The Natural History Museum of Denmark receives DKK 166 million for new exhibitions

Action is needed now to readjust Earth’s future towards a positive outcome. This requires that the finest understanding about nature and the climate is accessible to all. This is why museums of natural history have never been more important. With its collections, research, and location in the Botanical Gardens of Copenhagen, the Natural History Museum of Denmark has a completely unique position to bring alive and pass on important information about our planet and the importance of the climate for all life on Earth. This position is now strengthened considerably with the coming new building in the Botanical Garden and this donation that securing exhibitions for the new museum.

- We have in recent years experienced great fluctuations in weather. From a wet and cold summer last year to this summer's extreme heat and drought and many people have now truly woken up to the fact that man-made climate change is a reality. But how do we deal with this? At the Natural History Museum of Denmark we want to be at the forefront and ensure that science is democratized in order for important knowledge to be made available to all. With this substantial and very generous donation from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, we have now been given the opportunity of a lifetime to do exactly that at the new museum. The exhibits will not only be inspirational, engaging and arouse curiosity, but also help visitors actively to take a stand on the big and important questions about nature and not least our own role, says museum director Peter C. Kjærgaard.

The donation is also a joy for the chairman of the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla.

- A museum is a free space and at the same time an educational place. An inspiring visit to a museum as a child is often something that you remember well into your adult life. In a manner of speaking, the meeting between unique objects and inspiring exhibitions will be part of shaping both our present and our future. Thus, I'm happy that the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation are part of realizing the strong vision of the new Natural History Museum of Denmark, says Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla.

International collaboration

When the new Natural History Museum of Denmark opens its doors to the public in 2022, it will be with all new, permanent exhibits. The Dutch company Tinker Imagineers will be developing the new exhibition design in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Denmark, responsible for the scientific perspective. Tinker Imagineers have been selected as the winner of an international competition held by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation with participation from a number of the world's leading exhibition design companies.

- We will set new standards for what a natural history museum is and can be. Our national history collection with unique objects from all over the world will be put in play in challenging and exciting ways. We will lift the new exhibits to a level where we can measure up to the best in the world. This requires that we have a professional and visionary team to help us with this task, says Head of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience at the Natural History Museum of Denmark Juliette M. Fritsch and elaborates:

- To develop new exhibits for an all new museum is a complex and extensive job. We have with Tinker Imagineers found the perfect collaborator with both experience and capacity to be up for the challenge, who can think creatively and understand that the visitors should be at the centre of the experience.

In Denmark, Tinker Imagineers are known for having designed the exhibits at the award-winning new Tirpitz museum in Blåvand.

Our Planet

The focal point of the exhibits at the new Natural History Museum of Denmark will be Our Planet with the Earth's compelling 4.5 billion years of history and man's own relationship with the planet. Specifically, the new exhibits are to be built on seven themes that will be communicated through a multiple exhibition narratives and experiences for visitors. In the exhibitions, unique objects from the impressive national natural history collection of about 14 million objects will be included.

The seven themes are:

Our home in the universe
Here, visitors will experience Earth in a very large perspective as a living, green and blue planet in the Solar System in an infinite universe.

Our living planet
The Earth is one big, cohesive dynamic system where life, forces of geology and the climate together have formed and are still developing our planet.

Waves of life
This is a tribute to the biodiversity of the Earth and a reminder about the frailty of life. Our planet has been struck by mass extinction five time followed by explosions of life. We are now in the middle of the sixth mass extinction but also facing the possibility of changing this development.

Humans
Here, we will focus on the extensive history of humans’ relationship with the planet in the past, present and future.

Oceans
Under the sea, an incredible world full of life magically appears. But it is also a world that is much more at risk than we have previously thought, so it is important to do what we can to preserve it.

The Arctic
The Arctic works as a sensitive instrument to gauge the health of the planet. Based on the extensive arctic collections of the museum, we tell the story of the beautiful and fragile nature where the role of man is all-important in determining the future.

Nordic nature
Nordic nature is something alltogether special. Here the history will be told in a new and vibrant way that will open up the eyes of visitors to the immediate world around us.

Facts

• The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation supports the permanent exhibits at the new Natural History Museum of Denmark with DKK 166 million. With the donation the main part of the exhibits are secured.
• The permanent exhibits at the new Natural History Museum of Denmark amount to about 4,900 m2 net. To this comes an area for temporary exhibitions of about 650 m2 net and the Ocean Hall of about 650 m2 net. The total exhibition area of the new building will amount to about 6,200 m2 net.
• The new museum consists of a new building as well conversion and renovation of a number of existing buildings.
• The donation from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation is conditional upon that the building is constructed as planned.
• The museum will be located in the Botanical Garden of Copenhagen and is expected to open to the public in 2022.