The National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and Science Museum Group, London have joined hands to tell the story of the global effort to develop vaccines through an exhibition ‘Vaccines Injecting Hope’.
Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal inaugurated the exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” at National Science Centre here on Tuesday in presence of Alex Ellis, High Commissioner, British High Commission in India, Scott McDonald, Chief Executive, British Council and others.
The exhibition will showcase an art installation commissioned by the British Council as part of the India-UK Together Season of Culture.
A Mobile Science Exhibition, another version of the exhibit, is set to travel to rural areas across northern India. In the meanwhile, the primary exhibition will be open in Delhi till June 2023, after which it will travel to Nagpur, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
The exhibition has sections on ‘The Arrival of New Virus’, ‘Designing a New Vaccine’, ‘Trials, Results and Approvals’, ‘Scaling Up and Mass Production’, ‘Vaccine Rollout’, ‘Living with COVID’ and tells the story of the global effort to find new ways to develop vaccines at pandemic speed and look at vaccinations more broadly with a historical and contemporary view.
Scott McDonald, Chief Executive, British Council, said: “Our India/ UK Together Season of Culture demonstrates our commitment to emerging India and UK artists, enabling them to connect and create engaging work. This ground-breaking exhibition provides a brilliant artistic interpretation of how India and the UK addressed one of our greatest collective challenges — the pandemic – through the vaccine partnership.”
The exhibition showcases ‘Through the Lens’, an artwork commissioned by British Council and created through collaboration between Indian sculptor based in Delhi, Sushank Kumar, and a playwright in London, Nigel Townsend.
Arijit Dutta Choudhury, Director General of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), India said: “After the grand success of the exhibition ‘Superbugs: The End of Antibiotics?’ This is another project where we have collaborated with the SMG group, London for raising awareness among masses about the importance of vaccines in our lives.
“This time we have added one Mobile Science Exhibition (MSE) Bus to travel to the nearby areas of each location. The MSE Bus will mainly communicate the messages of the exhibition in rural areas. At the same time, I hope, the project will further strengthen the bond between the two leading Science Museums network in India & UK.”
The exhibition has been developed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) in collaboration with Science Museum, London and with support from Wellcome, UK; ICMR, India; NIV, Pune, Serum Institute of India, CSIR, AIIMS and various other research and scientific organisations.
