The ASEAN Cultural Heritage Digital Archive (ACHDA) project has kicked off an e-exhibition, themed “Forging History: Metals in the Crucible of ASEAN’s Transformation”, on its website.

A screenshot of the ACHDA website.

The e-exhibition is a new feature of the ACHDA website, developed during the project’s second phase that commenced in January 2021.

It brings focus to the roles of metals in transforming the ASEAN region’s history and cultures. It features 22 digitised cultural heritage treasures selected by guest curator Girard Phillip E. Bonotan with support from museums and archival institutions of the ASEAN member states.

Highlights of the e-exhibition include Buddhist manuscript cabinets from Thailand, golden crowns from Indonesia, and modern metal artworks created by Malaysian artists, among others.

During the panel discussion titled “Reimagining Exhibitions During COVID-19”, experts from cultural institutions in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan discussed their experiences in reinventing the museum experience in light of the ongoing pandemic.

The ACHDA project is supported by the government of Japan through the ASEAN-Japan Integration Fund (JAIF). Its website was launched on February 27 last year, hosting a collection of 2D and 3D images, audio recordings, and video data. To date, 267 cultural assets from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand are available on the site.

Source: VNA