A Morbid Anatomy Museum popup at the Amsterdam’s Anatomy Museum the Museum Vrolik with special back stage tours, a walking tour, lectures, a moulage making class with the incomparable Eleanor Crook, anatomical demonstrations, drinks in the museum, and more!
Dates: Friday, May 15 - Sunday, May 17th
Location: The Vrolik Musuem; Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Admission: Full program: 35 euros (To attend medical wax modeling workshop with Eleanor Crook, add 75 euro)
Tickets: Email [email protected]. Please do not forget to select which part of the program you want to participate in.
The Vrolik-Amsterdam’s anatomical museum-and Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum are proud to present a weekend devoted to anatomy over the weekend of May 16th and 17th, 2015. To celebrate, the Vrolik will be open to the public with a special program of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and exclusive museum and backstage tours showcasing its phenomenal and historical collection of osteology, teratology, natural history and curiosities.
Highlights will include a workshop in wax modeling with sculptor Eleanor Crook in which students will create—and leave with—their own anatomical or dermatological wax model; a city walking tour in which we’ll visit the old anatomical theatre in the ‘Waag’ (Weighing house) and to the Funeral Museum ‘Tot Zover;’ demonstrations of liquid anatomical specimen restoration and skeleton mounting and reconstruction; a museum tour focusing on forensic pathology of the 18th and 19th century Hovius and Vrolik collection; lectures about the amazing Anatomical Venus, the 19th century private Museum Vrolikianum and other private and public anatomical collections and panoptica; and exclusive back stage tours of the Vrolik’s storage rooms.
Workshop medical wax modeling
During the weekend of anatomy, British Wax modeler and sculptor Eleanor Crook will teach two workshops. Crook has created anatomical and pathological waxes for several medical and science museums in Britain (e.g. the Science Museum and the Hunterian Museum), and is artist in residence at Gordon’s Museum at Guy’s Hospital, London. She has led many workshops in wax modeling, and this is her second in the Netherlands. For anyone familiar with the famous anatomical and pathological waxes in Vienna, Paris or Bologna-and who would like to experience the art of wax modeling for him or herself-this workshop offers a unique opportunity. All materials and tools are provided for this workshop, and each student will leave with their own beautiful wax model. New this year is that the participants may choose between either a wax face, a wax hand or a wax male genital to work on.
Demonstration of Skeleton Mounting
In this demonstration, skeleton articulator Lucas Boer will put together a complete animal skeleton from its separate bones, explain the structure and function of these bones, and point out the differences in bone structure in the main groups of vertebrates. Visitors will also be invited to touch the animal bones and skulls.
Wet Specimen Restoration
In this demonstration, anatomical technician and specimen conservator Inge Dijkman will show the ways in which the Vrolik’s century-old collection of wet specimens are maintained and restored. Viewers will see the anatomical specimens removed from their jars, learn about the kind of liquids used for preservation, and witness all the steps needed for the care, upkeep and restoration of these incredible specimens.
Special Tours and Lectures
A series of special lectures will focus on historical aspects of private and public anatomical displays such as those of the anatomical venus and traveling panoptica or the Museum Vrolikianum, the last big private anatomical museum. Expert in the field of forensic pathology Hans de Boer will give special tours showing the historical Vrolik and Hovius collection in a from a traumatological and pathological perspective. There will also be backstage tours to the Museum Vrolik’s storage rooms (not generally accessible to the public).
New this year: Special Trips
New this year will be a walking tour including visits to the “Waag”(Weighing house) building, home of the old anatomical theatre where famous Dutch anatomists such as Fredrik Ruysch once performed dissections. We will also stop at the Funeral Museum “Tot Zover,” a museum focusing on the funerary culture in its widest sense and is located in the beautiful late 19th century Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats (New Eastern cemetery).
Closing event: Spell to Spelling ** Spelling to Spell
The closing event of the Weekend of anatomy will take place at the Stedelijk Museum in the Teijin Auditorium, within the presentation of the exhibition of De Appel arts center Curatorial Programme Spell to Spelling ** Spelling to Spell. The participating artist Christian Fogarolli (It. 1983) has researched in the Storage rooms of the Vrolik Museum together with Laurens de Rooy curator of the Museum, questioning and addressing the connections between art and anatomy.
The event is scheduled at 15.30 and will consist of a discussion between Laurens de Rooy and Joanna Ebenstein, artist and founder and curator of the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn NY. The dialogue will highlight the intersections between art, anatomy and death, in past and present.
15th of May: mini-symposium history of epidemics (in Dutch language only)
The weekend of anatomy is preceded by a mini symposium “Angst voor de epidemie”(Fear of the epidemic), organized by Museum Vrolik and by University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School for Culture and History, research group Medicine & Society. Location: Academic Medical Center.
Location
• Academic Medical Center: Museum Vrolik (ground floor, building section J) and lecture room and dissection rooms of anatomy, second floor, building section L)
• Waag on Nieuwmarkt
• Funeral Museum “Tot Zover”
• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Teijin Auditorium
Saturday May 16th
10:00 - 12:30 Lectures by Tinne Claes and Veronique Deblon (about changes in collecting anatomical preparation around 1860), Laurens de Rooy (about the presentation collection in the 19th century private Museum Vrolikianum), Joanna Ebenstein (about the Anatomical Venus and other amazing anatomical wax models) and Eleanor Crook (about traveling exhibitions of medical waxmodels in Britain).
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch (inclusive)
13:30 - 17:30 Workshops and demonstrations (wax models, mounting skeletons, liquid specimen restoration); museum tour forensic pathology of 18th and 19th-century collections by Dr. Hans de Boer and backstage tour to the Museum Vrolik storage rooms.
From 17:00 Drinks in Museum Vrolik
Sunday May 17th
10:00 - 14:00 Workshop Wax modeling (lunch included) or trips to the old anatomical theatre in the ‘Waag’ (Weighing house) and to the Funeral Museum ‘Tot Zover’
14:30 - 17:00 Closing event Spell to Spelling ** Spelling to Spell in Stedelijk Museum.
Note: Lectures and Wax modeling workshop and closing event in Stedelijk Museum will be in English. The other events (workshops, tours and trips) will be both in English and Dutch.
For those of you who do not wish to participate in the program, but who do want to visit Museum Vrolik during the weekend of May 16-17:
The museum is open on both days from 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is 5 euros. A guided museum tour starts every hour for which no extra costs are charged. Last museum tour starts on exactly 4 pm.
Prices
• Workshop medical wax modeling (Eleanor Crook): 75 euro per workshop (4 hrs)
• Two day program (excl. workshop medical wax modeling): 35 euros
• Program Saturday 16th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modeling; incl. lunch): 25 euros
• Program Sunday 17th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modeling): 15 euros
Tickets: email : [email protected]. Please do not forget to select which part of the program you want to participate in.