Den Gamle By – Danish history en route to the future

Young couples walk around in Den Gamle By (The Old Town) hand in hand while studying furniture and interior design from the Renais-sance, the Baroque period and the Victorian Age. They take in what they see, as they themselves are furnishing their own homes.
Garden enthusiasts note with interest the 19th-century tradition of using sage as a border plant in the vegetable garden. Architectural experts are reassured that whitewashing walls really is both more beautiful and healthier than synthetic emulsion paints.

Meanwhile, other people wrinkle their noses when a kitchen maid anno 1864 offers them a sample of food from the kitchens. But once they taste it, they are pleasantly surprised to discover that cabbage soup is both nourishing and tastes good.

Practical value

Visitors to Den Gamle By can put the history to practical use. And it can also be rather fun! The point is not to establish a museum for the sake of the exhibits or for the sake of history. Because the exhibits are dead, and what has happened is past. No, museums must serve the interests of people, now and in future.

Visiting an open-air museum is in some ways like travelling to a foreign country. You see some-thing different that puts your own everyday life and existence into perspective.

It is almost like going back in time. You do not stand on the outside looking at relics of the past in glass showcases with long explanatory texts. No, you are immersed in the reality of history. And in Den Gamle By you can both smell, taste and interact with history.

Always something new

There is always something happening in Den Gamle By. Houses are being built, new mu-seums established, exhibitions organised, and experiments being carried out into new ways of depicting Danish history.

Den Gamle By has just built Eilschous Boliger, the house where Hans Christian Andersen was introduced to the worlds of literature and cul-ture. In the near future, the Danish Poster Mu-seum will become a part of Den Gamle By. And behind the scenes, Den Gamle By and the Uni-versity of Aarhus are working together to make urban history even more appealing.

Den Gamle By’s biggest investment for many years to come will be constructing a quarter that shows how we have lived and worked until relatively recently. A coffee-roasting business, a hardware store, a corner shop, but a Turkish greengrocer, student digs and perhaps even a porn shop also need to be included.

The museum must appeal to our senses, to our feelings.

Also a business

Quality presupposes a sound economy. And for modern museums, substantial revenues generated by the museum itself are an important financial tool in its development efforts.

This is why Den Gamle By has also established facilities for meetings, conferences and VIP events. For instance, Power Point presentations in Helsingør Theater, a visit to the brewery, appetizers from the current opera season and, finally, a gourmet dinner at the restaurant Prins Ferdinand – all in Den Gamle By.

As cultural businesses the museums are part of the experience economy which is now emerging as one of the largest growth areas worldwide. It is important that the museums themselves are involved in exploiting and developing the new opportunities as and when they arise.