The Future of Museums in Pakistan

With the exception of Lahore Museum, museums in Pakistan have received little attention nationally and internationally, within academia and outside it. To imagine a museum brimming with connoisseurs and visitors, enabling manual and digitized forms of engagement, and fulfilling the purposes of edutainment and cultural celebration, would require collective creative thinking on the part of museum scholars, practitioners, and beneficiaries. Imagining thus acknowledges that the responsibility of propelling the institution into a worthwhile future does not lie with the government alone, nor does it consist merely in ensuring funnelling of funds. In fact, it relies mightily on the will and ownership of the Pakistani public. To discuss the promise of museums in Pakistan, the panel brings together established and emerging scholars in the field of museum and heritage studies and seeks to learn from them about the unique realities of Pakistani museums that may determine their imminent shape and form. From architecture and functionality to technology and accessibility, several aspects of the museal discourse will be referenced for the scholars to debate and deliberate with a view to understanding what the future holds for our museums.

Panelists

Dr Asma Ibrahim Dr. Asma Ibrahim Tamgha-i-Imtiaz
Archaeologist/Museologist/ Conservationist
Founding Director of the State Bank of Pakistan Museum, Archives & Art Gallery Department Dr. Asma Ibrahim is a senior Archaeologist/Museologist & Conservationist. She is the founding Director of the State Bank Museum, Archives & Art Gallery department. Prior to this, she served in different capacities in the Dept. of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Pakistan, including being their Head Curator and Director for two decades. Her doctorate is in Numismatic, and Post doctorate in Archaeological Chemistry with a special focus on ancient human remains.

Her noteworthy achievement is the establishment of the first Monetary Museum of Pakistan in State Bank of Pakistan (inaugurated on 1st July 2011) and making it the most accessible museum of Pakistan.

She is the General Secretary of an NGO, SEAS Pakistan, working on documentation, preservation & conservation of Heritage, which is awarded the AFCP (US Ambassador Fund for Cultural Preservation) grant for the third time for conservation work. She is also the Board member of Commonwealth Association of Museums, General Secretary for ICOMON (International council of money & Banking Museums), and member FIREC (Standing Committee of Finance and Resource Committee), ICOM. She is on the International Advisors Committee for Arts & Sciences Faculty, Aga Khan University and Consultant for World Bank, Heritage section.

Dr. Asma’s experience in the field of Archaeology and Museums spans more than four decades. She has several acclaimed projects of excavation and exploration in Sindh & Baluchistan to her credit, as the first woman Archaeologist of the Country. She is heading Pakistan Archaeological Mission in Bhanbore in collaboration with the Italian & French missions. Her special interest is in the analysis of glass & Ancient human Remains.

She is serving on several consultative Committees for the Government of Sindh and has authored several Research articles, catalogues, and books. Her research has been aired by BBC (Horizon), Discovery Channel, ZDF, and BBC Channel-4, in the form of documentaries.

Dr Shaila Bhatti Dr. Shaila Bhatti Associate Professor in Anthropology & Head of the Department of Cultural, Studies, National College of Arts, Lahore Dr. Shaila Bhatti is an Associate Professor in Anthropology and Head of the Department of Cultural Studies, National College of Arts, Lahore. She worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, where she also gained her PhD and held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Over the last two decades, she has conducted ethnographic research on museums in India and Pakistan with her doctoral research focusing on the Lahore Museum in Pakistan. Her research and publications explore the history of museums in South Asia as well as their contemporary significance as moments of cultural and visual encounters for society in terms of collections, curatorial activities, exhibitionary practices and visitor interpretation. Her interests extend beyond museum anthropology to include the material and visual cultures of South Asia and local notions of cultural heritage, history, and identity.

Dr Shaila Bhatti Waheeda Baloch Professor at the Institute of Art & Design, University of Sindh Jamshoro Waheeda Bano Baloch is a Professor at the Institute of Art & Design, University of Sindh Jamshoro, who has made significant contributions to the field of contemporary art and curation. She is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History at the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn, Germany. Waheeda holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, and an M.A. in Curating Art, Law and Management from Stockholm University, Sweden.

Throughout her career, Waheeda has curated numerous exhibitions and shows since 2001, she founded ArtFest Karachi in 2021 and curated it's two editions. She has edited catalogues, written several research articles, and contributed chapters in international books. Her expertise and insights have been invaluable, and she has participated in many international panels and discussions on various topics related to art and exhibitions. Waheeda is curating Karachi Biennale 2024 and has the privilege of being the first ever woman curator in the history of the Karachi Biennale.

Dr Shaila Bhatti Mariam Saleem Farooqi Heritage Management Professional Mariam Saleem Farooqi is a cultural heritage professional from Pakistan. She specializes in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, integrating cultural knowledge into classrooms and museums, community engagement for heritage protection, and disaster risk management for heritage. She has worked with the UNESCO Field Office in Islamabad and her professional experience includes curatorial work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and field archaeology at the ancient Roman site of Aphrodisias in Turkey.

A Fulbright alumna, she holds a Master's degree in the History of Art and Archaeology from New York University, along with a Bachelor's degree in Humanities from the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Irum Iqbal Hussain Irum Iqbal Hussain Lecturer and Program Director, BS -SSLA, IBA Ms. Irum Iqbal is a Lecturer at SSLA, IBA and Program Coordinator of the SSLA Undergraduate Program. Ms. Irum completed her MA in Comparative Literature from the School of Oriental & African Studies, UK, and MA in English Literature from the University of Karachi.