Deze foto mag niet gepubliceerd worden, maar is uitsluitend aangeleverd om een foto te selecteren om een bijgewerkte foto in hogere resolutie op te vragen.
guy@ackermans.net Chef’s Special, a Taste of the Collections is the title of the new exhibition that starts next week. The poster advertising the exhibition shows a table laid for a meal. The six ‘dishes’ are unusual books and artworks from the library’s collection. Chef Anneke Groen sits at the table. She has been the Special Collections curator in charge of WUR’s treasures for a year now.
Groen says the exhibition was designed as a ‘renewed acquaintance’. The collection has largely remained out of sight for the past two years due to Covid. As a result, many new employees and students have no idea of the unusual scientific and cultural heritage that WUR has in house. Groen: ‘I was given the task to make the collection more visible.’
Apple cakes
The chef in the title is Groen. ‘But Special Collections is the real chef. We are serving the dishes as a team of six people. Each person chose one theme, which we use to showcase the collection.’ The themes range from the drawings of the botanical artists who worked for WUR to farm mechanization and the Vroom family of garden designers.
Simply being visible is too passive. I also want the collection to be used a lot more
Anne Groen, curator Special Collections
If you look closely at the poster, you will also see a plate of cakes on the table. The cakes refer to the theme of apple varieties through the centuries. Groen: ‘Lotte Kniest chose that theme. She baked the cakes herself using a recipe from the 18th century. You can see the recipe in the exhibition. It is for a kind of apple fritter.’ WUR has long done a lot of research on new apple varieties.
It is good to be visible, but Groen plans to go further than that. ‘Simply being visible is too passive. I also want the collection to be used a lot more. Special Collections should be about making connections: connecting researchers to the library, connecting students to education, and connecting WUR people to people outside WUR. For example, we are collaborating with the Garden Design and Landscape Architecture group to let first-year students work with the collection next year in their project week.’
Dress
Efforts to increase visibility and make connections extend beyond the physical library. ‘There are alcoves along some of the walls in the Omnia Faculty Club, which we use to display reproductions.’ Groen also wants to use the collection more in events on campus. The biodegradable dress that President of the Executive Board Louise Fresco wore to the Dies Natalis in 2018 is on display in Plus Ultra this week in a StartHub event all about sustainable clothing.
Of course, the use of objects for such purposes requires proper preparation as they are often fragile and valuable, stresses Groen. On that subject: the full wine glasses in the poster are fake. Groen: ‘You can’t have real wine with such old books. The glasses contain a jelly of dark red berries. If a glass did get knocked over, the contents would stay put and not cause any damage.’
The exhibition opening is on Tuesday 12 April for invited guests. They will be shown round the warehouse that recently became the new depot for WUR’s art collection. Tours are also on the programme for the We-Day on 31 May.
Chef’s Special is on display until 30 September. The exhibition can be viewed in the library reading room on workdays from 9:00 to 13:00, and by appointment in the afternoons. Part of the exhibition can be viewed online .