Event Series Free Second Saturday

Free Second Saturday

Vesterheim offers free admission the second Saturday of every month. Come and enjoy the museum! Special exhibits open are listed here. There's always something new! This program is supported in part by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Bill and Kathi Wild.

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, 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 for a link...

The Norwegian Mayflower: The Voyage of the Restauration

Join Sons of Norway Zone 7 and former Vesterheim Trustee Dale Goodman! This is an online meeting of Sons of Norway Zone 7. Dale will join the meeting remotely to share the presentation. Visitors wishing to attend the meeting may email: SonsofNorwayZone7@gmail.com to receive the link. In the period beginning in 1825 and for about 100 years...

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...

Bunad Handwork (Webinar)

Postponed: New date announced soon! Norway has a variety of more than 450 different folk costumes, many of which feature highly embellished aprons, purses, beaded breastplates, and other adornment. Join textiles instructor Jane Addams and Chief Curator Laurann Gilbertson as they explore examples of the fine handcraft that makes each style of bunad so striking...

Luther College Student Scandinavian Fine Handcraft Open House

Be inspired by budding folk artists and Scandinavian traditions at Vesterheim! Students from the Scandinavian Fine Handcraft January Term course at Luther College will demonstrate carving and exhibit their class projects in an open house in Vesterheim Commons. Everyone is invited to this free community event, and refreshments will be served. Luther January Term students...

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...

Volunteer Training

Vesterheim is seeking volunteers, and we’d love to meet you! Do you want to deepen connections in the Decorah community and make new friends? Do you want to further something you’re passionate about while learning something new? Do you love history and art? There are so many ways to be involved. This training focuses on...

Vesterheim’s Primstav Murals by Martha Griesheimer

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...