| Chronical 2009 |
| January |
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Sunday afternoon lecture on jazz by musicologist, archaeologist and bass player Maarten Weyler. What is jazz, how did it come about and how did it spread? |
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Gallery exhibition entitled Abba to Zappa, seventies rock photography with photos by Gijsbert Hanekroot who was close on the heels of pop musicians at concerts and interviews and press conferences. “Hanekroot’s photography is unadorned […] deep blacks with solid contrast. In musical terms: the foundation of the photos is laid down with a driving bass.” (Camera Magazine). |
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Ted Leyenaar, retired curator of our Latin America Department, head of research and deputy director, died on January 18th. He was of major significance for Volkenkunde and was a true ambassador for the meso-American culture and traditions of Mexico. In 1994 he received the highest Mexican award for a foreign scientist: Commander of the Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca. |
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In the concert series Music in Motion a performance by singer / songwriter Joep Pelt and Malian bass player Brehima Kouyate. Kouyate is in the Netherlands to work on Pelt’s new CD. |
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In Laos, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Volkenkunde, the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University and the University of Laos in which the parties committed themselves to collaborating in setting up an archaeology course in Laos. |
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February |
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Like last year, Volkenkunde received a cheque for € 200,000 from the Good Money Gala BankGiro Lottery. For the next three years, the museum will receive this sum with the aim of making the historical collection known to the public in an innovative and up-to-date manner. |
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Purchase of an unusually large Japanese Imari porcelain dish from the early 19th century, bearing paintings of elephants. The decoration is a reminder of England’s attempt in 1813 to take over the Dutch trade monopoly with Japan. The British brought an elephant along. The gift was not accepted by the Japanese authorities, but it was painted. |
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Sunday afternoon Lecture entitled They mustn’t get more Islamic by Maurits Berger, Professor of Islam in the West of Today at Leiden University. |
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The year 2009 saw the celebrations surrounding 400 years of Japanese-Dutch relations, and the spring holiday provided an opportunity for children to hear a Japanese story and to have the Japanese Taiko children show off their big drums. |
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Mali elevated former curator Roger Bedaux to the order of Officer in the Ordre National du Mali because of his work for the preservation of the Malian cultural heritage. |
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March |
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Indonesia Curator Peter ter Keurs left Volkenkunde to become Head of Collections and Research at the National Museum of Antiquities. His departure was graced by a lecture given by Michael Rowlands. |
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During a symposium in Cape Town entitled Our Shared Heritage: South Africa and the Netherlands, Volkenkunde and Iziko Museums of Cape Town formalised their planned cooperation in a Memorandum of Understanding. |
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The Sunday afternoon lecture this month dealt with the role of port cities in the global spread of the popular music of the 20th century. The speaker was Stan Rijven, critic, DJ and programme maker. |
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In the concert series Music in Motion flautist Ronald Snijders and his band played a combination of jazz, funk, pop and Surinamese kaseko and kawina. The audience was extremely enthusiastic and Snijders got everyone up on their feet. In between the musical numbers Snijders told of the history of Surinamese music. |
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Volkenkunde has celebrated Nowruz – or New Year in the Iranian language area – for many years. This time we did so in collaboration with the Keihan Afghan Youth Foundation. The celebrations included ancient and modern music, dancing, kite flying, lectures and workshops. |
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In the Music in Motion concert series we presented a string quartet that has a classical repertoire but can also sound like rock, Bulgarian folk or bebop jazz: the Zapp String Quartet. |
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April |
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Gallery Exhibition entitled Caravan through the Karakoram, the last explorers in the Himalayas (1929-1930). Material given to Volkenkunde after the death of expedition member J.A. Sillem gave a picture of the Dutch expedition. Original journey descriptions, photo, film clips and objects. |
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Volkenkunde offered music and adventure at the National Museum Weekend, with this year's theme of Seduction. Visitors could not resist dancing to the music provided by DJ Miss World. And for the opening of the Karakoram Exhibition the Nepal-Netherlands Association gave tips on how to make your expedition survive. |
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At Easter admission to the museum is free for children aged up to twelve. They went into the museum garden looking for Easter eggs. |
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The concert series Music in Motion presented Izaline Calister, the Queen of Antillean jazz. In recent years she has immersed herself in the Antillean musical traditions, especially those of Curacao. |
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An important part of the Japanese Collection was moved from ‘s Gravenzande back to the attic of the main building, where a new depot had been created. Here it is now possible to exhibit highlights of the collection more extensively. Thus at the end of August some very special guests were shown round, namely Prince Akishino of Japan and his wife Princess Kiko. |
