KULTURNATTEN!: Culture Night in Copenhagen

October 12th was Kulturnatten in Copenhagen - the 20th year that some 250 museums. theaters, libraries, churches, clubs and select businesses across the city have opened their doors to public from 5PM to midnight (or later).  Admission is 90 Danish crowns ( or $15.83 at today's exchange rate) for adults, and free for children. For that price you get a button to wear, a 96 page brochure describing the 970 different "experiences" offered within greater Copenhagen, and a ticket to use until the end of the month for free admission at certain participating museums. Also a free ride on all forms of public transportation all night - even if you are travelling from well outside the city. (In English, see http://www.kulturnatten.dk/en/culture-night)

Kulturnatten is held on the Friday evening before the fall break for all school students, so it kicks off a  week of family activities in town and is terrific advertising for all the amazing museums and cultural sites in Copenhagen.

Fifteen years ago, we had a memorable time with our (then small) children on Kulturnatten, so knew to plan around it. An artist friend from the US was invited to come on that specific weekend, and I read through most of the brochure to come up with a good walking plan. There is so much in central Copenhagen, especially around the Parliament and City Hall, that I have to admit just glancing over the offerings in non-central neighborhoods. Nonetheless, I think we did an admirable job.

Here is what we did, with some asides on things we didn't do.

Copenhagen sky on Kulturnatten 2012, as seen from the Opera House.

It was a cold but dry night with an amazing sky full of cirrus clouds. We took the harbor bus from Nyhavn over to the Opera House at around 4:30, just to get around to the other side of the harbor in a fun way. We peeked into to the windows at the mammoth chandeliers, but did not attend the "sing with the stars" events hosted later on at the Opera House.

From the Opera House, we walked over to the Royal Danish Art Academy/ Schools for Architecture, design and Conservation, and saw an amazing collection of advanced student projects laid out in a big salon, with kids' workshop tables in an adjacent room. I have stopped in here a few times over the years, and there is always high-quality works on view. Memorable displays this time included: a grid of ceramic mushrooms with glaze experiments adorning the hoods; an elegant glass with a wooden bowl fitted to its bottom, forming a sleeve for hot drinks or a bowl for peanuts if you put something else in the glass; a colorful sofa whose modular pillows could be reassembled a dozen ways to make a dozen different sofas; and a remarkable fashion collection that seemed to be made of cut and cleverly braided combinations of industrial fabrics and silk.

Next up was a boat tour of new architecture on the harbor, hosted by the Danish Architecture Center (DAC). The tour was in Danish, so the instruction was lost on my friend, but it was a beautiful time of day (6PM) to see the buildings as the lights came on as well as the many other boats on the harbor.

DAC Harbor tour with Bryggebro (bridge) and Allerhuset (R) lit up.

One activity we witnessed from the boat was "winter bathing" at the Harbor Baths in Islands Brygge - that is, folks in bikinis and bathing suits jumping into the harbor water from a floating dock. Mind you, it was probably 45 degrees at this point and the water was considerably colder, so this was an offering we did not do. Even though it apparently included a sauna.

Once back, we toured the excellent architectural model show in the DAC gallery and took in the related family art projects upstairs. Kids and their parents were building models from dry reeds and pipe-cleaners, cutting bicycle inner tubes and tying them into a webbed city, and building towers with oblong clay bricks and cedar blocks.

Creative kids' activities at DAC, Kulturnatten 2012

After DAC, we walked across the bridge from Christianhavn into the Slotsholmen section of the city which by now was abuzz with bonfires and live music and light shows playing on the facades of many buildings. Right away a pair of friendly greeters invited us into the building(s) housing the Ministries of the Environment, Foodstuffs, Land-use and Fisheries ( which had not been on the list), but which had really interesting informational displays. One display was about how many resources are expended to produce 1 kg of different foods; rice is easy on the planet, butter not so easy. Of particular note was a set of photos showing families from countries around the world - USA, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Peru - posed in front of one week's worth of food. The American family had pizzas and frozen Hot Pockets and all manner of bad food arrayed before them, and we took objection to it, which seemed to amuse some of our Danish co-viewers. Also at this stop we got big colorful bags with partitions for sorting recycling for FREE!

Next up we kinda wandered around the Stock Exchange and Parliament Buildings, where there were all sorts of medieval-style cloth tents selling beer and wine and hearty food. There were long lines to get into Borsen, the old Stock Exchange building with the dragon tail spire, and the longest line was to get into Parliament, where apparently the politicians were on hand to meet and greet. These are things we did not do, Although my Danish husband committed a chunk of his evening waiting on line for tour of the Finance Ministry, which is housed in the oldest administrative building in the city (1715-21) and only open to the public on Kulutrnatten.

