The Ballard neighbourhood in north-west Seattle is the unofficial Scandinavian capital of the US, so it is only fitting that a museum devoted to the history of Nordic culture is based there. The $49m (£37.8m) venue opened in May after a 21-month construction period.
For almost 40 years, the old version of the museum sat in a nearby brick schoolhouse. The new venue, which has displays tracing 12,000 years of Nordic and Nordic-American life, is designed by the firm Mithun.
The museum sits just inland from Shilshole Bay, the estuary of Seattle’s historic port leading inland to huge lakes. Indeed, the configuration of water and land is similar to the fjords in Norway.
Perhaps that is why in the early 1900s, one-third of the people moving to the region were of Nordic descent. Eric Nelson, the executive director of the museum, says the cultural ties run deep in the community – even today around 12% of Seattle residents claim Nordic heritage.
Honouring the legacy of immigrants from the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – this museum is an important reminder that the US is indebted to its immigrant populations, both historic and contemporary.
How did the museum come about?
Eric Nelson: There have been numerous attempts to create some form of pan-Nordic museum in Seattle over the past century. Finally, in 1979, grassroots volunteers came together to make the dream a reality. The museum started small, in a former school building, but over time it became a beloved cultural jewel for the region. It has been a long journey, but thanks to the efforts of the community we were able to raise more than $50m to build a new facility in the heart of Seattle’s traditionally Scandinavian neighbourhood.
What can visitors expect to see there?
The core exhibition, Nordic Journeys, traces 12,000 years of Nordic and Nordic-American history and culture, from the stone age through the Viking era and the middle ages, to the first great migrations to the Americas, all the way to the present day. The exhibition is highly interactive and visitors can learn about Nordic values of openness, social justice, innovation, environmental stewardship, and contemporary issues. In our temporary exhibitions gallery, we are currently hosting contemporary Nordic art, developed in collaboration with the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, which runs until 16 September. Then from October to May 2019, we will be hosting an exhibition of early Viking artefacts from Uppsala University in Sweden.
What does your collection hold?
It has more than 77,000 objects, ranging from the stone age and Viking era to the 21st century. A major focus is the great migration from the Nordic
region to the Americas from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, and the items and traditions that people brought with them to maintain their cultural identity. There is a wide range of decorative and folk art, ceramics, textiles, costumes, photographs, books, a 100-year-old Finnish sauna, boats, and about 850 oral-history interviews.
What’s the design of the new building like?
The design is an integral part of the story we are trying to tell. It was done by the Seattle-based firm Mithun, in collaboration with the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa. The design features a soaring three-story “fjord” that runs along the entire length of the building, with narrow bridges across that connect the galleries, symbolising the experience of migration between the Nordic region and Nordic America.
What’s the most innovative aspect of the museum?
Visitors love the Sense of Place gallery, an indoor birch forest where you can sprawl on seats that look like rocks and boulders to watch an immersive video on the physical beauty and harsh climate of the Nordic region. The experience is so powerful that many visitors stay for multiple viewings.
How are you aiming to attract visitors from non-Nordic backgrounds?
We take our mission of sharing Nordic culture with people of all ages and backgrounds seriously, so we offer nearly 150 community programmes every year – from Scandinavian language classes and Lego workshops to Nordic rock concerts, a Viking weekend in the summer and a winter Yulefest – that attract thousands of people from the wider community.
Has the museum been well received so far?
Very much so. We have seen an increase in attendance and memberships, and an extraordinary response from long-time members and first-time visitors. I have seen people speechless – even teary – when they come to the new museum for the first time. That’s an incredibly humbling experience.
In an increasingly xenophobic world, how important is it to have museums such as yours?
In this era of increasing nationalism and self-reinforcing social media networks, museums can play a vital role in reminding people of the bigger picture and pushing back against the notion of us versus them. Our museum looks at issues of cultural identity across many dimensions. We celebrate the benefits of immigration and highlight shared experiences across diverse groups, but we don’t shy away from the challenges Nordic immigrants faced in times gone past or similar issues today.
We are working to provide a more nuanced understanding of the notion of cultural identity. Through our partnerships with other communities across the Pacific Northwest, for example, we are trying to illuminate how Nordic immigrants intertwined with others to create our diverse present-day community.
Do you have a favourite item?
One always makes me chuckle: an ornate bronze incense burner from the National Museum of Denmark, dating back to around 1250AD. On the underside is the inscription “Master Jakob Rufus (Red) made me”. I love thinking of Master Jakob, who could never have imagined that his inscription would be admired so many centuries later.
nordicmuseum.org