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The spring holiday this year began in April. The programme was entirely devoted to the Music in Motion exhibition, and was not just for the children. There were performances, dance workshops and workshops on how to play a special musical instrument. |
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May |
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Opening of gallery exhibition Cuba! with photos by Henk van der Leeden showing Cuban vitality and joy. |
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Sunday afternoon lecture Surviving K2 by Wilco van Rooijen, leader of an expedition to the top of the "Killer Mountain" in August 2008. Eleven of the seventeen expedition members failed to survive the journey. |
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On Mother’s Day all mothers are admitted to the museum free of charge – provided they are accompanied by their children. On this occasion the Javanese dance-group Kuwung kuwung were on stage. |
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Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg, curator of the Museo del Textil in Oaxaca, subjected the Mexican textile collection to a peer review. His detailed report begins like this: “In my opinion, it is the most important group of ethnographic textiles outside of Mexico because of the extraordinary quality of the pieces and because of the breadth of their geographic representation”. |
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The MultiFoon Ensemble gave a concert in the Music in Motion series. The ensemble plays the gamelan in a way that harmonises with western music. A week later, the Sekar Alit group led by Henry Nagelberg gave a traditional concert on the Balinese gamelan that the museum has at its disposal. The classical Balinese dancer Prabu appeared with the group. |
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Volkenkunde participated in the Tong Tong Fair (formerly the Pasar Malam Besar) in the Malieveld park in The Hague, with an information stand, a discount campaign and a quiz. Curator Francine Brinkgreve gave a lecture on Sumatra and its cultural influences, a foretaste of the Sumatra exhibition planned for the autumn in Volkenkunde. |
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A gallery exhibition entitled Thuis in Leiden (At home in Leiden), featuring photos by Wim Lamboo. Portraits of asylum seekers in their homes in Leiden, in the refugee centre or simply somewhere in the city. |
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June |
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In the presence of several Volkenkunde staff the exhibition Treasures of Sumatra was opened in Jakarta. It is a joint project of Volkenkunde and the Museum Nasional Indonesia. The exhibition will move to Leiden in the autumn. |
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On Father's Day it was the turn of the fathers to get free admission to Volkenkunde – with their children, of course. It provided an opportunity to get to know Mexican musical instruments and even to try them out. |
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A group of Indians from Suriname came for three weeks to study collections of their ancestors in the depots. The idea was to get them involved in the collection as eminent experts. And they were inspired by it. One of them said in an Internet publication on ancient Indian arrows that he saw here: “I think we should reintroduce the arrows into the village. The current generation has no longer any idea of these things”. |
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During the same period a delegation of Amazonian Indians visited the museum. They made objects, thereby complementing the existing collection. During a public activity, they showed some of their utensils and invited visitors to participate in a ceremony of music, dance and body-painting. Three other European museums received similar delegations, adding in this way contemporary objects to their collections. The project was set up at the request of the Indians themselves. |
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The Eindhoven Dagblad daily newspaper reported that the Brabants fur in Africa exhibition can now be seen in Ivory Coast. A former employee of the factory that traditionally made the renowned Helmond cotton designs travelled to the country with explanatory texts and materials. |
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The Leiden Museum of Antiquities had a great deal of success with an interactive lecture series for children. Other museums started to participate and interest was so great that an extra session of the series was needed. Volkenkunde supplied four lecturers, curator Laura van Broekhoven being first, with an interactive lecture on Mayan writing. |
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Charles Dufour gave a Sunday afternoon lecture entitled The Himalayas, heaven and hell, about his participation in the expedition to Mount Manaslu in 1964. A film of the expedition was also shown. |
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs extended the subsidy for the continuation of the project Behoud Cultureel Erfgoed Mali (Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Mali) until mid-2012. The project is the fruit of long collaboration between Volkenkunde and the Musée National du Mali. |
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July | August |
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The first Leiden museum night. Volkenkunde joined in with the theme "Passion over the border - lust and love in other cultures." How do you flirt when wearing a burka? Three thousand visitors were counted between eight o’clock in the evening and one in the morning. |
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During the summer holidays in seven Leiden museums admission is free for children under the age of twelve. Extensive use was made of this concession in Volkenkunde, no doubt contributed to by the Indian tepee in the museum garden. Adviser and special guest at this event was the Blackfoot Indian Clifford Crane Bear. |
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International expert meeting in Volkenkunde, led by curator Laura van Broekhoven and Wayne Modest (Horniman Museum, London) entitled Collecting (in) the Postcolonial World: from Theory to Praxis. Looking for new interpretations of old collections. This was a two-day meeting under the auspices of the Réseau International des Musées d'Ethnographie (RIME). |
