Newsletter 2013 Lily Foundation
Dear friends,
It has been a while since you received our last newsletter. In the meantime we have not sat still: we have established contacts with museums at home and abroad, we have digitalized the collection and we have organized exhibitions. However, before going into further detail, we wish to inform you that Frieda Stegeman has decided to step down as board member of the Lily Foundation. With enthusiasm and commitment Frieda has devoted thirty years to both Lily and the Lily Foundation – many years as its excellent secretary – but at this stage of life she feels she needs to scale down her responsibilities. Frieda looks back at valuable years with the Foundation with as a highlight an exhibition of 36 Lily portraits of Tibetans at the Alexandra David-Neel Museum in Digne-les-Bains, France (summer of 1998). We are very grateful to Frieda for her enormous contributions to the Lily Foundation and we will miss her greatly. Yet, even though she resigns as board member, she will stay connected to the Foundation as an involved friend.
EXHIBITIONS
Museum of Ethnography (`Museum Volkenkunde’), Leiden, the Netherlands
The Exhibition LILY EVERSDIJK SMULDERS AND THE INUIT at the Museum of Ethnography in Leiden was well received. While originally planned from May 2008 until January 2009, it was extended until October 2010. We were glad to greet many friends at our `Friends Event’ at the museum in July 2008, at which time Ella Andriesse and Cassandra Carmio held powerpoint presentations about Lily’s travels to Canada’s Northern Territories and her encounters with the Inuit. In April 2010 they were invited to repeat these presentations for the Friends of the Museum of Ethnography in Leiden.
The Museum of Ethnography has expressed interest in a new exhibition of Lily portraits, but due to recent renovations at the museum, such as the reopening of the Indonesia Hall, these plans have not yet taken shape.
Siebold Huis, Leiden:
We are pleased to inform you that the Siebold Huis in Leiden has exhibited 15 Japanese portraits by Lily this summer (from June 13th through August 25th, 2013), together with various items she brought back from her stay in Japan in 1937. The Siebold Huis is dedicated to Philipp von Siebold (1796-1866), who was in the service of the Dutch Government as a physician on the Japanese island of Decima from 1823 until 1829. During those years von Siebold put together a large collection of Japanese objects, which are displayed at the museum and he collected important environmental data about Japan. The Lily exhibition will coincide with the exhibition `Het snoer der ontferming, Louis Couperus in Japan.’ (`the Chain of Mercy, Louis Couperus in Japan’) at the Siebold Huis. The Dutch writer, Louis Couperus (1863-1923) and Lily Eversdijk Smulders (1903-1994) had both travelled widely and spent half a year in pre-WW II Japan: Lily visited Japan 15 years later than Couperus, but both of them were in Japan from early spring until late October.
PHOTO ARCHIVE
After having digitalized all the Lily portraits in our collection (over 1000), we have also completed the digitalization of her 1229 slides. Many of these slides, which she made during her travels, are of particular historical interest. Our next project is the scanning of her negatives, some 2000 in total. In due time all of this material will be accessible via our website and Lily’s work will thus be available to new generations.
The Board of the Lily Foundation
Ella Andriesse – President
Marijke Besselink – Secretary
Mildred van Dijk – Treasurer
Cassandra Carmio – Member