Joyee Roy

Biography

Joyee has been working at the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH), Kolkata, India since 2003 as a Documentation & Curatorial Officer. From June 2016 she took on a new role In-charge of the Documentation and Photography Unit of VMH. In short, she is the custodian of total collection of around 29,000 objects. Previously, Joyee worked at the Rabindra Bharati University Museum, Kolkata as a Trainee Guide cum Cataloguer for 4 years from June, 1999 to May, 2003.

Joyee’s responsibilities are to look after the total collection of VMH with her colleagues which involves documentation, accessioning, research, cataloguing, digitization and physical verification. Joyee is the Nodal Officer of the JATAN database for collection management maintained by Ministry of Culture, the Government of India. Her other responsibilities include: gallery planning; display in the permanent galleries; curating exhibitions; preparation of publication materials and organising several events i.e. lectures, workshops, gallery talks related to the collection. Joyee also works on educational activities including organizing seminars, workshops, visitor surveys and events for all ages in order to connect the museum to different communities. Joyee provides a variety of activities and prepares contents for multimedia kiosks. She also assists scholars from India and abroad regarding their queries related to collection of VM and keeps the official website of Victoria Memorial Hall up to date.

Joyee was the 2013 Nehru U.K. Visiting Research fellow to work on British art, the 2014 Art Institute of Chicago fellow on Exhibition Management and in 2017 took a placement at the V&A textile conservation studio.

At the British Museum

During her time on the International Training Programme in 2011, Joyee was based in the Department of Asia and her partner placement was spent at Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery.

In 2011 participants were asked to develop a proposal for a small temporary exhibition using an object from the British Museum’s collections. Joyee’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Fish: A Universal Icon of World Culture.

Legacy Projects

In November 2015 Joyee attended the ITP Mumbai Workshop Creating Museums of World Stories. The workshop was held at CSMVS and was attended by many ITP fellows from different years and countries, UK partners and British Museum Colleagues. In her project group, Joyee worked on an exhibition concept entitled Carpet Connections: Usak and the World focusing on the city of Usak in Turkey.

In November 2017 Joyee attended the MA conference in Manchester with fellows from Kenya, Palestine and South Africa. Joyee also attended sessions on temporary exhibitions and permanent display at UK partners Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Museum as well as the People’s History Museum.

In 2022 Joyee was awarded an ITP Research Grant for her project A comparative study on styles, techniques and themes between two categories (On spot and Stay at home) of depictions on India by the British artists of 18th and 19th centuries.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 1 (2013) Collections in focus: An early Bengal oil painting of ‘Kali with two Shiva’
ITP Newsletter Issue 2 (2015) Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 2 (2015) Collections in focus: Queen Victoria and the Indian army
ITP Newsletter Issue 3 (2016) Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 3 (2016) How the ITP changed my life
ITP Newsletter Issue 4 (2017) Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 4 (2017) Your collection in focus: Object of the month at Victoria Memorial Hall
ITP Newsletter Issue 5 (2018) Your collection in focus: The Enfield rifle
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019) Connectivity in the 21st century: making collections accessible, Sharing collections in India
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019) Your collection in focus: Safe Motherhood Day, India, 2018
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021) The response to COVID-19 at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021) Collection in focus: Helmet with face shield
ITP Newsletter Issue 9 (2022) Sustainable, environmental friendly practices and the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, India
ITP Newsletter Issue 10 (2023) A contemporary sustainable art on the dowry system of India: a strong stimulus to engage the audience