ITP 2013: August 25 – Hadeer Belal

A rainy day and it was more like an adventure where it was the first time that we go alone to a museum without a guide or a member of the ITP, but it was a wonderful experience. I went with my colleague Amani from Sudan to Leighton House Museum in 12 Holland Park Road at 10 am.

When you enter you find the bust to the owner of the museum, on the information desk we met Carlos Rincon, the museum administrator. He gave us information about the museum, and most notable that photography is not allowed inside the museum.

This is a private museum, includes paintings of the house owner and some fine art from his friends from all over the world as well as collections from Middle East, Turkey and Syria and Iran.

The museum consists of two floors; the first has four rooms with oil paintings in the drawing room as well as decorative dishes in the dining room and a beautiful hall which is called Arab Hall then the library room that includes books in the field of art, architecture and philosophy. While the second floor, perhaps what impressed me is the studio which includes unfinished paintings and statues at the time of his death.

Finally we talked to Christine, the museum assistant about everything related to the museum in terms of museum display and storage, restoration and fundraising, museum education and security and associated activities in the museum.

Because today is a holiday I decided with my colleagues in the ITP to prepare a party which contains a variety of dishes from Egypt, Sudan, Oman and Libya. It was a great experience which won the admiration of everyone and we spend a wonderful time together.

I would like to thank those who gave me this opportunity to visit different museums and dealing with different nationalities and cultures.