Amareswar Galla
Dr. Amareswar Galla is the Chief Curator of Amaravathi Heritage Town (birthplace of Mahayana Buddhism) India and Founding Executive Director of the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum. He was the former Vice President of the International Executive Council of ICOM, Paris and a former president of ICOM Asia Pacific Executive Board. He is also an active ICOMOS member who was directly engaged in drafting the Nara Recommendation of the World Heritage Convention in 1994. He founded the inclusive museum movement two decades ago as a strategic initiative with Common Ground Publishing and chaired the drafting and adoption of the ICOM Cultural Diversity Charter in Shanghai in 2010. An alumnus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, he was formerly full professor of museum Studies, University of Queensland and prior to that, full professor of Sustainable Heritage Development, the Australian National University. He is an accredited mentor/facilitator of UNESCO for the 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention. His extensive publication record ranges from World Heritage: Benefits Beyond Borders, Cambridge University Press & UNESCO Publishing, 2012 (French and Korean translations 2013) to Heritage Curricula and Cultural Diversity, Prime Minister & Cabinet, Australia, 1993. He writes one of the most read heritage columns in India and online globally.