From the Earth with Love of Old and New

The long tradition of working both experimentally and traditional with ceramics comes together in Denmark’s CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art a couple of hours from Copenhagen. As it grew out of its old dowager house, a contemporary extension, mostly underground to preserve the historic site, opened in 2015, by Kjaer & Richter collaborating with architect Niels Frithiof Truelsen, landscape by Wad and Henry Jensen A/S engineers. The results are an additional 1 500 m2 space for the museum and unobstructed views of the Lillebalt sound from the sculpture park where a smaller glass and tile clad pavilion surfaces, snuck into the sloping ground, its façade partly made of artisanal tiles from Petersen Tegl.

Championing traditional as well as contemporary practices, CLAY has rooms both for the aptly named The Treasury, a collection of objects from the illustrious Royal Copenhagen manufactories the Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory, Bing & Grøndahl and Aluminia, and for an exhibition program with contemporary artists and ceramicist such as Cathrine Raben Davidsen. The museum was originally founded by a group of ceramicists and is located in an area with a rich history in ceramics and brickwork. Less known than the famous Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, CLAY Museum offers a fresh take on how to experience contemporary creativity and heritage, with architecture and landscaping that merge function harmoniously with nature and a historic site.

(Image: Clay Museum, Pavillion by Kjaer & Richter. Photo: Thomas Mølvig.)

CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art
Middelfart, Denmark
https://claymuseum.dk/en/ @claykeramikmuseumdanmark