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To celebrate 400 years of trading relations between the Netherlands and Japan, this summer the programme was specifically targeted on Japan. For example, there were several days on which the special Japanese bamboo flutes (Shakuhachi) could be listened to. |
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September |
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Admission remained free for children up to twelve years old up to the end of the Christmas holiday. |
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Indonesia Day with workshops, lectures, cookery demonstrations and a fashion show. For the children there was Balinese gamelan and dance, making wayang puppets and finally processing through the museum dressed in Indonesian style. |
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Gallery Exhibition entitled Fading Borders. Lucienne van der Mijle's photographs of Japanese-Dutch couples in the Netherlands and Japan, interspersed with amusing images of staged contrasts between Japanese and Western culture. |
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A major earthquake hit Padang on Sumatra. The Adityawarman museum, which loaned some objects to the coming Sumatra exhibition, was also hit. It was decided to charge € 1 per visitor by way of donation to the fund for the victims of the disaster for one month after the opening. There were also Red Cross collection boxes present. |
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October |
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World Animal Day was celebrated in Volkenkunde with the Caravan through the Karakoram exhibition at centre stage. Several animals were important during this expedition, especially the dog Patiala. In collaboration with the Netherlands-Nepal Association various activities were presented on this theme, including a multimedia lecture about Patiala’s adventures. |
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Opening of the interactive family exhibition Maya 2012 - the mysteries of an ancient people. The local newspaper, Leidsch Dagblad, wrote: "The children discover a great deal about the Maya here just by stepping into their world”. The museum and the exhibition also formed the backdrop for a new youth series transmitted by the AVRO broadcasting company entitled 2012: year zero, which attracted a great deal of publicity. |
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From now on the museum will have a tasteful shop with unusual items from around the world. The collection will be updated each time a new exhibition is opened. Currently there is a wide range of Mexican (Maya), decorative objects and utensils in a variety of price ranges. |
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Opening of the second major exhibition, Sumatra Tercinta - the beloved island seen earlier this year in Jakarta. When the Indonesian delegation attended the museum’s celebrations, representatives from the Padang museum were missing because of the earthquake disaster. |
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The Sunday afternoon lecture was given by curator Laura van Broekhoven on the design and implementation of the Maya 2012 exhibition. |
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Curator Matthi Forrer was interviewed by six Japanese newspapers on Volkenkunde’s Japanese Collection. It was possible to add over fifty mirrors from the Edo period to the collection thanks to financial support from the Mondriaan Foundation. |
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The third International Siebold Collection Conference, organised with support from the Toshiba Foundation, placed special emphasis on the life and work of Siebold's assistant Heinrich Bürger. |
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In the autumn holiday for the children there was a cut-out of the Mayan Bonampak temple and a story of the origins of chocolate. After the holidays, during the week, Tibetan nuns made a sand mandala: circular patterns, drawn, painted, sculpted, danced or made of fine sand - grain by grain. |
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A round table discussion was held in Volkenkunde on self-determination in northern Canada following the visit of two Inuit: Pita Aatami, Makivik Corporation President, and his advisor, Jean-François Arteau. Participants included representatives from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the World Wildlife Fund, the Arctic Center and several universities. Various subjects were discussed. |
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Volkenkunde signed a cooperation agreement with the Museo Textil de Oaxaca in Mexico. |
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In the context of the EU project Réseau International des Musées d'Ethnographie (RIME) a seminar was held in Volkenkunde on Object Categories: From First Encounters to Modern Practices. “Old habits die hard” wrote curators Ter Keurs and Broekhoven in their introduction to the day, “but it seems that recently the European way of dealing with ethnographic collections is being challenged”. |
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December |
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Curator Francine Brinkgreve outlined in the Sunday afternoon lecture, entitled The Sultan’s dagger, the legend of an ancient kris, called Si Ginjai. The kris is in the possession of the Museum Nasional in Jakarta, and is currently on display in the Tercinta Sumatra exhibition. |
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Two thousand objects from the Japanese Collection were auctioned, objects with no relevant information, or that have nothing to do with the core collection or do not belong in an ethnological museum. The auction brought in € 43,245, money to be spent to purchase new collection. |
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The Christmas holiday programme followed that of the previous autumn holiday, being mainly dominated by the Mayas: colouring competitions, games, dance workshops and films. The story of the origins of chocolate was also told again. |
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The Leiden museums attracted more visitors last year than the previous year. After mid-October twice as many visitors came to Volkenkunde for the Maya 2012 exhibition as in the same period in 2008. Several other events also attracted a great deal of attention. The tepee will once again be set up next summer in the museum garden. | | | |
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