Today is a day of mixed feelings! It is the last day of the American Quilt exhibition. We will take everything down tomorrow. The Gallery will be cleaned and we will then start putting up the next exhibition. A sad, yet exciting phase, as we say good-bye to a popular display, and build up something new.
Preparing the exhibition Textile Tales of the Second World War, TRC Leiden. Photograph by author.
It is also a time to ponder on the 'fate' of the quilt exhibition, since it was closely linked to the spread of the corona virus. The exhibition was opened on 5th February by Marja Verloop, the depuy Chief-of-Mission of the American Embassy in The Hague. Lots of activities were planned, including lectures, workshops, quilt identification days, even a quilting week in May as part of the large Textile Festival held every five years in Leiden.
Then a month later we had to suddenly take the exhibition down (we wrote a blog about this), cancel all the events and close the doors of the TRC to the public. Yet work continued, but only at home or behind locked doors. We wrote numerous textiles blogs, added items to the online catalogue, and prepared the second volume of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery for publication. As times changed, it was decided to put the exhibition back up and re-open the TRC on the 2nd June. The TRC events diary was put online and things started to look much rosier!
The new exhibition, called Textile Tales of the Second World War, started off as a small, one showcase idea, or possibly 'just' a digital exhibition. It grew and then doubled in size and scope with the joining of the European Mennonite community and the planned display of Mennonite relief quilts from just after the war. Then over the last few months the TRC side of the exhibition has been further increased to over 125 objects. This is thanks to the help of Mw Bonte, whose family kept many items from this era, from a sewing machine to flags hung out of their window to celebrate the arrival of Canadian troops in Leiden.
Mannequins dressed with 1930s and 1940s clothing, to be displayed at the Textile Tales of the Second World War exhibition, TRC Leiden, Sept. - Dec. 2020. Photograph by author.
Photographs of objects for the exhibition have already been taken by Joost Kolkman. A digital exibition is being prepared. The textboards are ready, and the mannequins have been dressed with 1930s and 1940s clothing for display.
Today we have been labelling, numbering and generally organising the dressed mannequins and panels that are ready for being placed and hung up in order to tell the story of World War Two through textiles, clothing, quilts and related items. It is an intriguing exhibition that will trigger both positive and negative emotions!
But will this exhibition also reflect the developing events in the latter half of 2020? We will just have to wait and see.
Gillian Vogelsang, Thursday 27th August 2020
