Rige Shiba

Biography

Rige obtained a Masters in museology from the National Museum Institute, Delhi and is currently leading the museum’s access project, with the aim to develop a tactile gallery catering to needs of visitors with disabilities. The project is in collaboration with UNESCO and SAKSHAM NGO. It is hoped that the tactile facilities implemented in this gallery will soon expand to other galleries in the museum. Rige has also worked on making the museum more accessible to young audiences by starting healthy dialogue between schools and other educational institutions. She has created sessions such as Touch & Learn, Meet a Museum Doctor and A Day as the Museum, as well as theme based activity booklets to use around the museum. As well as running educational activities, Rige is developing Cultural Discovery Boxes which can be loaned to educational institutions to use with schools groups and young audiences.

Rige has also set up training programmes for curators in India, internships for undergraduate and graduate students, playtime at National Museum for young audiences from 7 – 17 years and a volunteer programme for college students.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2013, Rige was based in the Department of Asia and her partner placement was spent at Bristol Museums.

In 2013 participants are asked to prepare a project outlining an exhibition proposal based on the space and programme for the British Museum’s Asahi Shimbun Displays in Room 3.  Rige’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Basketry and Beyond: From the hidden land Arunachal Pradesh.

Rige’s place on the programme was generously supported by the The Charles Wallace India Trust.

Legacy Projects
In November 2015 Rige 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. Workshop delegates were split into groups of mixed nationality and asked to create exhibition proposals based on the concept of Your city and the world – examining how national and international stories are interconnected, through the lens of material culture. Rige’s team from Delhi, Kenya, Mumbai, Nigeria, Jerusalem and the UK, chose Bristol and the idea of migration and invisible communities as their project.

In 2016 Rige attended the Museum Association Conference in Glasgow with the ITP team and the fellows she worked with at the Mumbai Workshop. After the conference the group travelled to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to begin working on their project and creating an online exhibition. The Bristol Online Exhibition was completed in 2018.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 3 (2016), Reasons for celebration: Opening of Anubhav: a tactile experience
ITP Newsletter Issue 3 (2016), Bulletin Board