The National Gallery's contribution to the festival this year are two exhibitions featuring works by renowned Icelandic artists shown alongside works by students of different levels, as well as art and science workshops about glaciers in Icelandic art.
Ísabrot – Glaciers in Icelandic Art
Students of all educational levels – from kindergarten to secondary schools throughout Iceland –show the results of their research and art projects in a momentous exhibition at the National Gallery of Iceland in connection with the Children's Culture Festival.
Over the past school year, the students worked with both artists and specialists from the National Gallery of Iceland to conduct research on glaciers in nature and in Icelandic art. The results demonstrate the creativity and engagement of this interdisciplinary approach. The exhibition is on view in the House of Collections and is open to the public during the museum’s opening hours.
Ísabrot: Glaciers in Icelandic Art is a comprehensive project organized in a collaboration between the museum, artists, and schools. The project is supported by the Children's Culture Fund.
Artists and workshop titles:
Ellen Gunnarsdóttir – What if the glaciers could talk?
Linda Ólafsdóttir – What can be hidden in a glacier?
Guðrún Gunnarsdóttir – Form and texture of glaciers
Anna Júlía Friðbjörnsdóttir – Message from space
Þórður Hall – World of colours
Úlfur Hansson – The sound of a glacier
Þorsteinn Eyfjörð –The movement of glaciers
Rósa Sigrún Jónsdóttir – Glaciers and plants
Jóní Jóns – The glacier in Performance art
Participating schools:
Grunnskóli Hornafjarðar
Grunnskólinn í Snæfellsbæ
Hagaskóli
Landakotsskóli
Leikskólinn Laufásborg
Menntaskóli Borgarfjarðar
Menntaskólinn á Egilsstöðum
Vesturbæjarskóli
Vogaskóli
Víkurskóli
During the Children's Culture Festival, adults accompanied by children get free entrance to all exhibitions at The National Gallery of Iceland
Birch trees in the work of Ásgrímur Jónsson
This exhibition features the works and finds of preschool and elementary students who attended birchtree-related art workshops. They were influenced by the artworks of Ásgrímur Jónsson, who made birch trees a subject on his travels around the country. Fridrik Aspelund and Ásthildur Jónsdóttir held the workshops with the children in last December, which focused on sanctuaries in nature and the use of color as the main subjects. The students also received education about birch trees and birch forests in Iceland. The birch is the country’s only indigenous tree. At the time of settlement, it is estimated that up to a third of Iceland was covered with birch forest. Students discussed why the trees disappeared and why the growth pattern of birch forests has changed since then.
Teachers: Ásthildur Jónsdóttir and Friðrik Aspelund
Hjörný Snorradóttir
Sesselja Tómasdóttir
Ása Hlín Svavarsdóttir
Magnea Guðrún Gunnarsdóttir
Sigga Ósk
Participating schools:
Hagaskóli
Húsaskóli
Múlaborg
Ævintýraborg
Waldorfskólinn Sólstafir