Visitors to the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, which reopened in October after a five-year closure for redevelopment, are in for some nice surprises.
A key part of the £100m project has been the reopening of more than 300 windows, the majority of which have been shuttered since the 1930s, which means daylight now streams into the galleries.

There is far more for visitors to see – 5,300 items are on display compared with 1,700 before the museum closed. And a new interpretation plan combines a chronological and thematic approach. The system is designed to be flexible to allow for the displays to be changed quickly and easily.
Attention to detail was a vital part of the project. The restaurant alone had a team of more than 30 designers creating original interiors and bespoke dinnerware.

But one of the most pleasing surprises for visitors will be the free entry to see the permanent collection. The museum previously charged standard entry admission, but the only cost now is for temporary exhibitions. As a result of this, the museum hopes to increase annual visits from 450,000 to at least 800,000.
The redeveloped venue, Sweden’s largest museum of art and design, is part of a wider trend across Europe – the updating of tired 19th-century museums to make them suitable to today’s audiences.

The Nationalmuseum opened in 1866 and was designed by Friedrich August Stüler, a German architect also responsible for the Neues Museum in Berlin.
One of the key aims of the project was to preserve the building’s architectural integrity and heritage, while creating an improved environment for art, exhibitions and visitors. A new colour scheme was inspired by the original 1866 designs.

The Nationalmuseum has a vast collection. Its 700,000 objects comprise paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints from the renaissance to the turn of the 19th century, as well as applied arts and design collections from the present day.

Susanna Pettersson is the director-general of the Nationalmuseum.

What was on the renovation wish list?

Susanna Pettersson: The history of the building is important. The original plans were accepted in 1849 and it was opened in 1866. The main objective was to flood the galleries with daylight. But with the arrival of electricity in 1931, one could look at the paintings and arts and crafts under the glow of lightbulbs. So internal walls began to be built, covering all the windows.
Our wish was to return the building to its original context, reinstating the windows and ushering daylight and colour back into the galleries. We wanted to say goodbye to minimalistic presentation and hello to rich, salon-style displays.

What about technological renovations?

We wanted to update the technology to the best possible specification. In the 19th century the total number of visitors a year would have been 20,000. Today, we expect between 800,000 to a million visitors a year, which requires much more from the building. So our technology must cope with increased visitor flow, humidity and temperatures.
My favourite example is a yellow-walled, 19th-century gallery on the second floor. On the painted ceiling there are sprinklers in the middle of the rosettes, but they are barely visible. This is just one of the innovative approaches that we’ve taken that respects the building’s structure.

What is it like to walk through the redeveloped museum?

It’s like a certain alchemy has occurred. It is a sensation of wonder, pride and curiosity. The museum has been transformed into a “wunderkammer”, or cabinet of curiosities, which travels from the renaissance to the contemporary.
I say wunderkammer because, before the renovation, we could present little more than 1,000 works of art and objects. Now, we can display more than 5,000. The timelines are also inclusive, so there are no separate galleries for Swedish and international art and design. The former is presented in an international context. The combinations of these displays offer previously unseen connections.

Do you have a favourite collection?

We possess the world’s largest collection of portrait miniatures – 5,200 and rising – and it is fantastically exciting. It’s not uncommon to think of miniatures as portraits of people, yet ours include miniatures of a single woman’s eye. It’s hung on a chain, the idea being to wear the eye of your beloved close to your heart. It’s intriguing.

What is the unique selling point of the museum?

We are the leading art and design museum among the Nordic countries. When considering the collections, our approach is deep, rich and playful. One unique element has been turning an entire gallery into a children’s museum called Villa Curiosa. All the Nordic countries are excellent at art education, but to have a children’s museum permanently built into the mothership of the arts is special.

You have a dedicated research department that opened in 1997. What research are you doing?

We are coordinating one research project on female sculptors. Societal structure and legislation allowed female sculptors to pursue their own studies, so there were many excellent ones in the Nordic countries, yet there has been little research looking at their careers and artistic oeuvres. We will work with other national galleries and countries on a larger analysis of this. It is an undiscovered, but exciting area.

Can you define your acquisitions criteria?

That goes hand-in-hand with our research and exhibitions. In the 1980s and 1990s, scholarly interest rose in older female artists and the value of their work, and questioned the location of those works. So with the rise of scholarly interest in female production, there has been a focus on the acquisition of works by women artists and designers.
Everything we do needs to have a connection to the present day. One good example is the Danish golden age – we are going to open an exhibition on that theme next year. This is how we are curating exhibitions and presentations, by providing contemporary perspectives on the past and historical perspectives on the present.

Rebecca Swirsky is a freelance writer

www.nationalmuseum.se

Project data

  • Cost 1.2bn Swedish krona (£100m)
  • Main funder Svenska Fastighetsverket (the national property board)
  • Architects Wingårdhs; Wikerstål Arkitekter
  • Exhibition design Joel Sanders Architect; Henrik Widenheim; Albert France-Lanord
  • Main contractor Skanska
  • Display cases Goppion
  • Interior architecture and design Emma Olbers Design; Louise Midtgaard