In the first two weeks of April 2017, four students from the Aki , two from IKKG, Koblenz , two from London City and Guilds and two exchange students from Trondheim and Riga, took part in an intensive 13-day workshop. The aim was for them to make an ‘Intermediary’, a structure on which to present a piece of glassware from a museum collection – but without them knowing this was what they were doing!
The first day was spent acclimatising, followed by a two-day workshop led by guest artist Sally O’Reilly. At the end of the third day, the students received their individual briefs, comprising photographs of one or more children’s drawings of the glassware and certain dimensional specifications for the final structure. This left fewer than six days in which to produce the Intermediaries.
The students were kept in the dark about the fact that they were making display systems for glassworks in an exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, in the summer. They knew that there was a secret, but had no idea of its nature.
On day 12, Paul Knolle, Head of Collections, visited as an incognito VIP to view the (nearly) finished objects, and to check that they were technically viable. That same afternoon the students visited the museum depot, where everything became clear, and where they could see for the first time the glass pieces that their Intermediaries were to display.
The first day was spent acclimatising, followed by a two-day workshop led by guest artist Sally O’Reilly. At the end of the third day, the students received their individual briefs, comprising photographs of one or more children’s drawings of the glassware and certain dimensional specifications for the final structure. This left fewer than six days in which to produce the Intermediaries.
The students were kept in the dark about the fact that they were making display systems for glassworks in an exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, in the summer. They knew that there was a secret, but had no idea of its nature.
On day 12, Paul Knolle, Head of Collections, visited as an incognito VIP to view the (nearly) finished objects, and to check that they were technically viable. That same afternoon the students visited the museum depot, where everything became clear, and where they could see for the first time the glass pieces that their Intermediaries were to display.