Zuiderzee museum Jubileum celebrations end

Exhibitions / Fashion design / Events / Product design

The 60th birthday celebrations of the Zuiderzee Museum have officially come to an end. At the closing event, five new design and art acquisitions were presented for the first time.

By Jeanne Tan / 06-11-2008

The new acquisitions are part of the Zuiderzee Museum's continuing program to contemporize and increase its cultural profile through new Dutch art and design.

The 2008 Jubilee Manifestation of the Zuiderzee Museum was officially concluded on 2 November. The event closed the half-year long celebrations of the museum's 60th birthday and also presented five new additions to their already impressive contemporary art and design collection.

Amongst the new pieces is Table Glass, a collection of six exquisite glass centrepiece objects designed by Amsterdam-based design studio Scholten & Baijings. Made in editions of six, the collection is produced by Royal Leerdam crystal. The glasswork is made from a layer of transparent pink and a layer of white glass which is brought together through an old fashioned glass blowing technique. The Zuiderzee museum acquired the first edition of the series. Also included in the new additions is a glass artwork by Esther Jiskoot entitled Moural (2005) which deals with the relationship between humankind and water and a new jewellery piece by Pauline Wiertz called Feeding the Birds (2005).

In fashion, the most recent acquisition for the museum was seven menswear outfits from the 2008/09 winter collection of Francisco van Benthum. Entitled 'Hope' the collection was inspired by traditional costumes from the Province of Noord-Holland and is also the first collection produced under van Benthum's own name. Five of the outfits are displayed in the current exhibition 'Treasures of the Zuiderzee' in the section 'Men Worth Treasuring' which features fashion items for men (and paintings about) from the museum's own extensive collection. The treasures will be on display from 25 September 2008 until 1 February 2009. The other two pieces from the Francisco van Benthum collection will be on show during the 'Gone with the Wind' exhibition that will run from 22 March to 22 November 2009.

Main image: Table Glass, Scholten & Baijings. Photography: Maarten Pieterse
Image: Hope, Francisco van Benthum, 2008/9. Photography: Erik Hesmerg