Diffuse Museum – Cheppu – stmaryscollege

Diffuse Museum -Cheppu

Diffused Museum is an innovative venture conceived by the Department of History to preserve and protect artefacts of yesteryears which are indeed signifiers of the socio-economic context of the times, for the sake of the posterity. The novelty of this project is that the objective is intended to be realised in a decentralised manner through popular participation. Houses are turned into veritable Museums. The teachers and students through strenuous efforts enlightened the village community the value of such objects and the need to protect and preserve them.

Diffused museum or cluster museum concept has come to be regarded as a strategic tool for local economic development. Diffused museum is geographic concentration of interconnected museum, which works closely with local suppliers. This museum project challenges the urbanistic aspect of the classic concept of museum. The place -the cluster/home exhibition centre become a manifesto and an instrument of changes the so called museum concept and the rural society. It acquires new dimensions and roles, and provides the key to a new reading not only of the museum but also the rural space. Showing a profound shift in their relationship and in their conception. It reflects the intimate in tradition of architecture, ruralism and tourism on different levels. The concept making possible a transformation of the village of past in to the village of future. It places new challenges also to the public space as a three dimensional relational educational and couturial space demanding to be the mediator in the transformation.

Our Diffused museum is materialised as a joint venture of Manarcaud grama panchayat and the history department of St. Mary`s College Manarcaud-This diffused people ownership museum, is supposed to be the first of its kind in India.

Some houses have acollection of the artefacts of the past,but invariably they are found in a decaying condition in the backyards of the houses. These objects are kept at their own home but in a preserved state in the model of a museum. All these are done in the model of a museum.

For this ,the coordinators selected 9 houses in the 9th ward of Manarcaud panchayat and found out 70 such different inherited, archaeological and historical properties So many household utensils , tools used in agriculture and Palmyra texts were there on the ceiling of many of the families (Tharavadu) These were collected and cleaned ,and suitable chemical treatments were provided for making it pest resistant and durable.

On each property there written the names and description in English Malayalam and in Hindi. Besides this, these students have prepared a book in which the pictures and small description of these properties and the QR code of each house also are there. This is uploaded in the website of St. Mary`s College. So one can go through this diffused museum from anywhere in the world with the help of this QR code.