Aiming to stimulate the movement of antique collecting in the province, since December 2017, Nha Trang Antique Club will hold antique fair at the provincial Museum every week.
Aiming to stimulate the movement of antique collecting in the province, since December 2017, Nha Trang Antique Club will hold antique fair at the provincial Museum every week.
Nha Trang Antique Club was established by Khanh Hoa Provincial Museum in 2013 with 22 members. Until now, the club has 30 official members and five honorary members. In four years, the club held many meaningful cultural activities, such as antique exhibitions, antique fairs, and vintage vehicle parade. From 2015 to 2017, the club organized four themed exhibitions introducing the collections of the club’ members to the public, which partly enriched the activities of the provincial Museum.
“We highly appreciate the efforts of Nha Trang Antique Club in organizing these exhibitions. The number of antiques preserved at the museum is not as many as the total number of antiques of the club. The involvement of the community also helps to raise the awareness of cultural heritages preservation among the public,” said Le Chi Huong, Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Museum.
Apart from the exhibitions, Nha Trang Antique Club held antique fair for the first time on Lunar New Year 2015 (lunar January 5). The number of stalls, collectors and visitors to the fair increased year by year. The 2017 fair displayed hundreds of antiques and old things, such porcelains of Nguyen dynasty, Chu Dau pottery, articles of Bat Trang pottery, pottery statues of the Southern, bicycles, oil lamps, etc. Each object had its own story or its owner’s story. Some objects descended through two or three generations. Many visitors to the fair were interested in contemplating and chatting about old familiar items like Peugeot bicycle, Soviet electric fan, soldier’s water-bottle, and so on.
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Besides positive aspects, Nha Trang Antique Club has still had some limited ones. For example, the club has not yet connected the antique collectors over the province to form Khanh Hoa Antique Club and has not effectively linked the club’s activities with tourism activities; there have been not many exchanges with the collectors in other localities.
Therefore, Nha Trang Antique Club planed to promote the club’s activities in the future. Recently, a plan for a weekly-held antique fair was proposed to the provincial Department of Culture and Sports. Dao Hoa, Head of Nha Trang Antique Club stated, “Through the antique fair, we hope to create an interesting place of cultural exchange for both locals and tourists. We plan to provide advertising leaflets to the travel agencies and hotels to introduce the antique fair to many people.”
Additionally, the club intends to publish a photo book about the club’s members and their collections; promote the exchange programs with the antique clubs of other provinces and cities in the region. As said by Huong, the provincial Museum will actively support Nha Trang Antique Club to carry out the activities.
Thanh Nguyen
Translated by H.N
