Barnetimen Children’s Hour – December

Vesterheim welcomes preschoolers and their caregivers to Barnetimen Children’s Hour. Meet in the lobby of the museum’s Main Building to explore objects and stories in the museum’s collection and make fun art. Get in the festive spirit with Norwegian holiday traditions during December’s program. Meet in the lobby of the museum’s Main Building to learn...

January Bokprat: The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen

Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College's Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a monthly bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life. Join us in January for a discussion of The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen. In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister...

Leading with Our Hearts: Conversation with Exhibit Artists

Join us online with the artists of Leading With Our Hearts: Nordic, Sami, and Ojibwe Designs from Nature!  Alison Aune, Chi Ma’iingan, Laurel Sanders, Wendy Savage, Dr. Lisa Savage, and Marlene Wisuri will talk about the contributions to the exhibit and the cultural and ancestral roots of their work in textiles, wood, and paint. Register...

Barnetimen Children’s Hour – January

Vesterheim welcomes preschoolers and their caregivers to Barnetimen Children’s Hour. Meet in the lobby of the museum’s Main Building to explore objects and stories in the museum’s collection and make fun art. How does art make you feel? Do you know what the people in artworks are feeling? During January’s program, we’ll look closely at...

Barneløpet

Get outside and enjoy the winter at the annual Barneløpet, a non-competitive ski or walk event for the community’s youngest skiers, ages 3-13. The collaborative Vesterheim Museum and Sons of Norway event will be held at the Decorah Community Prairie at 10:00 a.m., with registration beginning at 9:30 a.m. Skiers must provide their own skis.

Cultural Connections: Norwegian Sweaters Webinar

Join us for Vesterheim's series of cross-cultural webinars exploring stranded colorwork in knitting from multiple cultural perspectives. Cultural Connections: Norwegian Sweaters is the first in the series and is led by the celebrated Norwegian author and knitting designer Nina Granlund Saether. The cross-cultural series webinars will foster perspective about the way Norwegian and Scandinavian handcrafts...

Vesterheim’s Primstav Murals

The murals in Vesterheim’s Gathering Room were created in 1999 by Norwegian rosemaler Sigmund Aarseth and Iowa rosemaler Sallie DeReus. The murals are an example of interior painting, relatively common in Scandinavia, in which every surface is decorated. The murals are inspired by the primstav, a calendar stick widely used in Norway during the Middle...

FamilieTid: Folk Stories from North of the Arctic Circle

[vc_custom_heading text="February 8, 2025 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m." use_theme_fonts="yes" el_class="medium-heading bold"]Join celebrated Norwegian Arctic cultural presenter and preserver Stina Fagurton to hear folktales from north of the Arctic Circle. Join us for an hour of stories that will delight the children and whoever else in the family loves a good story. Gather the family together to...

February Bokprat: The Cabin in the Mountains by Robert Ferguson

Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College's Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a monthly bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life. Join us in Febuary as we discuss the novel Cabin in the Mountains by Robert Ferguson. The hytte – or wooden cabin home – is a crucial part...

Careers of Service: The Norwegian Lutheran Deaconesses

Join Decorah Travel Club as they host Vesterheim Chief Curator Laurann Gilbertson for this engaging presentation about Norwegian deaconesses in America. Deaconesses, women called to serve the church and humankind, come from a tradition dating from Biblical times to the Middles Ages. Their work was revived in Germany in 1836 and the “modern” diaconate spread...