The farewell coincided with the opening of the exhibition 'Farewell W&N'. This exhibition is on display at the UB until 22 November.
It is exactly sixty years this month since the doors of the building first opened. Soon the first sections of the building will be closed for use due to the upcoming demolition of the W&N building.
Johan Haanstra's family, (former) employees of the science faculty and other interested parties attended the event. University historian Ab Flipse gave a presentation on the history of the building using beautiful archival documents and photographs from the 1950s to the 1980s. Then Eline Bos, curator of Academic Heritage, talked about the creation of the exhibition 'Farewell W&N' with special objects used in the W&N building; from a robotic Warburg device for biochemical research to the many colorful dias from the 1970s. The objects evoked fun memories for many visitors.
Guided tour of mosaics
Curator of Art Wende Wallert took visitors to the W&N building to take a closer look at the mosaics one last time. Two of the seven mosaics will be preserved. The stones from the mosaics to be demolished will be made into a commemorative artwork by artist Janno Hahn. Finally, Diederik Leusink, director of Campus Development, presented Haanstra's family a publication containing photos of the mosaics and the artist. As a surprise, the family announced their intention to donate a work from Johan Haanstra's oeuvre to VU Amsterdam.