HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art – Steven Holl

The HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art is an art center located in the city of Herning, in the Jutland peninsula, Central Denmark.

Building
The museum, founded in 1977, is housed since 2009 in an iconic 60,000 square-foot / 5,600 square-meter building designed by acclaimed American architect Steven Holl.
The museum was designed by Holl as a fluid-shaped single-story building with reflective pools positioned in front of its south side. The architect was inspired by the presence in the site of a 1960 circular construction that currently houses part of the art collection of the HEART and once was a shirt factory. Therefore, Holl designed a new building whose shape “resembles a collection of shirtsleeves viewed from above”. (Steven Holl)

Photos by Iwan Baan, courtesy of HEART.

Collection and activities
The museum’s collection is focused on modern and contemporary Danish and international art, from the 1930s onward – with a special focus on Italian post-war art and Arte Povera, and on concrete and constructive art – including works by Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Mario Merz, Joseph Beuys, Jannis Kounellis, Ole Schwalbe, Victor Vasarely, Ingvar Cronhamma, and Dennis Oppenheim, among others.

Photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy of HEART.

HEART museum’s lobby, photo by Roland Halbe

The Herning Museum of Contemporary Art also organizes temporary exhibitions, guided tours, and workshops for people of all ages.
The museum’s building, which is fully accessible to people with disabilities, includes a 150-seat auditorium, an open storage room for artworks, a media library, a restaurant, and a gift shop.

Cover photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy of HEART