« All Events

Hand Me Down the Fiddle Exhibit Opens

August 15

Hand Me Down the Fiddle: Norwegian Fiddlers, Fiddles, and Fiddle Tunes in the Upper Midwest Exhibit Opens

August 15, 2024 | May 18, 2025

Location: Vesterheim Museum

The exhibit Hand Me Down the Fiddle: Norwegian Fiddlers, Fiddles, and Fiddle Tunes in the Upper Midwest Exhibit opens August 15, 2024.

Who were Ole Bull, Ole Hendricks, Johan Arndt Mostad, Thea Arndt Clark, Bill Sherburne, Arnold Munkel, Ellen Blagen, LeRoy Larson, and Elmo Wick? Find out about these Norwegian and Norwegian-American fiddlers, as well as fiddle makers and tune collectors from Norwegian-American communities in the Upper Midwest when this exhibit opens on August 15, 2024.

This exhibition will include music made on Hardanger fiddles and flat fiddles, as well as musical styles from Norway and America. We’ll share stories through artifacts, instruments, photographs, recordings, and video from Vesterheim’s collection, other organizations, and the community.

The project consultant and guest curator for the exhibition is fiddler and music historian Beth Hoven Rotto.

Visitors will have the opportunity to connect with the culture and experiences of exceptional, everyday musicians from the recent past to the present. In addition to the exhibit, Vesterheim will present in-person and online events that showcase this unique musical heritage.

The exhibition is supported by a Scandinavian Folk Arts & Cultural Traditions in the Upper Midwest grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) and a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Carol Birkland and Tom Woxland, and Peter Dahlen and Mary S. Carlsen.
Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the first organized emigration of Norwegians to the United States with Vesterheim in 2025! The single-masted sloop, Restauration, left Stavanger on July 4, 1825, with 52 people on board and landed in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825.
Vesterheim joins Crossings, a group of Norwegian-American organizations, to commemorate this anniversary with programming inspired by the strong connections between the people of Norway and the United States. Whether you have Norwegian roots or an interest in Scandinavian traditions, we invite you to join Vesterheim’s special programs, exhibitions, and classes to share the history and traditions of Norwegian Americans.

Details

Date:
August 15