College Loans Wardrobe to Narnia Exhibit
Westmont’s famed C.S. Lewis wardrobe will take a five-year journey with “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition,” a state-of-the-art presentation based on the Disney film series and Lewis’s beloved fictional books. The exhibit, premiering June 7 at Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, features artifacts from Lewis’s personal study as well as the wardrobe.
The 10,000-square-foot educational exhibit escorts guests on a tour of myth, magic and adventure through iconic environments such as the famous attic and wardrobe that served as the portal into the Narnia adventures. It includes authentic costumes, props and set dressings from the films portraying the literary fantasy world of Narnia.
In 1974, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Arthur Lynip and 30 Westmont students studying literature in England learned that the wardrobe was still at The Kilns, C.S. Lewis’s Oxford home. The last remaining piece of Lewis’s furniture in the house closely matches the description in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” of a wardrobe that is “big,” “perfectly ordinary” and “has a looking-glass in the door.”
The unusual size of the wardrobe explains its having been left in The Kilns. After the house was remodeled the 1901 wardrobe was too big to remove from its upstairs room without taking it apart piece by piece. As a result, the wardrobe had not been auctioned with Lewis’s other belongings and seemed destined to be destroyed until Westmont students learned of its existence. Students purchased the wardrobe sight unseen from the new owner of The Kilns, and Dr. Lynip engaged a cabinetmaker to dismantle the wardrobe, crate it, and ship it to Westmont College.
The college, which has displayed this treasure for 34 years in its English department offices, has loaned it to the five-year traveling exhibit. After viewing the wardrobe and other Lewis artifacts, guests will pass through a portal into a wintry Narnian world, complete with falling snow and cold wind. The tour continues through the White Witch’s ice palace, Cair Paravel and additional displays and environments from upcoming films.
In October, the exhibit will move to the Franklin Center in Philadelphia. It is expected to visit about a dozen venues over the next five years, including two or three stops overseas.
The exhibit coincides with the opening of the new film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” More than 500 Westmont alumni and their families will be watching two private screenings of the film Saturday, May 10, in Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo Theater.