For centuries, dogs have been a familiar presence in art and human life. In art, they have appeared in different roles: as companions, markers of social status, beloved pets, working animals, comic figures, and sometimes simply as animals being themselves. Their presence can tell us…

Rethinking How We Engage Young Visitors In a country where nearly 30 per cent of the population is under 18, it is worth asking how much space museums and galleries actually make for this age group. That is not to say that young people do…

A few days before the Pez Tasting at the Museum of Goa, Jeff Kurian and I went to Mapusa Market to buy the essentials: rice, papad, dried prawns and a few earthen pots. It felt like an ordinary shopping trip. But as we moved around…

Every generation inherits the past, but no generation inherits it unchanged. Historical narratives are constantly revised, reinterpreted, and at times simplified to reflect the concerns of the present. A recent example was the masking of the Indus Valley Civilization's famous Dancing Girl in NCERT textbook,…

Goa’s unique cultural identity reflects centuries of indigenous traditions blended with Portuguese colonial influence, evident in its architecture, cuisine, music, and customs. Among the most significant traditions are Goan Catholic weddings, which extend over several days, embody community ties and Indo-European cultural heritage. Traditionally, weddings…

Why Museums Tell Stories Walk into any museum in the world and you are immediately surrounded by objects that predate you by time. They carry no instruction for how to be understood. It is only when a museum places them in context, assigns them meaning,…

Why Do Museums Matter? The impulse to preserve is amongst the oldest human behaviours. Before there were museums, communities passed down objects, stories, and practices because losing them felt like losing something of themselves. Museums are the formal version of that impulse, a deliberate decision…

Mango begins with a memory. The quiet excitement of cutting or simply biting into a ripe mango. The air is heavy with heat, the sweetness almost excessive. Something you wait for all year. Before the fruit was named, before it travelled across regions, the mango…

Tear It Apart: Reconnecting with the Joy of Being Present A recounting of Oviya Manivannan’s time exhibiting at the Museum of Goa I am Oviya, a 22-year-old artist, and I recently had the privilege of exhibiting my work at the ‘Homo Ludens: Art of Play’…

Introduction My first visit to the Museum of Goa was on a school trip, where all the artwork was explained in detail to us. The second time I visited, I had the opportunity to see each of the artwork through my own lens, and interpret…

In a world full of black and white, we often forget to appreciate the greys. The shades of monsoon make us feel like the sun abandoned the earth entirely. Hopelessness starts to creep in from places you didn't know were broken. That is when you…