Danish version /  på dansk

October brings art and activities for visitors of all ages.

18 October is your last chance to experience ’O for Óscar – The Line that Holds the World’, featuring work by Chilean Art Brut artist Óscar Morales Martínez. If you have yet to see the exhibition, we hope you will visit before it closes. You can even make a drawing for Óscar while you are here.

Our third special exhibition of the year opens on 5 November at 5 o’clock pm. ’Kuk kuk, er det mig, der er skør?’ features works by Noah Umur Kanber, a Danish performance and visual artist with roots in Aarhus.

We look forward to welcoming you to Museum Ovartaci this October.

Museum Ovartaci has been nominated for Denmark’s Best Museum 2026 in Opdag Danmark’s nationwide vote. We are delighted and proud to be nominated!

Every day, we work to make the museum a place where art opens new perspectives, challenges prejudice and makes room for the whole person. We hope you will help us reach the top.

Voting is open from 12 to 19 October 2026.

Text MUS 202 to 1214

A vote costs DKK 3 plus your standard text message rate.

Every vote counts, and your support means a great deal to us. Thank you for voting for Museum Ovartaci!

Take your child or grandchild on a journey through Ovartaci’s colourful world. We have packed everything you need for a creative adventure during the autumn holiday.

As you explore the exhibition, you will complete tasks, hunt for details and put your imagination to work. Each activity leads to the next stop. Along the way, you may discover something you would otherwise have missed.

When you arrive, you will receive a travel passport and a creative suitcase to guide you through the exhibition.

So, pack your imagination, grab your paper aeroplane and come along on an adventure in Ovartaci’s world. We look forward to exploring it with you!

Children under 18 enjoy free admission to the museum’s exhibitions when accompanied by an adult.

Bring the children to Museum Ovartaci during the autumn holiday and get creative together in our Children&Youth Atelier. Make colourful creations by wrapping and decorating leaves, then explore the exhibitions and Ovartaci’s imaginative world.

The creative activity is free, and visitors under 18 enjoy free admission to the museum’s exhibitions.

Would you like to share your ideas, have a say and create art and cultural experiences for other young people? Are you aged 18–30?

Then PULS could be for you.

PULS is Museum Ovartaci’s youth council. Your perspective matters here, whether you are interested in art, culture or community, or simply curious about how a museum can become more relevant to young people.

Come to our kick-off meeting on 7 October at 3 pm at Museum Ovartaci to find out more. You do not need any special experience, just the desire to take part.

Interested? Email anne-mette@ovartaci.dk

Join us for an open writing workshop at Museum Ovartaci on Thursday 29 October, 5–8 pm.

Through short writing exercises, we will explore Ovartaci’s art, characters and stories. Everyone is welcome, whether you write poetry or prose regularly or simply feel like trying something new.

Date: Thursday 29 October, 5–8 pm
Place: The studio at Museum Ovartaci
Price: Free with registration

To register, email your name, phone number and the number of participants to event@ovartaci.dk

The workshop will be in Danish.

Drop by KunstLAB on a Wednesday in October and help weave images into wire mesh for a shared work of art. The finished pieces will become part of the fence at the entrance to the new sculpture trail at Vestereng.

Everyone can take part. You do not need any creative experience, and we will help you get started. Feel free to bring a friend, neighbour or colleague.

The project was developed with Aarhus Municipality as part of Imperfect City.

Drop in on:

7 October, 1.30–4 pm
14 October, 10 am–4 pm
21 October, 1.30–4 pm
28 October, 1.30–4 pm

Where: KunstLAB by Kulturhus Bunkeren, Olof Palmes Allé 11, Aarhus N.

Museum Ovartaci is looking for lower secondary school classes to try its new programme, ’The Psychiatrist’s Visions and Patients’ Everyday Lives at Jydske Asyl’, during weeks 40–49 of 2026.

Through historical presentations, activities and discussion, pupils will explore the ideas behind Jydske Asyl, the working conditions of its staff and the everyday lives of its patients. The programme develops their understanding of history, people and the critical use of sources, keeping the person at the centre rather than the diagnosis.

Designed for Years 7–10, the programme is particularly suited to history lessons and can also be used across Danish language and social studies.

The museum visit lasts approximately two hours. A teacher’s guide and suggestions for activities before and after the visit are included.

Would your class like to try the programme? Email boern@ovartaci.dk.

Join a guided tour of the museum’s permanent exhibition on Saturday 7 November.

The tour brings you closer to Ovartaci as a person, artist and patient. Through selected works and objects, you will discover the story of Louis Marcussen, who found his own voice and identity through art during his long stay at the Psychiatric Hospital in Risskov.

Saturday 7 November 2026, 1–2 pm

There are 20 places available on a first-come, first-served basis. Book your ticket here.

The tour will be in Danish.

A new special exhibition opens on Thursday 5 November, bringing together works by Noah Umur Kanber and Ovartaci to explore identity, gender, transformation and life beyond society’s fixed categories.

Noah has created 56 dolls for the exhibition, one for each year Ovartaci spent in hospital. Together with ceramics, copperplate etchings and works on paper, they offer a new response to Ovartaci’s mythological world.

Noah Umur Kanber studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and is known from the fifth season of DR’s Kunstnerkolonien and the current season of TV 2’s Forræder.

’Kuk kuk, er det mig, der er skør?’ will be Noah’s first exhibition at a Danish art museum.

Join us for the opening on Thursday 5 November at 5 pm, when Noah will also give a performance.

During this year’s K7 culture week, Museum Ovartaci welcomed 61% more visitors under 27 than in 2025. This percentage increase was considerably higher than at some of Aarhus’s other leading museums.

The rise reflects our work to welcome young people and gives them a real say through creative activities, communities and our youth council, PULS.

“Young people want to engage with art and culture when they feel it speaks to them and their perspectives are taken seriously. That is why we do more than offer activities for young people: we create the museum together with them,” says museum director Mia Lejsted.

The increase encourages us to continue this work. We want even more young people to experience Museum Ovartaci as a welcoming and relevant place for their perspectives, ideas and communities.

Three works by Lone Pedersen from Museum Ovartaci’s collection were on loan to SPELL at Etablissement d’en face in Brussels.

The works appeared alongside those of Danish and international artists. Organised by the artist-run exhibition space Simian, SPELL explored the relationship between language, power and perception, as well as the rules and systems that shape our reality.

The loan brought works from our collection into an international contemporary art setting and opened up new ways of seeing Lone Pedersen’s art.

SPELL · Etablissement d’en face, Brussels
8 August – 12 September 2026

With an annual pass to Museum Ovartaci, you can explore the art again and again – while becoming part of the community surrounding the museum.

An annual pass gives you free admission to Museum Ovartaci for a full year, allowing you to experience new exhibitions and take part in special events.

As an annual pass holder, you receive:

• Free admission to the museum for one year
• Invitations to exhibition openings
• Invitations to special events
• Reduced prices for selected events
• The opportunity to attend the annual general meeting of the Museum Ovartaci Friends Association

The annual pass costs DKK 325 and is valid for the cardholder plus one guest.

At the same time, you will be supporting Museum Ovartaci and its work with art, cultural history and new perspectives on mental illness and vulnerability.

Treat yourself to a full year of more art, memorable experiences and new perspectives.

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