This group was first initiated in 2010 at the occasion of the cooperation of the museums in Dresden and the Indian Museum in Calcutta. The group aims to explore the historical roots, developments, transformations, and current challenges of museums in India and Europe, both from a scholarly and practical comparative perspective. The initial thematic frame was kept broad in order to develop common questions, approaches, and perhaps collaborations out of ongoing meetings and discussions.
Three main topic areas have emerged:
- Museums and cities;
- Compared history of museums in India and Europe, potentially spanning the historiography of Indian collections prior to the colonial area; the history of colonial museums in India against the background of developments in Europe; and accounts of contemporary (art) museums in India in the context of larger regional or transcontinental developments.
- Explorations of the emergent museum, referring to more experimental and dynamic ways of museological practice in a global context, which seek to rethink the idea and role of the museum as a public institution.