For more than 30 years, Vesterheim has been providing exciting and educational tours to Norway. These tours offer unique opportunities based on the museum’s ties and relationships with the artists and institutions of Norway.
Tour guests have the opportunity to benefit from the insight and expertise of Vesterheim’s staff and Norwegian guides. Staff members spend countless hours researching new contacts and locations that will allow us to show you the “behind-the-scenes” areas and people of Norway. We pride ourselves on giving an experience that is exceptional in every way. Vesterheim is pleased to share with you the 2013 schedule of tours to Norway.
Vesterheim looks forward to having you travel with us to Norway!
Join Vesterheim on a pilgrimage to explore the relationship between rosemaling and woodworking in Norway. We’ll visit various districts throughout the country, comparing and contrasting each area’s rosemaling and woodworking traditions, both past and present. There will be an even balance between attending museums, lectures, studios, churches, private collections, and woodenware shops, with plenty of time for shopping. Bring your sketch book and camera. Here is your chance to study the different styles and their techniques up close, by example and through discussion and scholarly talks with prominent folk artists and curators. There will be some hands-on experiences along the way and lots of fun and fellowship!
Patti Goke, an avid rosemaler, instructor, and Vesterheim Gold Medalist, has studied with many top Norwegian rosemaling instructors. She has also taught various styles of painting over the past 20 years and has traveled extensively throughout Norway seven times.
Darlene Fossum-Martin, Vesterheim’s Education Specialist, previously has been the museum’s group tour coordinator and special events coordinator. She led the Vesterheim Folk Art Tour to Voss in 2001 and Rørøs in 2003. Darlene loves Vesterheim’s folk-art program—the arts, artists, instructors, and students. She enjoys everyone’s enthusiasm for learning the art and its historical context. She attributes her strong Norwegian ties and traditions to the women in her family, her community, and years spent living, working, and traveling in Norway. She looks forward to sharing her love of the Norwegian countryside and its cultural richness while on this tour.
Place Your Tour Deposit—Fill out a “Tour Deposit Form” form and send it, with a $500 deposit per person, to Vesterheim. Deposits are accepted on a first come, first-serve basis.
Take the exciting, picturesque, less-commonly traveled road north!
Vesterheim’s adventure above the Arctic Circle will focus on northern Norway and Sámiland. Beginning at Kiruna, Sweden, traveling primarily by motor coach, but also by coastal steamer, the tour will focus on the history and rich traditions of the Sámi as we visit cultural centers and museums both in Norway and Sweden. Attention will also focus on the historical and cultural highlights of the region, including Northern Norway during the Viking Era, fishing, mining, and World War II.
Some of the areas in Sweden we plan to visit include Kiruna; Nutti Sámi Siida in Jukkasjärvi, also the site of the famous Ice Hotel; and Ajtte,
the Swedish Sámi and Mountain Musuem in Jokkmokk.
Some of the areas in Norway we plan to visit include the breath-taking Lofoten Islands, Tromso, “Paris of the North”; the Manndahlen Husflidslag in Samuelsberg, with opportunities to shop for Sámi handcrafts; the 2000-to-6200-year-old rock carving from the Stone Age at the Alta Museum; North Cape, “the northern most point of Europe;” a special Sámi experience in Masi; the Sámi National Museum and the Sámi Parliament in Karasjok; Tana Gull og Sølvsmie AS, silver workshop; and a picnic hosted by a local family on the Russian border in Pasvik Valley near Kirkenes.
Harley Refsal recently retired from four decades of teaching Norwegian language and Scandinavian culture courses at Luther College. A noted woodcarver, he has taught Scandinavian-style figure carving since the 1980s in Norway and the United States. He has led two Luther College January-term courses to Norway and was the guide for Vesterheim’s 2012 tour to Sámiland.
Michelle Whitehill is Vesterheim’s Coordinator of Tours to Norway. She has planned 11 tours and led tours to Norway in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Her organization and friendliness allow participants to sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip.
Place Your Tour Deposit—Fill out a "Tour Deposit Form” form and send it, with a $500 deposit per person, to Vesterheim. Deposits are accepted on a first come, first-served basis. As soon as the price and itinerary are finalized, you will receive more information. You must formalize your reservation by November 15, 2012. The deposit is fully refundable until November 15, 2013. For a printed copy of the "Tour Deposit Form," or more information contact Michelle Whitehill at 563-382-9681, ext. 240, or mwhitehill@vesterheim.org.
