Mumbai: Church heritage gets a young face

In your teens only a few things matter And if heritage and the arts are among them its probably skillsets worth honing Back in 2014 when Joynel Fernandes then all of 19 pursued a summer internship at the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum in Goregaon the countrys third museum on Christian religious art its director Fr Warner DSouza did exactly thatToday 25yearold Fernandes armed with a diploma in museology and conservation from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya CSMVS is not just the assistant director of the museum but also the author of two books one of which was published earlier this month and where she critically explores classical Christian artworks that depict the Passion of ChristFernandes is not alone Giving her company is 20yearold Wilson Pinto Together the duo has been holding fort at the museum assisting in the preventive conservation of several Christian artefacts including sculptures vestments and rare manuscripts from the city and outside some of which date back to the early 1500s while also conducting guided tours for visitorsBoth Joynel Fernandes and Wilson Pintos interest in the project grew after brief stints at the museum Fernandess first project with the museum was the exhibition organised in 2014 at Bandra commemorating the Golden Jubilee of the 38th International Eucharistic Congress an international gathering of clergy and laity held in 1964 At the time I was in my final year BA at St Xaviers College Dhobi Talao she recalls But the project seemed so fascinating that I signed up for it As part of our research we read several books and studied various artefacts That whole period spent in exploring the history that you dont otherwise encounter in stereotypical syllabus or in the mainstream narratives drew me in She later joined the museum full timePinto a Commerce student got involved after Fr DSouza who is also his parish priest at the Church of St Jude in Malad East asked him to help him at the museum two summers ago The association has continued ever since with Pinto aspiring to study archaeologyOne of the major projects that Fernandes and Pinto were initially involved in was around two years ago when they along with nine other college interns took on the Herculean task of cataloguing documenting and interleaving the museums vast paper collection comprising photographs letters brochures old editions of Catholic magazines prayer books and Bibles one of which was the first English editionAfter being trained under Fr Warner for a week the team started with first cleaning the innercorners of the books with a soft brush and then interleaving the pages with glassine acidfree paper If there were any signs of active infestation or damage they were treated or restored accordingly by professionals says Fernandes Fr Warner also put them through the rigour of watching online tutorials by the Australian Museum Smithsonian Institution and others to understand how to store paper artefacts Last year they undertook a similar task for fabric metal and wooden objectsApart from this the two also manage the museum Preventive conservation involves measures to avoid and minimise the damage of artefacts through appropriate museum upkeep We have to constantly keep a check on the temperature of the premises especially during the monsoons as moisture easily attracts fungi Also on a daily basis before we open at 9 am we investigate every artefact says Fernandes Then there is a large volume of visitors they have to attend to We split the guided tours between ourselves says PintoStarting youngFr Warner DSouza who has played an instrumental role in engaging the youth at the museum says The youth has the credentials and are able to speak understand and comprehend far better than we give them credit Also if you really want to convince young people that art and culture is interesting you need to have somebody out there who speaks their languageCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates