Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun the process for establishment of digital museums in Nigeria by way of Virtual Reality Museum where Nigerians would be able to view through its proposed Currency Museum Gallery from anywhere using technological gadgets.
CBN said until museums embrace new approaches as regards to evolving technology and give up the old methods, it will never appeal to new audiences nor be intertwined with other museums.
“We are in the process of making sure that our museums have gone digital by way of Virtual Reality Museum where you sit back in your comfort zone and take a view through our Currency Museum Gallery coming soon,” deputy governor, operations directorate of the CBN Mr Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi said yesterday at an event to mark this year International Museum Day in Abuja.
Shonubi said digital innovations can make museums more accessible and engaging thereby helping audiences understand complex and nuanced concepts.
He said “the time is nigh to rethink our relationships with the communities we serve, to experiment with new and hybrid models of cultural fruition and to strongly reaffirm the essential value of Museums for the construction of a just and sustainable future.”
The objective of the International Museum Day is to raise awareness that museums are important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among people. The theme for this year’s IMD is titled “Museums, Sustainability and Well-being”.
With the theme “Sustainability and Well-being, the International Museum Day 2023 bids all museums, their professionals and communities to create, imagine and share new practices of (co-)creation of value, new business models for cultural institutions and innovative solutions for the social, economic and environmental challenges of the present.
The deputy governor said “works of art can speak so eloquently about what makes us human, what connects and divides us, what inspires and provokes us and how vital the impulse to make and create has always been across time and geographic boundaries.”
He acknowledged that technology has helped museums in reaching beyond core audience to new publics, a development he said has been shown in digitisation of collections, virtual tours or something as simple as a hashtag that allows visitors to share their experiences on social media.
The director, museums, national commission for museums and monuments, Mr Gimba Abdul Mohammed explained that objects of historical importance are stored scientifically in a well-managed and secured area to keep them safe from humidity, light, natural hazard, fire, etc.
“Without museums, all these things that we have today would have gone and that is why we say both physical and virtual museum work in synergy because without a physical museum there will be no virtual and sometimes, we need the virtual museum because of the kind of country we are,” he remarked at the event.
