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.