Nilanjana Som

Biography

Nilanjana Som is Assistant Curator at CSMVS. She holds a double Masters in Museology and (Medieval) Indian history from the University of Delhi and was awarded the Nehru Fellowship in 2014 to study the Indian arms collection housed in various museums in the UK as well as the documentation process.

She has a keen interest in Indian arms and has a long history of working on documentation and collection management. She has been part of permanent galleries, temporary exhibitions and other programmes since she joined the museum in 2015. What fascinates her about museums is the various stories each object holds and the tiny contribution each of these objects has made in the human story.

Nilanjana recently curated ‘Enduring Memories: 100 Years with the Tata Collection’, a small exhibition to mark the centenary year of CSMVS which opened its doors to the public in 1922. As a Curator of a varied collection, her current interest is to look at the display of both art objects and archaeology, inspired by her current role on the CSMVS Curatorial team who are setting up the Ancient World Gallery as part of the Collections Sharing Programme by the GETTY.  Her museum interests also cover marketing, interpretation and education programmes and this will be a focus during her time on the ITP, in terms of exhibitions.

At the British Museum

During Nilanjana’s time on the International Training Programme she spent time in whole group sessions for a detailed overview of all aspects of the Museum’s work, both front of house and behind the scenes.  She also spent time in the Asia department. Nilanjana spent her partner placement at National Museums Northern Ireland.

Nilanjana’s place on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.