A huipil from San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, 20th century (TRC 2019.1838).The past few weeks have been dedicated to getting the Socks&Stockings exhibition ready for the grand opening on Thursday (5th September). It is a surprising exhibition, full of warmth, colour and so many different techniques. A challenge to lovers of knitting and those who think they know all about hand knitted socks!
At the same time, we have been thinking about the TRC Collection, how to use it and how to further build up the sections on the Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa. Then all of a sudden, literally in the last week or so, we were given a selection of Guatemalan, Mexican and Peruvian textiles and garments from three different sources. We are now thinking about staging an exhibition about these garments and textiles, which will take place in 2021.
Just to give you an idea of what will be happening exhibition-wise at the TRC Leiden over the next few years, the Gallery plans are:
- Autumn 2019: Socks&Stockings
- Spring 2020: 200 years of American Quilts (Leiden Mayflower Year)
- Summer 2020: Textiles, Garments and World War Two
- Autumn 2020: Ties to History: A look at men’s neckwear and its links to historical people and events
- Spring 2021: The Huipil: An essential Middle and South American garment with many facets
- Autumn 2021 2000 years of Asian influences on Western textiles (an extended version of a pop-up exhibition held in the summer of 2019).
The vast majority of the objects in all of these exhibitions comes from the TRC, so confirming the scope and depth of its encyclopedic textile and dress collection!
