From decorative arts student in Leiden to curator at the biggest museum in New York
How does a Leiden alumnus end up working at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)? In the case of Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, it was partly down to chance, luck, fate. But that was preceded by a unique degree in decorative arts in Leiden.
‘Don’t say how long I’ve been working at The Met’, says Kisluk-Grosheide. Smiling, she compares herself with a dinosaur. This is modesty talking rather than shame.
Link in a chain
‘I work with objects that can be up to 400 years old. I see myself as a link in a chain. There were links before me and there will be people after me who continue my work. We are standing on each other’s shoulders; we are adding to the story about artworks and passing it on.’
From her New York office at The Met, she eagerly answers questions about her studies in Leiden (1980-1983) and her life afterwards. The office wall is decorated with wallpaper that was used in an exhibition and in the background are low bookcases crammed with books.
Commute through Central Park
Kisluk-Grosheide’s working day has just begun, a day that starts every morning with a walk through Central Park: from her apartment on the Upper West Side to the Upper East Side where The Met has been located since 1879.
The walk to and from work is the only constant in her job as a curator of French and Dutch decorative arts at the museum. One day she can be giving a guided tour and the next doing research or writing a publication. Today she is planning a new ‘Dutch room’.
Dutch room in The Met
‘We’ve got a stunning Van Mekeren cabinet, some lovely glass and silver from the Netherlands and Delftware and I’m also working on a few acquisitions’, she says. In the new room she wants to tell visitors about factors that allowed art to flourish in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. Conflicts such as the bloody persecution of French Protestants (Huguenots) brought many artists and craftspeople to the Netherlands from other countries. Techniques and materials were combined to produce new forms of decorative art.
Decorative arts is the collective name for objects with artistic value, special furniture, for example, or glass, silver and ceramics.
Decorative arts degree
Although she never lived in Leiden (Amsterdam was too appealing) she has fond memories of her degree in decorative arts in Leiden, where she studied under professors Lunsingh Scheurleer and Fock.
Houses on Rapenburg
‘During my studies I worked on a historical study of houses on the Rapenburg. We visited three houses and met the current residents, some of whom were students and others emeritus professors. Based on our research in the land registry, population records and the Leiden archive, we found out who had lived in the houses and what the houses used to look like inside and out. It resulted in a nice collection of stories: Het Rapenburg. Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht.’
‘Alongside the theory, it was essentially a really practical degree and I still benefit from it now’
Kisluk-Grosheide did something similar for Protestant churches in the Leiden area. She and her fellow students made an inventory of the churches: what silverware, wood carvings, psalm boards and other artworks were present? ‘We described, photographed and measured all the works and searched the church archives for receipts. In the event of theft, all the objects were now documented. Alongside the theory, it was essentially a very practical degree and I still benefit from it now.’
New life in New York
‘Pure chance’ is how she ended up starting a new chapter in her life in New York soon after graduating. In her last year in Leiden, she went on an exchange in America where she lived with a family in Upstate New York. Shortly before returning to the Netherlands, she decided to visit the city itself, especially all the museums there. During a visit to The MET she heard people speaking Dutch and they proved to be students she vaguely knew from Amsterdam. She got talking to them and they invited her to visit the Frick collection with them the next day.
‘I never saw those students again and they will never know how they caused my life to take a completely different turn. I was waiting for them in the museum when I got talking to a lovely man who had seen me pacing back and forth at the entrance. I felt an immediate click with my future husband, Eugene Kisluk. I returned to the Netherlands to finish my degree but I wanted to know if it was more than a summer romance – and it was.’
'What about a job here?'
With a degree but no job, she moved to New York. ‘I wrote a letter to the department at The Met where I still work now. They were interested in someone with knowledge of the decorative arts, so I could start working there as a volunteer. When they realised I was getting married and would not be leaving New York, they said: “What about a job here?” and that’s how it all started.’
European in New York
Despite her husband’s death in 2018 – a visible loss – she is not thinking of returning to the Netherlands anytime soon. ‘I am and always will be a European but New York has so much to offer in terms of art and culture, and my son lives here as do my many friends. I do return every year, in March, for example, for the TEFAF in Maastricht. It’s important to set foot in your own country every now and then.’
Text: Tim Senden
Main photo: Eileen Travell