Development plans for museum to archive local music and memorabilia enters first stage
The Museums Association of Namibia (MAN), this week hosted a stakeholder’s workshop in Omuthiya as the first step towards the development of the Museum of Namibian Music.
The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture has availed a state of the art building in Omuthiya to house the museum and music archive, which will be a first of its kind in Namibia.
The association hopes to develop a museum that will be informative, educational, interactive and sustainable in a way that will encourage multiple visits. Musicians and members of the public are invited to assist by identifying musical instruments, recordings, photographs or stories that might be included in the museum.
The workshop was an information-sharing session that brought together 29 stakeholders in the form of musicians across all cultures, genres and demographics, archivists, culture officers from the Directorate of Heritage and Culture Programs, music lecturers from COTA, UNAM and APC, tourism and intellectual property experts from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and NASCAM, museum experts, composers and musicologists.
The workshop covered issues relating to the development and sustainability of the museum, which are; collecting or reproducing traditional musical instruments, developing a `dream’ for the museum, marketing the museum to the Namibian public, archiving local music and memorabilia amongst others.
According to the association, the chosen venue of the museum is inline with its commitment to decentralize development and create employment and economic growth in different communities across the country.
The development of the museum is one of the four components in a project entitled ‘Museum Development as a Tool for Strengthening Cultural Rights in Namibia (MDTSCRN)’, funded by the European Union and implemented by MAN that was launched in Windhoek on 27 November 2017.
The European Union will provide €237,025 over a two-year period to support activities being implemented by the Museums Association of Namibia to support regional museum development.
