Special Exhibitions
Round Trip To America
October 4 - December 2, 2007
Open 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., Monday through Saturdays, admission is free
Hauge Gallery, Westby-Torgerson Education Center
From the end of the nineteenth century to 1970, thousands of men and women left
Vest-Agder County in southern Norway for the United States. What is unusual
about these emigrants is that many returned, after a few years or sometimes
decades and after one or several stays. They came back to Norway with tons
(literally) of goods, and with memories of new experiences. There are many
traces today of the lively exchange, evident in language, architecture, and
the interior decoration of both rural and urban areas of Vest-Agder. But it
is only a matter of time before many of these remains disappear. With this
in mind, 163 ninth-grade students from Kvinesdal, Lista, Lyngdal, and Marnardal
interviewed, photographed, and wrote about how the contact with America has
left its mark on their hometowns. The results of the project are coming to
Vesterheim in the fall of 2007 as a traveling exhibit titled Round Trip to
America. The exhibit is sponsored by Kate Nelson Rattenborg.
Siv Ringdal, the project leader, will be at Vesterheim to provide special
exhibition programming, including a presentation at the opening of the exhibit
on Thursday,
October 4, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. Ringdal is an ethnologist and native of Lista,
Norway. She says she grew up in the aftermath of the strong contact with America.
When she moved to Oslo in 1997 to attend university, she realized that not
all Norwegians had a similar relationship with America. For example, her
fellow students
did not know what the “trunk” of a car was. Ringdal became interested in investigating
the contact between southern Norway and America, an interest that grew to become
the topic of her master’s degree thesis in ethnology, titled “Screen Doors
and Kitchen Furniture: A Study of the American Lista” [English translation].
Soon after, Pax Forlag published her book Det amerikanske Lista: Med 110 volt i huset, or The American Lista: With 110 Volts in the House. During 2004, Ringdal, through Vest-Agder Fylkesmuseum in Kristiansand, began the project with area ninth-grade students. The students shared the results of their projects during special days at their schools, on a website www.amerikakofferten.no, and through several public exhibitions, including the one that will travel to Vesterheim in 2007.
Round Trip to America will be on view in the Hauge Gallery of Vesterheim’s Westby-Torgerson Education Center from October 4 through December 2, 2007. Exhibition hours are 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Vesterheim is offering a tour to southern Norway in the summer of 2008 so that you can see the Americanized Lista, with its split-level houses and street signs from Brooklyn. In contrast, you will also enjoy the more traditional Norwegian communities in Setesdal and Telemark. Elvis Meets Inga: Lista and the Setesdal Valley” will be led by Siv Ringdal and Arnhild Hillesland, a native of Telemark. For more information on the exhibition or tour, check our website <www.vesterheim.org>, or contact Vesterheim at 563-382-9681.