Oct 17, 2024        Colchester, University of Essex to see Gisselle Giron

The University of Essex in Colchester has five 1001 paintings in the book.  We had seen one at exhibition in 2014.  I had contacted the University weeks before our trip to see if the other paintings would be on display.  I learned that two of the five paintings in the book were actually in private collections.  The book was written when these two private collection paintings were on display in at exhibition at ESCALA.  So we may have to go back if these two paintings are ever on display in another exhibition.   I had contacted the Assistant Curator of ESCALA and the University Arts Collection, Professor Giron, a month or so before our trip.  ESCALA is the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America.  She was more than welcoming, she was eager for us to see some of the collection, and our two 1001 paintings.  The 1001 paintings would not be on display, but we could see them in storage.  We made plans to visit the University of Essex in Colchester on Oct 17^th. 

It would take us about an hour and 45 minutes to get from our hotel to the University.  It was a relatively east trip: a 10 minute walk to a tube station, an 11 minute/5 stop ride on the tube, a 1 min walk to the Liverpool Street train station, a 47 minute 2 stop train ride to the Colchester train station, then a 20-25 minute bus ride to the bus stop at the University of Essex, then a short walk to meet our Professor.  Well it wasn’t too short.  We/I missed the sign as we walked from the bus stop to the campus that said take the stairs up to the campus.  The result was that we walked on the lower service drive “under” the campus.  It probably helped us get directly to the building where we were to meet Professor Giron.  I’m writing this in our condo that is torn up, because we are having ALL of the flooring replaced, and that is why you are getting the complete/boring description of this day’s trip. 

Professor Giron met us in the lobby of the ESCALA.  She was very welcoming, and eager to show us our two paintings, and some of the other ESCALA works.  She showed us some of the art works that were on display in her building.  Then we went down to the storage area to see our paintings.  The Professor showed us other works, including copies of two Mayan lintels that are in the book “A History of the World in 100 Objects”.  These two object are at the British Museum, and we had seen them before.  We began looking for these objects at the British Museum on our last visit to London in 2018, when we saw 56 of the items in the book.

(I’m jumping the gun, but after a 3^rd visit to the British Museum on 10/18/24, we have now seen 66/100 objects. If you go back to the 10/07/24 British Museum album you will see all of the 100 items we saw on this trip) 

After we were done in the storage area, Professor Giron walked us back to where we could see the bus stop for our ride to the Colchester train station.  We thanked her for all of her help, and we walked the short distance to the bus stop.  The bus was very late, but we made it on time to catch our train back to London.  It was a very pleasant and successful day.

2024 10 17 Univ of Exxes