To call art museum Louisiana one of Denmark’s top visited attractions might seem like an oversell, but it’s not uncommon to see lines of visitors outside the building waiting for it to open (along with a flock of people trailing along the road from the nearby train station).
The Children's Wing of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art spans three floors. — Photo courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
And while many art museums seem to add children’s activities as a kind of afterthought, at Louisiana, the Children’s Wing is an important and well-integrated part of the museum whole. Families with young children planning a visit to Denmark’s largest museum of contemporary art can rest assured that even younger visitors will not be bored.
Over three floors and a total area of more than 5,000 sq.feet, the museum offers a wide range of activities for creative children, many of which relate directly to the exhibitions. Dads get completely engrossed in the Lego room, while sticking, cutting and building your own architectural miniatures from balsam wood and cardboard is another hit.
There is tea, coffee and juice for a small charge, as well as toilets and washbasins, but what makes the Children’s Wing particularly good value for money is that children up to the age of 18 have free admission to Louisiana, and there is no extra charge to visit the Children’s Wing, which operates on a drop-in basis.
In the Children’s Wing, it’s also possible for kids to borrow a ‘detective’ suitcase to take around the current main exhibition, encouraging them to answer questions and make sketches. Right now this means a tour of “Self Portrait”, a huge, wide-ranging exhibition incorporating everyone from Chagall to Cindy Sherman. Along with the familiar names there are plenty of less familiar ones, as Louisiana is truly international in its perspective, meaning it’s not only US and UK artists on display here. “Self-Portrait” is on display at Louisiana until January 13, 2013.
