Following the yearly tradition of the Museum Night, on Thursday 03.12 the 9 museums of Gent are opening their doors from 18 till 01 o'clock. The entrance is free and each museum is offering various activities, music performances, or new exhibitions. As for example the MIAT with its new exhibition - Amai, email! - Oh my, enamel!
If you say “enamel” today and people immediately think of the enamel advertising sign, but a century ago daily life would have been unimaginable without enamel. Stoves, ovens, kitchenware, sinks, etc. were all given a layer of enamel.
The exhibition provides an introduction to this ingenious technology. Step by step you will see how the poster image for the exhibition becomes an enamelled advertising sign – one made, moreover, in the last enamel company in Belgium. The Belgian enamel industry has its origins in the region around Charleroi. The first enamelling workshops started to appear in Gosselies (Charleroi) around 1830 and similar companies soon followed suit in Brussels and other towns and cities. Market leaders like Saint-Servais, Aubecq, Creuset, Nestor Martin and Emaillerie Belge occupy a special place in the exhibition (source).
Besides the opening of the exhibition, there were some activities in the printing department as well. A few volunteers - me, Marie-Alice, Jo & Arnould were there to demonstrate the printing presses, the typesetting process and answer questions from the public. Me & Marie-Alice where making a forme for cataloging wood type, Jo was printing posters for the public and Arnould even learned how to make little enamel plates, so the visitors could make something of their own. We had a lot of enthusiastic visitors and it was fun!