Bonfire and culture-hounds on Slotsholmen

What we did do was to drop in on the Tojhusmuseet (Military Museum), which was in between jousting exhibitions, but still a good spot to buy a miniature trebuchet. (Such a great word and perfect for launching small objects over your carrel walls and onto your co-workers). Also checked out the Royal Stables and said hi to the majestic grey Czech horses that pull the royal carriages on ceremonial events. The stalls are built with real marble and faux marbre pillars. Some of the carriages were on view as well, and we saw young women soldiers shovelling royal horse manure.

Royal Stables at Christiansborg 

By now, we were in need of serious refreshment, so we made a serious stop at Kanalcafeen for Danish smorrebrod, beer and snaps. This is a classic cellar restaurant where a lot of politicians meet and greet (and leave a picture on the wall). I have been wanting to visit this restaurant since Sarah Lund ate here in the first season the Danish TV series, the Killing (Forbrydelsen).

Fortified, we pushed on to the National Museum, where a Plains Indian Pow Wow was in progress. Again, I felt slightly embarassed about how Americans are presented to Danish society. I'm pretty sure that a real pow wow is a very serious and sacred thing. There were many 20 "Indians" in full regalia pulling visitors into a dance ring, but maybe 2-3 looked like they had any Indian blood and the rest looked like the type of folks who are into Civil War enactments and volunteer to dress in colonial garb at your local historical society. All fine activities, but not enough to hold us for long on Kulturnatten.

Pow Wow in the foyer of the National Museum

Next up was the Danish Design Center, which was totally packed and between sets of live jazz music. It was too confusing a scene to look at the exhibition, but I did get a bargain (just 50 kroner!) on a really good book about Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen, and a few more of their free postcards.

We proceeded through the busy, music-filled streets to the Copenhagen Firestation, which is a very interesting old building that looks like a medieval Italian fortress. In the courtyard, they had firetrucks and equipment on view. Little boys were sitting behind the wheels of the big trucks while their dads checked out the cool tools and chatted up the firemen.

And on to Copenhagen Cityhall, where the floor of the grand salon was covered with an enormous Tyvek aerial map of the city. As we walked in, friendly greeters gave us a little red sticker that read "We live here" and we searched the map to find our street. This was a fun way to look at the city and involved a lot of bumping into all the other people who were walking around with their heads down.

Oversized aerial map of Copenhagen and my sneakers.

All around the perimeter of the room there were booths set up for all the different offices that make up the Copenhagen Municipality. The Copenhagen Cykel Forbund  was giving out bicycle route maps of the city. Also stopped at the booth for the city's parks, where I got a map of all the playgrounds in the city.

We made one last stop at the little gift shop just inside the door of City Hall, where we had earlier picked up free gift paper with the logo of the city. This place is a real find and has very inexpensive and well-designed wares like messenger bags and umbrellas and water bottles with the city logo. Also free maps and tourist info.

It was getting on 11:30 so we headed out for one last stop at Rundetaarn. For some reason, I decided against walking down the main pedestrian street, Stroget, and chose instead the roughly parallel street, Studiestraede. Here my friend got a full view of Copenhagen youth standing in line for bars while barfing into the shrubbery and picking fights with each other. Not a pretty sight for a mom like me, whose just-turned-18-years-old daughter was at large in the city that evening, but a memorable scene nonetheless. We did not select any bars along this route for our last beer of the evening.

By the time we got to Rundetaarn they were just closing the doors, but our final eyeful of Kulturnatten was the wonderful lightshow playing on the walls of the observatory. This picture doesn't do it justice, but you will have to take my word for it that it was on a par with the evening as a whole.

Light show on the walls of Rundetaarn,  Christian IV's observatory tower.

Museums in Greater Copenhagen - Part 1

I'm a huge fan of museums of all stripes, and Copenhagen has a wealth of great collections for someone like myself, who is pretty much a full-time tourist at the moment. Having worked in art museums, I'm always interested in the practicalities - like label placement, lighting, text length and how they acknowledge and ask for donations. For this account, however, I want to focus on the take-away, or mini-epiphanies in my museum visits. If I learn one interesting thing, or have a brain tremor in front of an amazing work of art, then the visit was worth the time and admission price.

So rather than passing along a more thorough review of all my greater Copenhagen museum visits - when most of these institutions have great websites with professional photos - I thought I'd just pass along basic info and my take-away impressions - such as they are. Also, since I visit museums pretty much on a weekly basis, this installment is Part 1, and just mentions four museums - in no particular order.

Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek (http://www.louisiana.dk)
Even if you didn't go inside and just walked around the grounds of the Louisiana, it'd be worth the train ride from Copenhagen. The former private home is on a bluff overlooking the Oresund, and the lawns are dotted with monumental sculptures by Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet and others. I love the shade garden with whimsical carved stone faces and funny little people by Danish artist Henry Heerup.

Calder "stabile" on the grounds of the Louisiana, Sweden in the background

The permanent collection is amazing, but the highlight for me this fall was a major exhibition about contemporary Nordic architecture. I learned more about projects I have already seen in Denmark, and lengthened my list of buildings to see before I leave.

Major takeaway: In a wonderful short film about architecture and urban life, the narrator convincingly argues that a successful city makes great use of the spaces in between the buildings to create a vibrant street life. The projects he cited included the pedestrian-ization of Broadway in Manhattan and a score of small projects which make great use of alleyways in the city of Melbourne, Australia (World's Most Livable City, 2012).

Kobenhavns Bymuseum/ Copenhagen City Museum, ( http://www.copenhagen.dk )
Besides having what must be the most-coveted web address in town, the Bymuseum has an interesting mix of changing and permanent installations. The museum sits on Vesterbrogade, behind a small scale replica of the city from the 12th century and in among some of the city' most creative new restaurants and boutiques. They also run historical walking tours around town, some in English. Admission is free on Fridays.

A long-term exhibition about immigration and the city begins with a poignant display of what a handful of individuals brought with them in their suitcase when they first moved to Copenhagen, and ends with a thoughtful short film about the Muslim minority in the Norrebro section of town.

What I learned: The king invited Dutch farmers to settle on the flat marshy island of Amager, just south of the city, in order to improve the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to Copenhagen Apparently, the Dutch were well-known for growing high quality vegetables. In the 1970s, a community of Romany also settled on Amager and was ultimately forced out of the vicinity by police.

Danish Design Center (http://www.ddc.dk/)
When this first opened in 2000, I thought it was a bit unnecessary, given the encyclopedic collection of Danish arts and crafts on view at the Dansk Kunstindustrimuseet on Bredgade (sure to turn up in a later post). But I was mistaken about the purpose of the Design Center. There is a concise overview of 20th Danish design in the basement, with a lot of the same type of items (Lego, Arne Jacobsen chairs, Bang & Olufsen stereos) that you might find at the Kunstindustrimusset. It is in the changing exhibitions upstairs, however, that the Design Center keeps the dialogue about good design in Denmark and elsewhere going.

This summer, for example, there was an amazing exhibition about new materials - used in buildings, clothing, commerce, etc.- that address sustainability in some way. There are wall coverings made from recycled materials, or organic materials like fish scales that are otherwise dumped in processing. There were jeans made from fabric that actually cleans the air when the wearer walks around in them, and biodegradable funeral caskets made from densely packed recycled paper. The current show highlights winners of the annual Danish Design Awards - including the wonderful Tower Playground I mentioned in an earlier blog.

The Design Center is right across the street from Tivoli and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in a beautiful building designed by architect Henning Larsen (same firm that designed the Copenhagen Opera House), and has a gift shop with many cool design products and FREE postcards.

Free postcards from International Design prizes at the
Danish Design Center

Takeaway: The reason to buy clothing made from organic cotton and organic dyes is not just so you can feel good about the manufacturing process. When it stops being part of your wardrobe, it will degrade harmlessly - without leaving fibers and dyes in the soil that don't belong there.

Orlogsmuseet,  (http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/)
Orlogsmuseet translates to the National Defense Historical Museum, which makes it sound like the most boring place in the world - but it totally is not! I would never have come here if I hadn't just read Carsten Jensen's wonderful novel, "We, the Drowned," which describes the maritime culture of the Danish town of Marstal on the island of Aero over a 100 year period. So I was primed to learn more about the maritime history of Denmark.

The Orlogmuseet in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen

The Orlogsmuseet focuses on the history of the Danish Navy, (there is a merchant maritime history museum being built in Helsingor right now), and tells the tale through one of the world's largest collections of ship models. Some of the models date back to the 17th century; King Christian IV collected them and commissioned the building of many ships during his reign. Probably everyone knew but me, but ship models are built for patrons of ships, as a guide for those who ultimately build the ships, and enjoy an after-life in naval academies, where cadets practice proper rigging on models. Also on view is the royal barge - a huge and beautifully appointed 18th rowboat for ten oars which the king used to visit ships in the harbor. Admission is free on Wednesdays.

What I learned: Figureheads - the carved figures on the bow of a ship, like the one in the photo above - helped illiterate sailors identify a ship, and hid a little seat that hung out over the waves for sailors at sea to empty their bowels.