Exhibitions

This retrospective highlights the artist’s substantial body of work, and includes graphic art, ceramics, theater sets and costumes, ceramics, tapestries, jigsaw puzzles, tiles and textiles gathered from the Museum of Danish America, The Blue House in Denmark and private collectors. 

Photos and scholarly text explain in detail how Roald Amundsen spent his youth preparing for a life in the Polar Regions, his first meeting with the Antarctic, the three years he spent with the Inuit in the Arctic region, and the historic Race for the South Pole from 1910-12.  

Founded in 1951 by visionary designer Armi Ratia and her husband Viljo, Marimekko not only sparked an international revolution in post-WWII pattern and textile production, but also captured a new philosophy based on the power of design in everyday life. 

The Dream of America is the story of immigration told in an exhibit of life-like dioramas.

The Promise of the Northwest includes two galleries that focus on the logging and fishing industries, which employed many immigrants who brought skills learned in the old country. 

The third floor exhibitions illustrate the differences and the common bonds among the Scandinavian people. There is one gallery for each of the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. 

Nordic Heritage Museum presents: Swedish Crime Scenes, a banner exhibition curated and designed by the Swedish Institute in Paris, which “presents 21 Swedish crime fiction authors from a perspective that both gives the audience a good idea of Swedish crime fiction but also effectively presents Swedish geography and landscape.” 

A Norwegian engineer and photographer, Wilse photographed the unprecedented growth and change in Seattle’s history from 1892-1900. 

On assignment from Nordic House in Reykjavik, the artist duo Cooper & Gorfer explore the driving forces of creativity behind the fashion of the Western Nordic region: Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.

The Stockholm-based photographer’s first major museum exhibition on the West Coast features sixteen of her richly-colored, large-format photographs.

This exhibition examines the long-standing partnerships established between Norwegian and US explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

This is the American premier of renowned chef Magnus Nilsson’s traveling exhibit, featuring photographs, stories, and recipes. The exhibition highlights unique Nordic ingredients and examins the rich culinary history and cooking techniques of the Nordic countries. 

A story of rescue and resistance

Flora Metamorphicae explores the complex relationship between nature and culture and is an evolving artistic collaboration where masses of ceramic flowers interact with the surrounding environment.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden share a “spirited” tradition of enjoying beer and aquavit. This exhibition explores the cultural history of these beverages.

The Ivar Haglund Story—Bohemian, entertainer, radio and television personality, restaurateur, entrepreneur-Ivar Haglund was a beloved Seattle personality and regional cultural icon.

Scandinavian Immigrants to North American brought with them the core values of their home countries, including a deep appreciation for education.

The Nordic Heritage Teen Council presents “Boxing up the Past, Packing for the Future”. 

Finland: Designed Environments looks at the explosion of creativity in Finnish design over the last 15 years.

Dual Exposures by Diana Velasco explores two bodies ofwork: the “Portraits” series highlights subjects who have a Danish parent and a non-Danish parent, presented twice in each photograph to illustrate the two cultural and national backgrounds they carry.

A son of Finnish and Swedish immigrants, the Chicago-born commercial artist and painter Warner Sallman (1892-1968) has been cited by the New York Times as one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century.

This interdisciplinary exhibit explores the impact of climate change on West Greenland’s ecology and culture through the work of three women: marine mammal biologist Dr. Kristin Laidre, expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin, and Finnish photographer Tiina Itkonen.