Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum to mark International Museum Day with podcasts, artefacts and chronicles

Pune: The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum is preparing to celebrate International Museum Day on Monday with a packed schedule of launches, interactive heritage sessions and sustainability initiatives.

The museum will follow a theme, ‘Museums Uniting a Divided World’, which was announced by the International Council of Museums, headquartered in Paris, for 2026.

A multilingual podcast documentary series launch will take centre stage for the celebration. The series will explore the life and vision of the museum’s founder, the late Dinkar Gangadhar Kelkar, whose vast personal collection evolved into one of Pune’s most iconic institutions.

The podcast series includes five episodes and eight short show reels produced in Marathi, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese, reflecting the museum’s attempt to reach wider and younger audiences in formats more familiar to the streaming era.

The first Marathi episode will be launched online at 11.30am by Ajit Gadgil, founder and president of PN Gadgil & Sons and the Zapurza Museum of Art and Culture. The series examines the museum’s rare collections, its historical voyage and future expansion plans, while also documenting Kelkar’s contribution to preserving everyday Indian material culture.

The initiative has been developed with financial support from PN Gadgil and Sons and technical collaboration from Pancham Veda and T3 Media Solutions.

The museum will also host Vastu Setu (Objects as Bridges), an object handling session organised with Sambhasha Foundation between 11am and 4pm. Unlike traditional museum experiences where artefacts remain locked behind glass, this session will allow visitors to closely observe and interact with selected objects from different regions, cultures and historical periods through guided engagement.

Later in the evening, solar power system, developed with the support of Shri Firodia Trust, will be inaugurated by Abhay Firodia, chairman of Force Motors. Moreover, representatives from Anam Prem, a social service organisation, will felicitate museum staff members for their contributions to the cultural sector.