Columbia University and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam present a lecture by Dr. Valika Smeulders about changing museum narratives in the Netherlands. This talk coincides with the Rijksmuseums exhibition ““Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery,” that will be featured at the UN from March 27 -30. Register for the event here.
February 24, 2023; 12:00pm -1:30pm EST.
Room 612, Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia University.
About the Lecture
In 2021, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam presented its first exhibition on slavery, freedom and the significance of the colonial past for our present. At its announcement in 2017 the exhibition was seen as highly controversial. This year, the Netherlands is commemorating 160 years of abolition. The commemoration was set in motion with an official apology by the Dutch state for its involvement in the colonial system. How are museum narratives changing in the Netherlands, and what is next on our agenda?
About the Speaker
Dr. Valika Smeulders is head of the Department of History of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. She specializes in the colonial past and its representation, museum collections, their social relevance, and restitution policy. She has published on the Dutch slavery past in the Netherlands, the Dutch Caribbean, Ghana, South Africa and on Caribbean heritage in Dutch museums. She was a member of the UNESCO Memory of the World Committee in the Netherlands, of the Dutch advisory commission on policy for colonial collections and is currently a member of the research commission for colonial heritage in the Dutch royal collections.