A large grant for the expansion of Bornholm Art Museum in an international cooperation
VILLUM FONDEN has granted over 45 million DKK for the expansion of Bornholm Art Museum with a focus on the part of the new museum, which will convey daylight and light art.
"We are one big step closer to realizing a new fantastic museum center with this large grant from VILLUM FONDEN," says chairman of Bornholm Museum Association Christina Dideriksen.
Lars Hansen, director of VILLUM FONDEN says, "With this grant we hope to help create a new and iconic museum, where among other things the visitors may experience light disseminated in unique ways. Daylight, artificial light and light in general plays a vital role in our lives in so many ways, and we look forward to following the project".
Bornholm Art Museum and Bornholm Museum are owned and run by Bornholm Museum Association.
From the beginning in 1896 the museums shared buildings until 1993, where Bornholm Art Museum moved into new buildings at the Sanctuary Cliffs north of Gudhjem.
For several years Bornholm Art Museum has worked to develop and realize the idea of a Light Museum, where especially the significance of daylight and artists´ work with light can be communicated.
In the same period, Bornholm Museum worked to improve the framework of the building, which is completely inadequate in the current building from 1920 in Rønne.
At the same time, the two museums wanted to rethink the function of museums and work across institutional boundaries through the creation of common facilities, where the visitors can meet in a new and more accommodating way.
The planned construction includes an app. 3000m2 large extension to the existing art museum including the Light Museum, a new large fare free foyer area with auditorium, a gift shop, cafe´ etc., named Museum +. On the lower floors, there will be a new exhibition space for cultural history.
Lars Kærulf Møller, director for Bornholm Art Museum is very excited and grateful, “With this grant we are now close to being able to initiate the process of construction. It is the fulfillment of a nearly lifelong dream to “finalize” the building at the Sanctuary Cliffs and to have the opportunity to disseminate that one element; the light. Light has always been very crucial for the perception of Bornholm and has had an impact on most of the 20th-century art. At the same time it will also be interesting to see the history of art communicated in a broader perspective".
Jacob Bjerring-Hansen, director of Bornholm Museum says, "For many years Bornholm Museum has existed under a structural framework that is completely inadequate for a modern museum with regard to climate and security. With the grants from VILLUM FONDEN, Regionskommunen, Sparekassen Bornholms Fond, Brdr. Larsens Legat and Aase og Ejnar Danielsens Fond, we now have app. 90 million DKK out of the total budget of app. 120 million DKK. Together with Bornholm Art Museum we will be able to create a new and optimal environment leading the museums into the 21st century".
The grant is conditional, the museums must achieve full financing of the total budget of 120 million DKK, and the museums are confident that they will attain the remaining grants before long. The museums will now begin the planning process, the detailed project design, call for tenders and begin construction in 2017.
Director of Bornholm Art Museum Lars Kærulf Møller
Phone: + 45 51 30 43 86
Mail: lkm@bornholms-kunstmuseum.dk
Director for Bornholm Museum Jacob Bjerring-Hansen
Phone: + 45 25 60 11 64
Mail: jbh@bornholmsmuseum.dk
Chairman for Bornholms Museum Association Christina Dideriksen
Phone: + 45 20 49 14 69
Mail: chdn@trafikstyrelsen.dk
