Tanzania has joined the international community in celebration the International Museum Day (IMD), including Iringa Region which has celebrated for the first time, it has been established.
The IMD is an international day, a celebration that held every year on or around 18 May, coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
According to the Project Manager of Fahari Yetu-Southern Highlands Cultural Solution Jan Kuever, through Iringa Boma-Regional Museum and Cultural Centre has organized the International Museum Day in Iringa accompanied by the three-day activities.
The activities included Gallusartworks exhibition launch, public lecture, arts workshop, open market, museum tours, urban history tour, performances and kids’ corner.
He said yesterday that the event highlights a specific theme that changes every year and that is at the heart of the international museum community’s preoccupations.
Kuever stated the IMD provides the opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and alert them as to the challenges that museums face.
He confirmed that Iringa Boma-regional Museum and Cultural Centre is a programme of the University of Iringa (UoI) which supports sustainable community development and poverty alleviation in the southern highlands of Tanzania, through conservation, management, commercialization and promotion of cultural heritage resources.
The Iringa Boma is one of the old buildings built in the 1990s with German colonial rule where it served as a military hospital during Chief Mkwawa chieftainship the of Hehe people of Iringa.
The establishment of Iringa Boma- Regional Museum and cultural Centre, under the European Union (EU) support, the ongoing activities including permanent exhibition maintenance, development, temporary exhibition, and cultural education of the public and business capacity building of local communities.
Other activities include design and implementation of new cultural activities and events, development and marketing of cultural tours and products, general promotion and marketing of the center and research, the project manager elaborated.
On his part, Iringa District Commissioner Richard Kasesela on behalf Iringa Regional Commissioner Amina Masenza said IMD day is an occasion to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society.
He hailed Fahari Yetu-Southern Highlands Solution through Iringa Boma-regional museum and cultural centre for organizing the event and urged the general public to support the programme.
Kasesela said that the presence of Iringa Boma-regional museum and cultural centre in Iringa has helped promoting tourism industry in the southern circuit, hence cultural heritage resources promotion.
Other delegation who participated during the International Museum Day held in Iringa at regional level were Assistant Director-Conservation and technology section from the ministry of natural resources and tourism (Antiquities Division), Dr. Fabian Kigadye and Iringa Municipal Mayor Alex kimbe.
Indeed, following the definition of museums provided by ICOM, a museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
International Museum Day therefore serves as a platform to raise public awareness on the role museums play in the development of society today, on an international level. Every year since 1977 International Museum Day is organized worldwide around May 18.
End
