If you’re looking for constructive ways to keep the kids engaged in the summer holidays, look no further. To celebrate International Museum Day on May 18, The Telegraph Salt Lake explored some lesser-known museums in the twin townships that will keep curious minds of all ages entertained while teaching them something new.
Theatre Museum
Where: Natya Shodh Sansthan, EE Block (on same footpath of the petrol pump)
Timings: Monday to Saturday, 11am to 4.30pm
Entry fees: Rs 20
What: This museum is a pit stop for anyone with a passion for theatre — academics, performers, and even theatre-goers. Its extensive collection spans centuries, tracing the evolution of performance arts from the ancient Natya Shastra, the foundational Sanskrit treatise on performing arts, drama, and dance written over two thousand years ago, till modern times.
The Sanskrit Theatre Gallery and features manuscripts, paintings and models of stage designs as described in the Natya Shastra. It exhibits kutiyattam as ancient Sanskrit theatre tradition from Kerala, that is considered one of India’s oldest living performance arts.
The folk theatre space documents regional forms from across the country — Ramlila, raslila, nautanki, and jatra, alongside lesser-known forms.
Besides write-ups and pictures, it also exhibits costumes and ornaments used in staging the Ramayana, masks of the Durga pantheon used in chhau, as well as traditional musical instruments used in theatre.
The modern section pays tribute to iconic plays, dramatists, and actors, with special panels on theatre from different states. The Bengal display dedicates space to Thakurbari theatre, including a rare 1890 photograph of Rabindranath Tagore himself performing a scene from his play Bisarjan. There is also a section for Hindi theatre in Bengal.
Visitors can see pictures of plays and of legendary thespians, some of them at work, including Utpal Dutt, Badal Sircar, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Usha Ganguly, and Vijay Tendulkar.
Mime is celebrated through costumes worn by the pioneering artiste Jogesh Dutta and photographs of Niranjan Goswami (who incidentally runs the National Mime Institute in CK Block).
The archives also have models and sketches of sets, advertisements, newspaper clippings, vintage tickets, posters, puppets, and audio-visual materials, alongside brochures of legendary theatres like Star Theatre, Minerva, and Rangmahal. As a bonus, the institute also houses a theatre library.
Niranjan Pradhan sculptures
Where: EZCC, IB Block
Timings: Monday to Friday, 11am to 5pm (closed on public holidays)
Entry fees: Free
What: This gallery comprises bronze sculptures donated by Niranjan Pradhan, and paintings by his wife, Sukti Subhra Pradhan. Both respected artistes and who have taught at Government College of Art & Craft, they are also residents of AE Block.
Spanning a spacious hall where visitors can take their time and walk through at leisure, the museum showcases scores of Pradhan’s works. Highlights include his deeply moving Mother and Child series, that captures the spectrum of motherhood — such as a mother cradling a baby on her lap, playfully tossing her child in the air, to a baby trying to climb up his mother’s face. There is also a powerful work of a mother facing a huge wave, symbolising the wave of obstacles faced while raising a child.
The collection boasts sculptures of eminent personalities and historical moments, such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Satyajit Ray, and the iconic Dandi March. Interspersed among these are figures of dolphins, snakes, snake charmer....
Visitors can marvel at serene Buddha or an abstract Ramakrishna Paramahansa, where minimalist hands frame a face that has been left hollow, to signify his divine glow from within.
Adorning the walls of the hall are the diverse artworks of Sukti Subhra Pradhan. Her paintings blend nature with the abstract, including some that she created during the pandemic.
Folk and tribal musical instrument museum
Where: EZCC, IB Block
Timings: Monday to Friday, 11am to 5pm (closed on public holidays)
Entry fees: free. If schools get in touch, a special tour can be curated for students whereby they can be shown the museums and also shown documentaries on selected topics.
What: Named Vadya Vithika, this gallery houses a collection of over 300 rare and endangered folk and tribal musical instruments from across India. Over time, the number of musicians who can make and play these instruments has dwindled and so EZCC also hosts workshops to teach the craft of making and playing them.
The gallery classifies the instruments into four traditional categories: percussion, wind, string, and solid instruments.
You might be familiar with dhamsa — the drum played in the Santhal belt around Jharkhand, but the museum houses an authentic specimen that retains its original animal fur on the striking surface. Familiar instruments include ektara and dotara,
but there is also the Kashmiri rabab, a string instrument to be plucked to produce music. The rabab is considered the essence of Kashmiri music and traditionally accompanies Sufi poetry. It is crafted from almond, mulberry, or walnut wood.
