The alternative universe of the Nordic Heritage Museum is in an old Ballard school. Each Nordic country gets its own classroom for displays of history, including life-size reconstructions of kitchens, bakeries, churches with starchy preacher mannequins, and an early Swedish Hospital room. All this fishing-logging-Viking tradition contrasts with a contemporary exhibition of sleek, smart new creations in furniture, textiles, glassware, and ceramics by 17 Swedish designers—all ladies of a still-rising generation. Some of these designs are so great as to seem naturally occurring. Thrusting an umbrella into a living sponge is, for instance, a poem of a storage system. (Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th St, 798-5707, 10 am–4 pm, $6)
Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male... More by Jen Graves
Whatever happened to Norwegian designers?
Or Danish ones?
@1, pay the museum your entrance fee and maybe they’ll do those exhibits. I’m a member and regular contributor (I take language and woodcarving classes there, so I’m there twice a week during the school year) and the museum could really use support, not some douchebag to criticize what they do without even looking at it.