Photo by Iwan Baan
HEART- Herning Museum of Contemporary Art
The beating HEART of Herning
HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art arose in the fertile borderlands where art and the business
community meet. The museum was originally instigated and carried forward by the passionate art collector and
shirt manufacturer Aage Damgaard (1917–91), who laid down the foundations of the museum’s collection as a result of his deep
fascination with art and his collaboration with several artists of the age, including world-renowned conceptual artist Piero Manzoni.
HEART was initially known as Herning Kunstmuseum – Herning Art
Museum – and domiciled in Damgaard’s former shirt factory, the circular Angli Building, which is located opposite
the present-day HEART building and next to the Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelt’s Museum. Herning Art
Museum was founded in 1977 when Damgaard donated a large part of his personal art collection to the museum.
In 2009, HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art became the modern art museum we see today. Acclaimed
American architect Steven Holl designed a new building for the Herning Art Museum, inspired by Herning’s rich
local industrial and artistic legacy and by the affectionate nickname often associated with Birk, ‘the white city’.
The shape of the building deliberately evokes associations to draped shirts and trousers, laid on top of each other
around the two ‘treasure chambers’; the exhibition spaces that house HEART’s priceless art collections.
When casting the exterior, the entire façade was carefully shaped to create a surface reminiscent of textiles, and inside, the unique
ceiling is shaped to convey an impression of draped, white canvas. When construction was
complete in 2009, the Herning Art Museum put the finishing touch to its momentous transformation by changing
its name to HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art.
Home to the world’s largest collection of Piero Manzoni’s works, the museum has an overall focus on Danish and
international conceptual and experimental contemporary art from around the 1930s onwards, but also embraces many other
art forms and styles in modern art when staging exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, photography and more.
HEART also houses Ensemble MidtVest, boasting a splendid a concert hall for performances, as well as an
attractive café that offers brunch, coffee, cake, and delicious food, and of course an exciting shop with carefully
curated gift ideas, books, and souvenirs.
For more information on HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art click here.
