Eclectic exhibition at Image Factory

The Image Factory in Belize City has earned a reputation as an art gallery of wide ranging tastes. This week that reputation is being bolstered by a show featuring items from two of Belize’s best known collectors.

Jacqueline Woods

Eclectic is the latest exhibition at the Image Factory and as the theme suggests, the show displays a variety of items which date back well back into Belize’s past.

The collection is owned by Father Leonard Dieckman and Meg Craig. Dieckman, a former teacher of Saint John’s College, arrived in Belize as a priest in 1964. He describes himself as a collector of everything imaginable, but a collector who also takes great care to protect his treasures.

Father Leonard Dieckman, Collector

“I collect just about everything and one of the things I collect are snakes and I discovered early on many years ago that all of these specimens are sent abroad and so early on I started to try start to keep materials in this country. Almost all of the stuff on display here is Belizean. I bought a few exotic pieces here. So it has been a drive for me for many years to keep this material and ultimately we can have a museum where it can be permanently displayed.”

The display includes dramatic pieces like a row of human skulls that were found just off the coast of Belize City at Moho Caye.

Father Leonard Dieckman

“So I would collect various things and I would come across these skulls. I really did not know what to do with them, I didn’t want to throw them back in and so I just kept them and Yasser Musa thought it would be a great idea to let the people see them. I can’t really tell you who they were. I am not sure if they were Maya, but Moho Caye was occupied for many years and there was an entry port at the end of the Belize River for the Mayas and others and at one time people lived there and I think it was a prison one time. I think maybe a Yellow Fever place, so there were burials there in any case.”

Both Dieckman and Craig also own an impressive collection of bottles that dates back to the early colonial period. Many of the bottles on display were found following Hurricane Hattie in 1961. The collectors say they have managed to fill the art gallery with pieces they hope will interest the public.

The exhibition opens tonight at the Image Factory on North Front Street.