Museums of cultural history and heritage

This distinctive storage bag from Ammassalik probably dates from around 1900. The sewn-on skin ornament inspired the logo used by Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu/Greenland National Museum & Archives since 1978.
WERNER FORMAN/RITZAU SCANPIX, 2011

Most main towns and some settlements have museums of cultural history. In addition to the Greenland National Museum, there are 23 museums along the coast, including two art museums. Most of the local museums are staffed by a museum manager and assisted by a few other employees.

Local museums

A predominant part of the local museums have been established on the initiative of the townspeople – out of a desire to preserve, disseminate and collect artefacts. The museums are often located in the old part of the town and are housed in former churches, colony manager residences and other historic buildings. Listet below are some of the local museums in Greenland.

Other local museums

Visitors to the Nuuk Art Museum explore an exhibition of works by members of KIMIK, the Association of Artists in Greenland. Located in a former church, the museum has permanent and temporary exhibitions.
REBECCA GUSTAFSSON/VISIT GREENLAND, 2016

Narsarsuaq Museum was founded in 1991 by local forces and an airport service that provided a building. The original collection consisted of a series of documents and photos from the Americans’ time at the Bluie West One airbase as well as items from the same period. Since its opening, material has been continuously collected which illustrates the history of the airport, and the emphasis has also been the Norse settlement in South Greenland.

The Ittoqqortoormiit Museum opened as a museum on September 4, 1997 but has never had an actual museum manager. In 1995, the Home Rule transferred the former office of Greenland Technical Organisation (GTO) to Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality. Changing employees from the municipality administration are in charge of the duties at the museum. From the beginning, the exhibitions have included furniture from a home in the settlement of Ittaajimmiit, photos from the first year of the town, as well as paintings made by the first doctor.

In Kulusuk, a private initiative has turned into a good attraction for both the place’s own residents and guests. The museum is founded by and is based on a private collection. In 2012, a small building was restored and used as a museum, and it is still in this building you can see the collections of a family.

Art museums

Ilulissat Art Museum was opened as a museum in 1995 in the old colony manager’s residence from 1923. The building, which is listed, was designed by architect Helge Bojsen Møller.
FILIP GIELDA/VISIT GREENLAND, 2019

In addition to Greenland’s largest art museum, the Nuuk Art Museum, there are smaller local art museums in Nuuk and Ilulissat, and in Niels Lynge’s House, many of his paintings are on display.

Ilulissat Art Museum, interior. The art museum has an extensive collection focused on the painter Emanuel A. Petersen, who fell in love with the fascinating light variations of Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay). Today, the museum has a varied art collection, and it has become firmly rooted in the local environment.
FILIP GIELDA/VISIT GREENLAND, 2019

Nuuk Art Museum

Since Svend Junge’s arrival in Greenland in 1959, Svend and Helene Junge purchased art, literature, stamps and more. It was the family’s wish that this collection, which around 2003 was one of the largest private collections of Greenlandic art, should benefit the public. In 2005, they opened a private museum, and in 2006, they donated the collection and exhibition building to the then Nuuk Municipality. Today, Nuuk Art Museum is Greenland’s largest art museum.

The collection at the Nuuk Art Museum includes sculptures, video art, watercolours, drawings, graphics and approximately 500 paintings. Most of the collection is made up of the gift from Svend and Helene Junge, including works by Emanuel A. Petersen as well as figurines made of soapstone, bone, wood and tusk.

New purchases of art were also made, and the museum has works by Pia Arke, Anne-Birthe Hove, Arnannguaq Høegh, Inku Silis-Høgh and many more.

Ilulissat Art Museum

Greenland’s first art museum opened on the 15th of August 1995 in a colony manager’s residence built in 1923. During the first years, the art museum was part of the Ilulissat Museum, from which the art museum took over an art collection with emphasis on the painter Emanuel A. Petersen. In 2004, a museum manager was hired for the art museum and the two museums were separated. Since then, the art museum has gained a strong entrenchment in the local environment; the fascination with early foreign artists has dimmed, and instead more emphasis is placed on contemporary art.

Cultural centres and settlement halls

Most main towns have local settlement halls which are also used for other cultural purposes such as music venues, concert events and theatre. In February 1997, an independent cultural centre opened in Nuuk, Katuaq, which organises art exhibitions, conferences and meetings and concerts with artists from all over Greenland and the Arctic as well as the rest of the Nordic countries.

Taseralik, the cultural centre in Sisimiut, offers many kinds of experiences for everyone in the town, including films and talks, music, theatre and art exhibitions with both professional and popular actors.

The Sermermiut cultural centre in Ilulissat also has varied cultural events.