New Delhi: Art, scientific achievement and a powerful story—a confluence of all three unfold in a new exhibition, ‘Vaccine: Injecting Hope’, which was inaugurated on 15 November at the National Science Center in Delhi.
A look at what two years of the pandemic have meant to the scientific world, this educational exhibition showcases the work, passion and immense effort that went into creating a vaccine against Covid, and how India and the UK have made the most Addressed one of the great collective challenges.
Speaking at the inauguration, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Rajeev Behl said, “It is not enough to know science, science has to reach people through art.”
The exhibition also featured an art installation, which was commissioned by the British Council as part of the ‘India/UK Together Season of Culture’. The artwork and exhibition drew inspiration from a 19th-century painting by Thomas Hickey, ‘The 3 Princes of Mysore’, which was used to promote smallpox vaccination through royalty.
Scott McDonald, chief executive of the British Council, said: “This early example of public messaging through art, where a princess draws your attention to her arm, links us from the past to the future.”
“We all need a healthy dose of hope to vaccinate ourselves in difficult times,” he said during his opening remarks.
While several officials from the National Council of Science Museums of India, representatives from the British Council and people from the Science Museum Group were present at the opening ceremony – Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs and Joint Secretary Ministry of Culture Mugdha Sinha represented the government . The Maharaja of Mysore was also present in this program.
Featuring a collaboration between the National Council of Science Museums and the Science Museums Group, London, this international effort tells the story of the global effort and everything that went on behind the scenes to develop vaccines at the speed of the pandemic.
that all went behind the scenes
Entire sections of the exhibition take the viewer through the entire experience and work that went into giving India its vaccine, which has immunized 93% of the population with two shots. From the various equipment used in the manufacturing of the vaccine, such as bioreactors, suits worth Rs 16 lakh and the suits worn by various scientists while dealing with the virus, the gallery is full of nostalgia for those who worked to prepare the vaccine. Worked day and night for For citizens of India.
Even the actual container in which the first COVID sample was brought from Kerala for testing is present in the gallery, along with various vials that were used to test and store the Omicron version of SARS-CoV-2. was done for. The mask that was worn by Healthline workers during the earlier bubonic plague is still next to the one people wear daily.
Pragya Yadav, an award-winning Indian scientist at the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), who led the team that handled SARS-CoV-2, told ThePrint, “The vaccine was a hope and a tool that not only helped people but people engaged in biological sciences. This simplified illustration will really help kids and students understand India’s journey of vaccines.”
“I still recommend washing your hands and wearing a mask in large crowds,” she said, making sure citizens still take precautions.
It started during the pandemic
,Vaccines are something that was not on the minds of people or received much investment before the pandemic hit. And earlier these people were working silently, after which suddenly there was a stir because people started demanding the vaccine. Not only were all these scientists rediscovered, but they did it in record time,” Sir Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, told ThePrint.
As he recalled the panic and chaos of the first lockdown in 2020 and people dying, he called the feat a “miracle”, now documented in the exhibition that has been in the works for months.
science and art come together
The exhibition features ‘Through the Lens’, an artwork commissioned by the British Council in collaboration with Delhi-based sculptor Sushank Kumar and British playwright Nigel Townsend.
Jonathan Kennedy, director of the British Council of Arts in India, told ThePrint: “We wanted to think about the global challenge of the pandemic and how institutions worked together between India and the UK to create and distribute vaccines from the perspective of artists. , We wanted to dive into the human story that could be told through them. ,
Another edition of the exhibition, a mobile science exhibition, is set to travel to rural areas across northern India. Meanwhile, the primary exhibition will remain open in Delhi till June 2023, after which it will travel to Nagpur, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.