The Sikkimese sanai, a wind instrument, is a fascinating cousin of the shehnai, except that this one features a dramatic, crescent-like curve and is huge. It is built in “male” version to produce ragas and “female” version for both ragas and raginis.
The rosem (wind) of Tripura, is a flute-like instrument crafted out of a traditional water pot. Local tribes hold inter-village competitions that are accompanied by the sound of the rosem. There are also cymbals (solid) of various kinds.
Aircraft Museum
Where: DJ Block (next to New Town police station, on the opposite footpath of Tata Medical Center)
Timings: noon to 8.30pm. Last ticket issued at 8pm. Shut on Mondays.
Entry fees: Rs 30 for those aged above three years. Free entry for school students if hard copy of school ID is produced.
Walk into this 2.2-acre open-air museum and you are greeted by a real, decommissioned Tupolev Tu142M. Built in the Soviet Union, this aircraft was the heaviest, fastest, and highest-flying turbo propeller plane ever built, serving as a mainstay of the Indian Navy for nearly three decades.
Nicknamed the “Albatross” for its massive wingspan, this long-range anti-submarine and reconnaissance warplane played pivotal roles in major military operations, including Operation Cactus (1988 in the Maldives), Operation Vijay (1999 in Kargil), and Operation Parakram (2002 during an India–Pakistan standoff in Kashmir).
But visitors don’t just pose for selfies from the outside, they can even step into the plane. They are taken in batches for guided tours into the belly of the aircraft for a walk-through exhibit.
There are life-size mannequins of pilots and crew stationed in the cockpit and other consoles, radar machines, torpedo chamber the where the aircraft carried its weaponry etc.
This New Town destination is only the second aircraft museum of its kind in India, following the first in Visakhapatnam.
Tribal Museum
Where: Eco Urban Village, near Owl More in Eco Park
Timings: 9am to 5.30pm. The space has to be vacated by 6pm.
Entry fees: Rs 10
The museum, curated by Anahita Housing Complex resident Rupchand Kundu, is nestled within a picturesque park that is popular as a picnic spot. Done up in warm, earthy colours, the two-storied building sets a natural tone for the cultural journey inside.
The exhibits explain how India’s tribal communities are organised deeply around kinship, living in perfect harmony with nature. An objective of the museum is the need to protect these unique cultures and prevent them from fading into extinction. Pictures and write-ups introduce visitors to diverse tribes across the country- The Great Andamanese, a community that was once on the verge of extinction, the Khasis of Meghalaya, who are said to have migrated from Cambodia, the Bhils who dwell around Chhattisgarh whoa re excellent archers and the Bhutias of Sikkim, who trace their origin to Tibet.
Most of these communities are hunter-gatherers, relying on the forests for birds, rabbits, foxes, and edible plants. Masks play a vital role in their daily as they worn for dramas and dances, as well as for hunting honey collecting, so a number of such masks are on display, alongside their musical instruments and artworks like clay models of animals and elements of nature.
The gallery space is split across two levels. The ground floor showcases documentary photographs of tribal people in their daily lives and the top floor has paintings depicting their heritage.
Renewable energy museum
Where: Eco Park (for direct entry, approach from the Gate 6 side, around the golf course)
Timings: 11.30am to 7pm (Monday closed). Best to enter by 5pm as it takes about two hours to tour the museum.
Entry fees: Rs 200 for those aged above three years. Rs 100 for students coming as “school group tour” in groups of over 30.
If you have noticed the huge dome inside Eco Park but haven’t stepped inside, it is time to spare at least two hours for an incredible experience. Spanning 2.89 acres, this architectural marvel stands 27 meters tall and is self-powered by 1,986 external solar panels. Inside, a continuous spiral ramp guides you through six interactive floors dedicated to climate awareness and sustainable technology.
Welcomed by a life-like silicon statue of Nikola Tesla, the ground floor traces human innovation from early coal usage to nuclear fission, alongside a display of electric vehicles.
The climate crisis gallery shows the impact of industrialisation through an electronic globe tracking global temperatures, interactive kiosks showing extreme weather events, and tunnels with overhead LCD screens displaying melting glaciers and wildfires.
Shifting from crisis to hope, the renewable energy zones have interactive exhibits on solar, wind, and geothermal power, featuring a model explaining wind turbines, and a competitive water-pressure game that tracks the energy you generate.
The next level in fact is a gaming zone where you are greeted by a model of Albert Einstein, and led to play quizzes and games on climate change, turbines and you are to climb on to a smart stationary cycle that calculates your speed, calories burned, and wattage generated as you pedal.
