US Consulate organises digitisation workshop for Nigerian museums

The National Council on Museums and Monuments (NCMM) has hosted a three-day workshop on Museum Digitisation at the National Museum of Unity, Aleshinloye, Ibadan, organised by the Public Affairs Section of the United States Consulate General Lagos.

The opening ceremony took place on Thursday.

The workshop will equip local museum staff with the skills required to digitally record and preserve fragile artefacts, while also updating them on current trends in curation and museum management.

Abdulkerim Oshioke Kadiri, the Acting Director-General of NCMM, who was represented at the opening event by Mrs Edith Ekunke, Director of Museums, stated that “Digitisation has become the future of all industries, especially museums.

“It does not only provide security for our priceless objects, but it also serves as a reference for research and conservation of these objects. As salient as digitisation is, it is still new to the third world clime, Nigeria inclusive.

“However, training, interest and policy shift can easily enhance this new trend of digitisation.

“This training, therefore, is a welcome development that hopes to open up new frontiers for the NCMM, develop the inventory of our collections, and also train-the-trainer that will pass on digitisation knowledge to others in their various stations.”

Public Affairs Officer at the US Consulate General Lagos, Mr Russell Brooks told journalists at the event that “Today’s workshop is extremely important because it shows the US mission’s commitment to culture preservation here in Nigeria.

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“Experts from the US have come here to conduct training on museum digitisation. It will enable Nigerian museum professionals to work on how to conserve their materials for future generations, as well as to be able to display them for those who may not be able to come physically to museums.”

He noted that Nigerians take their history and culture seriously, and recognised that they needed help from the international community, hence the workshop.

Brooks said the US experts had trained 20 persons in Jos, and would train about the same number in Ibadan.

He added that the workshop had a national reach and similar events will follow in line with the US mission’s commitment he mentioned earlier.

The Ibadan event for the southern region is the second leg of the workshop being facilitated by renowned experts on cultural heritage imaging, Erik Landsberg and Mark Mudge.

The first leg for the northern region held in Jos on Monday.