Kunstforeningen Gl Strand

Founded by art professor C.W. Eckersberg in 1825 with the goal of raising art awareness, the Kunstforeningen Gl Strand seeks to bridge the gap between the elitist Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the public audience. It thereby created a new agenda for cultural policies in Denmark.

Its primary focus was and still is supporting younger artists and their work; through the years GI Strand has hosted exhibitions by such innovative and world-famous artists in their early formative years as Edvard Munch (1908), Vilhelm Hammershøi (1916) and Asger Jorn (1953).

GI doesn’t have a permanent collection, enabling the gallery to be flexible with its curated shows of five to six major exhibitions of modern and contemporary art annually. By tradition, every graduating class from the Royal Academy of Art are invited to exhibit here, making it the first major exhibitor for many of Denmark’s future art starts, and making it a noted place to keep tabs on the city’s young art scene. Additionally, GI Strand annually holds and art lottery where members can win, by luck of the draw, priceless works of art—many of which were further donated to the collections of major museums worldwide.