Curating the Sacred: Contemporary Complexities of Christian Heritage

What does it entail to be a religious heritage institution in a strongly secularized society? Over the past decades, The Netherlands has seen rapid secularization and de-churching. Recent research shows how more than half of Dutch citizens do not, or no longer, affiliate with a religious institution or tradition. Still, religious – particularly Christian – art, music, and architecture seem more present than ever: in the form of cultural heritage.

For example, while in the late twentieth century, many churches and their interiors were demolished, this tide has turned in part through the involvement of heritage organizations. Christian architecture and objects are increasingly deemed to be of enduring value beyond their immediate religious significance. Rather, the sacred significance of such heritage is interpreted in a wider sense. On the one hand, heritagization efforts aim to do justice to the religious sacred significance of objects and sites for its original users. On the other hand, such efforts move beyond the religious sacred, incorporating other, non-religious sacred values within the perception and presentation of this heritage – not in the least to allow this heritage to survive in a secularizing context.

Through various examples of interaction between religious heritage and artistic practice, this lecture explores how heritage efforts might simultaneously preserve, challenge, and transform the sacred nature of Christian heritage.

Lieke Wijnia (1985) is art historian and religious studies scholar. She gained a BA Humanities at University College Utrecht (Class of 2006), a MA Cultural Heritage at Utrecht University (2007), and a MA History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2008). In 2016 she defended her PhD at Tilburg University, with a thesis on perceptions of the sacred at Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht. Since 2019, she works as curator for Museum Catharijneconvent, where she is responsible for the post-reformation Catholic collections, and modern and contemporary art. The first major exhibition she curated is Mary Magdalene, which opens in June 2021.