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Collections Connect makes its first journey
Museum Maluku has joined forces with Museum Siwa Lima in Ambon for the Collections Connect project. This collaboration focuses on connecting collections, knowledge and creativity. Our director Henry Timisela and the artists, visual storyteller Joao Loupatty and writer Aca Siwabessy Stoffels, recently returned from a short but inspiring trip to Ambon. With that, a fine exchange between the two museums is under way.
Connecting a shared heritage
"Collections Connect is an exchange project by Museum Maluku together with Museum Siwa Lima in Ambon," explains Ebed Litaay, project leader of Collections Connect. "We have signed an agreement to connect collections with one another. What do we have in the Netherlands, what is there in Ambon? We want to map that and bring it closer together." Museum Siwa Lima's focus is on traditional life in the Moluccas, such as fishing and traditional dress, while Museum Maluku concentrates on the Moluccan diaspora since 1951. Collections Connect brings these stories together
The first step: exchanging artists
Besides connecting collections, Collections Connect is also about exchanging artists. "We recently sent two artists, Joao Loupatty and Aca Siwabessy Stoffels, to Ambon," Ebed says. "Their task was above all to gather impressions: to taste the atmosphere, experience the culture." The trip took them to Rutong, a traditional village, and to Museum Siwa Lima, among other places. For Joao it was even his very first visit to Ambon. The inspiration they gained will later become visible in an exhibition presenting their new work. Soon two artists from the Moluccas will come to the Netherlands to do the same: to discover and give shape to the lives and stories of the Moluccan community here.
Learning and growing together
The collaboration offers both museums opportunities to learn from one another. "We help each other with exposure, ways of exhibiting and preserving," Ebed explains. "In the Netherlands we are used to keeping collections at the right temperature, while in Ambon the climate is warm and humid. By exchanging knowledge about such things we hope to protect and present Moluccan heritage even better." In time, Ebed also dreams of exchange exhibitions, with important objects travelling temporarily from the Netherlands to Ambon and the other way round.
A larger purpose
"The finest thing about this project is that you can build bridges," Ebed says. "In Ambon they sometimes look at us here differently, and we have our ideas about them too. Exchange creates more understanding and connection." Ebed also stresses how important it is to keep Moluccan cultural heritage alive. "Our heritage is valuable. By telling stories and exhibiting them, we make sure it endures. Not only for now, but for future generations too."