The final two levels have statues of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk and you enter a theatre screening a short film on Calcutta in the year 2100. Futuristic tech like portable solar trees and a Tesla Model B e-bicycle replica. The experience concludes with digital views of futuristic floating cities, forest cities, and future colonies on Mars.
Kazi Nazrul Islam Museum
Where: Nazrul Tirtha
Timings: 2pm-7pm. Monday closed
Entry fees: Rs 20
If mention of Kazi Nazrul Islam brings to your mind a single picture of the rebel poet wearing a cap, you will be astonished by the sheer number of his photographs in this gallery. There are pictures of him at work, at leisure, travelling and even when he is unwell towards the end of his life.
On display are Nazrul’s harmonium and sitar, his personal furniture, notebooks and, in fact, an entire pillar in the hall has been adorned with prints of his own handwriting.
The museum mentions the time and place when he wrote Rajbandir Jobanbandi — January 7, 1923 — when he was incarcerated in Presidency Jail in Calcutta.
Large bright panels have excerpts of his works like Kamal Pasha, Dhumketu and Bandi Bandana. There are booklets of movies Nazrul worked in or that included Nazrulgeeti such as Shapure, Abhinoy Noy, Nandini and Shohor Theke Doore.
Butterfly Garden (Sudeshna Banerjee)
Where: Gate 6, Eco Park, and Banabitan, Central Park
Timings: 11-5pm (Banabitan), 12-4pm (Eco Park, Monday shut)
Entry fees: Rs 50 (Banabitan) and Rs 30 (Eco Park)
Trudge up the trail amid the greenery, leading up to the butterfly garden in either of the two parks in Salt Lake and New Town. Witness Striped Tigers, Common Crows and Great Eggflies flapping about in the shrubs which have been carefully chosen for planting, keeping the tastes of butterflies in mind. Their favourite time to bask in the sun is 3 to 5pm.
Butterfly roosting at Eco Park. Picture courtesy: Nature Mates
According to an official of the NGO Nature Mates, which runs both the butterfly parks, about 5,000 to 10,000 butterflies are released in nature every year.
The authorities allow visitors into their conservation laboratory on request. At the laboratory, butterflies are incubated stage by stage, from egg to larva to pupa.
At Banabitan, you can study body parts of the winged creatures in their early stages under a microscope. You will be surprised how sharp nails of butterflies are.
The NGO accepts interns from interested graduates as also students of Class VIII and above if they commit at least a day every week for at least a month.
Rabindra Tirtha museum
Timings: 1pm-8pm (Mondays closed). Last ticket issued at 7pm.
Entry fees: Rs 20. Children on official school trips will be charged Rs 10 each if they are in a group of minimum 20.
Rabindranath Tagore may be among the most discussed and performed poets in India, but this museum still manages to showcase some lesser-known aspects of his life, such as his artwork.
Through photographs and writeups, the gallery illustrates how Tagore formally took up painting quite late in life. His early manuscripts show intricate doodles along the margins, indicating a lifelong flair for art. Then, around the age of 60, instead of simply crossing out unwanted words, he began transforming them into surreal creatures.
These creative corrections were strung together until entire pages resembled a beautiful tapestry of words and images. Tagore painted flora and fauna that belonged to no known species; his landscapes evoke rural Bengal, yet the trees themselves remain unidentifiable. At times, his written poems were framed by his own artwork.
Considering how late he began, his output was astonishing, at over 2,000 paintings and drawings. Uninfluenced by any other painter or style, copies of many of his works are on display here.
Tagore often remarked that even if his poetry is forgotten, his songs would not, and the museum honours this legacy with a dedicated section. Alongside photographs of exponents like Kanika Bandyopadhyay, the archives feature even earlier Rabindrasangeet singers.
According to information on the gallery walls, Tagore’s songs were first recorded in his own voice between 1905 and 1906 by the pioneering entrepreneur Hemendra Mohan Bose.
According to an advertisement in The Bengali in 1909, Ankulchandra Das possibly was among the first artistes to commercially record a Tagore song— Amay banshite dekechhe ke—for the Gramophone Company.
As the tracks grew popular under the label “Rabibabur Gaan,” Tagore’s solicitor wrote to the Gramophone Company, claiming royalty for his compositions. Once they agreed, Tagore became the first Indian artiste to be recognised as a lyricist.
The museum documents Tagore’s life, travels, formation of Visva-Bharati, and a biographical documentary plays on a screen in a loop. You can also take a tour of the park outside the museum with your ticket.