A boom looms for the museums

KUALA LUMPUR: Bigger, more exciting exhibitions have been planned at 20 museums nationwide next year.

“Exotic Sabah and Sarawak” will be staged at the National Museum while the National Textile Museum will host a foreign textile exhibition. “Our museums received around three million visitors this year. With the exhibitions, we hope more people will come,” said Museums Department director-general Datuk Ibrahim Ismail.

Interactive forums, talks and overnight packages in galleries will also be organised to promote museums, he told a press conference to announce the “Art of the Loom” exhibition at the National Textile Museum here yesterday.

Museum director Janet Tee Siew Mooi said the exhibition, which runs until March 10, included 65 loom collections and tools.

“It will also feature a rare Yadanapura loom from Myanmar. It is used weave the acheik pattern silk which is considered sacred as it is used during religious ceremonies.

Neat knitting: Student Nur Alia Holidin, 19, trying out an old weaving machine at the exhibition at the National Textile Museum in Kuala Lumpur.

“It usually takes three people around two months to produce the acheiksilk,” Tee said, adding that the museum received 56,000 visitors this year. She said the public could also try their hand at weaving under the guidance of experts at an interactive session during the exhibition.

The museum was officially launched in April and displays traditional handiwork and multi-ethnic textile collections. For more information, go to www.muziumtekstilnegara.gov.my or call 03-2694 3455.

-thestar online.