vishi’s research interest lies in numismatics, she has published several papers on different aspects of archaeology not only limited to her specialisation. Currently she is writing a book on coins from the Kalachuri period and working on the documentation of a collection of 25,000 coins which are soon to be transferred from the old Patna Museum to Bihar Museum.

She is also working on the renovation work of the old Patna Museum in Patna, Bihar as well as working on a new gallery, titled Bihar and World in the museum. The old museum will be interconnected to Bihar Museum through an underground tunnel, and will be accessible through battery cars.

In May 2023, Vishi conducted an exhibition titled Keshkala- The art of hair in India in Patna with the collaboration of Gent University, Belgium. This exhibition will be travelling to Brussels in 2024.

In 2021 Vishi put together a workshop entitled Vernacular Architecture and sustainability, which was held in Ladakh, India. The workshop hosted 50 participants, and was a collaborative programme between two NGOs, Dharohar, Chhattisgarh and Himalyan Institute of Archaeology and Allied Sciences, Ladakh.

From 2021-22 Vishi completed a research project on survey and mapping of mud forts in Dakshina Kosala (Chhattisgarh), which was sponsored by the Luigi and Laura Dallapiccola Foundation, Edinburgh.

She is currently working on an ongoing research project sponsored by Harvard University on Bodhgaya.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2019, Vishi was based in the Department of Asia, and spent her partner placement at Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery.

In 2019 participants were asked to plan and propose a temporary exhibition around an object from the Museum’s collection working within the theme of journeys. Vishi worked with Jacob Nii Marley (Ghana) on her Object in focus project. Their exhibition proposal was titled Lion’s Journey

Vishi’s place on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the British Museum Trust, Charles Wallace India Trust and the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.

Legacy projects
In 2022 Vishi was awarded an ITP Conference Grant to attend a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 2022 in Thailand.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021) Digitisation in Indian museums
ITP Newsletter 9 (2022) Spotlight on…Bihar Museum