Press Release

 

Nobel Museum to be Permanent

December 7, 2001

The Nobel Foundation, the Swedish Government and the City of Stockholm have agreed on an arrangement whereby the Nobel Museum in Stockholm will become permanent. Together they have devised an interim solution which will enable activities to continue pending the construction of a new building.

"It is most gratifying, just at the time of the Nobel Prize Centennial, to have been able to reach an excellent part-solution to the question of a permanent Nobel Museum in Stockholm," says Michael Sohlman, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. "The willingness of the Government and the City of Stockholm to make an annual grant of SEK 10 million each creates a stable foundation for a continuation and expansion of the activities of the Nobel Museum, both in Sweden and abroad. The Centennial Exhibition has convincingly demonstrated the great potential that lies in the idea of a Nobel Museum. It can trace the main lines of scientific and cultural development. A Nobel Museum that depicts the contributions of the Prize Winners in their cultural and social context can put in perspective the relationship between science and culture. I believe that this is important, not least to students at our universities and colleges."

The Nobel Museum began its activities earlier this year in the Stock Exchange Building in the Old Town, with the Centennial Exhibition "Cultures of Creativity". The Exhibition has been a great success and is attracting a steadily growing number of visitors. The Nobel Museum is also active in arranging various programmes and a range of activities for the schools of Greater Stockholm. The Centennial Exhibition has been created with the support of national research councils, private foundations and contributions from ABB, Ericsson, Merrill Lynch, Skandia and Volvo. The rent for the Stock Exchange Building from 2000-2004 has been paid by the City of Stockholm.

The Nobel Foundation's Centennial Exhibition has been built in two identical copies. During the autumn of 2001 the two exhibitions are being held simultaneously in Stockholm and Oslo. "There is a pleasing symmetry in holding the same exhibition at the same time in the two Nobel cities," says Professor Svante Lindqvist, Director of the Nobel Museum. "The Nobel Foundation was founded in 1900 – and as far as we are concerned the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway in 1905 never took place! What is more, we want to act in the cosmopolitan spirit of Alfred Nobel, and therefore the exhibition in Oslo is being sent out on tour in the New Year."

The Nobel Exhibition is first going to Japan. There it will be shown at the National Science Museum in Central Tokyo in the spring of 2002. In the autumn of 2002 it will be shown in Seoul, South Korea. Following this it will proceed to Houston, Texas in the spring of 2003. It is anticipated that it will then also visit San Francisco, New York and London.

"This is merely the first in the series of exhibitions that the Nobel Museum will be producing," says Michael Sohlman. "In future exhibitions we intend to place the emphasis on other aspects of the scientific and cultural development over the last hundred years. These exhibitions, too, will go out on international tours to the leading foreign museums abroad."

"A Nobel Museum can never stagnate," says Svante Lindqvist. "Every year sees the nomination of a dozen new Nobel Laureates. Their achievements also need to be explained and portrayed historically in their scientific and cultural context. The production of these temporary exhibitions will be used in the continuous renewal of the permanent Nobel Museum in Stockholm."

Press Contacts at the Nobel Museum
Information Department
Carin Klaesson, + 46 8 545 165 77
carin.klaesson@nobel.se

Anna Thompson, + 46 8 519 542 95
anna.thompson@nobel.se

Maggan Hartzell, + 46 8 519 542 82
maggan.hartzell@nobel.se