Interview Fifteen
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Esfandiari, Aziz
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of Afghanistan Oral Histories
unitdate: label: Date
content: June 18, 2024
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: FSA.A2024.03, File 15
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This session continues with a discussion of exhibitions organized outside of Afghanistan. Mr. Masoudi recalls the National Museum of Afghanistan sent an exhibition of Buddhist era artifacts to the Czech Republic at the Prague Art Museum in 2015. The conservation department at the Prague Art Museum agreed to provide treatment on any objects that needed conservation prior to exhibition. Two curators accompanied the artifacts to Prague. Mr. Masoudi discusses the tangible and intangible benefits of the exhibition; the museum as an educational institution; the role of the museum and the cultural sector in society; outreach to students and a younger generation; staff training initiatives; partnering with the Aga Khan Foundation to host school visits and creating educational materials for schools; attracting tourists and foreign researchers – a major focus prior to 1978, but currently domestic tourism is more common; connections, or lack thereof, to university curriculum; and how the cultural sector and the work of the National Museum of Afghanistan can influence nation building and social cohesion.