Mia Furlong is not a typical lawyer – she works four days a week, so that she has time available to pursue her painting. Artistic expression has always been integrated into her life, whether as a dancer, a poet, or a painter. Her mother is a Danish immigrant, and Mia frequently visits family in Denmark. She credits her Danish heritage for the choices and values in her life, such as keeping room in her life for creative arts. Her work reflects a strong interest in color, geometry, and organic forms such as trees, leaves, and flowers

Created by Peter Wendelboe of Aalborg, Denmark. For a new program, open each day. View past programs by clicking on the past dates. 

In Danish and with English translation.

The exhibit opening corresponds with Julefest. Come and join the fun at the museum, we will have original Danish crafts such as how to make your own Danish Christmas decorations and for the children: Make your own Christmas cards.

To learn more about Julefest click here.

The Kalo Shop was founded by a woman named Clara Barck Welles. She had studied decorative design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When she finished her degree in the year 1900, she found that it was difficult for a woman to be hired by a manufacturing shop – so she started her own. She hired other women as designers, and hired several immigrant craftsmen to execute the designs in silver, copper, and other materials. The Kalo Shop specialized in jewelry and tablewares, all created under the motto, “Beautiful, Useful, and Enduring.” The design and manufacture of Kalo Shop pieces were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, which valued handwork and functional design. Pieces were all made by hand – and often the hammer marks were left on the surface to prove that fact, instead of being finished to a perfectly smooth surface.

Yngve Olsson joined the Kalo Shop around 1920, and became one of its master craftsmen. He was involved in the complete process of the shop, from design to construction to decoration. In fact, decoration was one of his specialties, especially chasing and engraving flowers, leaves, and other natural forms on the surfaces of finished pieces.

This exhibition of “Silverwork by Yngve Olsson” features jewelry pieces, coffee sets, tableware, vases, and other pieces for the home. The exhibit also features many photographs of additional pieces, taken by a nephew who has a professional photography studio. You will also see Yngve Olsson’s tools, design drawings, and unfinished pieces that illustrate the process of shaping and decorating silver.

This exhibition will open on Saturday, August 6, and remain open through January 8, 2012.

Photos courtesy of Russ Olsson of Olsson-Baber Photography, Inc., Skokie, Illinois.

Judges were impressed that the museum has over 3,000 members, a budget of over $1 million and more than 130,000 visiting or participating annually in museum programs and traveling exhibits. “It is a feather in Iowa’s cap to have the national Danish museum in our state,” wrote one grant reviewer.

Endowment Challenge Grants – the newest and largest of the two Iowa Cultural Trust programs – are designed to help small and large non-profit cultural, arts and history organizations increase their endowments for general operating support through a challenge grant process.

Grant recipients are required to raise $3 in new endowment funds in direct response to the challenge grant for every dollar of grant funds awarded. Grants ranged in size from $2,500 to $28,000.
“We are honored to receive this grant from the Iowa Cultural Trust, especially as it is the first year they have been awarded. It is an acknowledgement of the contributions and work of many since the museum’s founding in 1983,” said the museum’s executive director, Dr. John Mark Nielsen. “I am also grateful as it supports the primary effort of our comprehensive campaign, which is to increase our endowment.”

Funds will be awarded to The Danish Immigrant Museum after it has achieved the three-to-one cash match, but no later than two years beyond the date of the award, which begins on March 1, 2011. All matching pledges and gifts must be new during the challenge grant period, and must be received and deposited into the endowment fund during the two-year grant period. The interest from these new endowment and matching funds must be used to support general operating expenses.

The Iowa Legislature created the Iowa Cultural Trust in 2002. Legislation calls for up to $1 million to be appropriated to the Cultural Trust annually. Currently, the funding is appropriated via the Iowa Values Fund. Grants are distributed from interest earned on principal.

Museum staff is planning a special endowment campaign that will be announced following the February Board of Directors’ meeting to be held in Chandler, Arizona from February 10th-12th.
If you would like more information about the grant or how you might contribute to the museum’s endowment, please contact John Mark Nielsen or Bruce Bro at 712-764-7001 or 800-759-9192. To learn more about The Danish Immigrant Museum please visit us at www.danishmuseum.org.

To visit this new resource, click on the "Collections" menu across the top of this page, and select "Sampling the Collection" from the list of options.  If you see an artifact you particularly like, you can instantly post if to your Facebook page, email it to friends, or share it in a whole variety of ways.  

Click here to go directly to the page: Sampling the Collection

"Sampling the Collection" online is made possible by a generous donation from Lissi Vange of Wilmette, Illinois.  

What are the weird, wonderful, and sometimes wacky items in the museum’s collections?  And why does the museum have such a huge variety of artifacts?  Come explore those questions in the new major exhibition, Sampling the Collection, A to Å.  

Dozens of examples of her work will be exhibited at the museum through July 11, 2010.  Her art covers a wide range of subjects and techniques, from paintings of Denmark to wood cuts and fish prints on paper.  The exhibition represents a retrospective of many influences and experiences in Matthies’ life, including extensive travel, a passion for the natural world, and collaborations with writers and other artists.

Matthies has been a lifelong artist and teacher with an artistic career spanning five decades and a teaching career of 30 years.  She states, “I not only enjoy doing my own art, but get an incredible ‘natural high’ from viewing other people’s work, witnessing works in progress, and by being a part of the whole creative world of music, theatre, dance, literature, poetry, sculpture and photography.”  She has taught over 8,000 students ranging in age from five to eighty-five and believes that art is all encompassing. 

Museum visitors can meet the artist in person on Saturday, May 29, when she offers a public gallery talk in conjunction with Elk Horn’s Tivoli Fest activities.  Matthies will also lead a hands-on workshop on Sunday afternoon, May 30.  Please contact the The Danish Immigrant Museum for more information about these unique opportunities.