Candlesticks, cakes, & Copenhagen museums
Part one: the essentials
My favourite activity is going to museums. I have worked at museums. I have travelled across states, countries, and oceans to visit museums. I’m often browsing museum websites, talking about museums, and thinking about museums. Therefore, I wanted to compile and share my museum recommendations in Copenhagen (with lots of pictures1). My list grew and grew as I wrote this, so I have decided to break it into multiple parts. This is part one: the essentials.
Additionally, I am a lover of a museum cafes and bookshops. Even when the food is mediocre at best, I still find sitting in a museum, lingering over a coffee, or even having a full meal somewhat romantic2. In the same vein, there is nothing I love more than spending hours looking at art and then perusing the bookshop, finding more information and learning about what I have just seen. Therefore, I am including cafes and bookshops on this list.
Louisiana
The golden standard and the one that should be prioritised above all others. They have rotating contemporary exhibitions, but the real treasure are the sculptures around the property. Alicja Kwade’s spherical stone globes that exist as a solar system on the grounds of the museum and Dan Graham’s reflective glass monument are works I visit every time.
The museum is located about a 30 minute train ride north of Copenhagen that will take you past Denmark’s coastline and a number of historic houses. Louisiana is well worth the journey. I also highly recommend stopping at the cafe in the train station, Hej Humlebæk Cafe.
Cafe & bookshop: The museum cafe overlooks the water (on a clear day, you can see Sweden) and a Calder Sculpture. It is a magical place, and the food is really great. You order all at one time, so don’t forget dessert when you place the rest of your order. Their menu changes seasonally, but they always have some variety of beautiful cake. The bookshop is unparalleled and has rare finds and interesting oddities. I recently bought a set of stunning candlesticks there. There is something for everyone.
Glyptoteket
The winter garden. The mummies. Wispy marble sculptures. All of my favourite things in one place. My first job in the art world was as an intern at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, a museum famous for its courtyard, and I remain totally obsessed and preoccupied with winter gardens.
Cafe & bookshop: The cafe is a treat and overlooks (and is partly inside of) the winter garden. The food is decent, but I think the main attraction here is to linger over a cup of tea. Another with an amazing bookshop. There are always new and interesting discoveries, including monographs and history tomes.
Gammel Strand
Gammel Strand feels light and airy as you climb upstairs discovering new exhibitions, and their programming is unfailingly ambitious and rigorous. They have changing exhibitions and are based in the heart of Copenhagen. It was founded as a way to create a link between the Royal Academy and the broader public.
Cafe: Lille Fugl (Little Bird) is charming and sweet and somehow always filled with light despite being on the basement level, although it is even better if you can take your coffee outside on their patio.
Copenhagen Contemporary
Copenhagen Contemporary is located on an island called Refshaleøen, which is a bit of an effort to get to. It is a long (but beautiful) bike ride through Christiania and past Noma. It is worth the trek for this museum located in a former warehouse. They use the massive space to their advantage, often having large-scale works that wouldn’t be suited for the other contemporary art institutions in Copenhagen. In 2024, they permanently acquired James Turrell’s Aftershock, one of the artist’s immersive colour field works, which is worth a visit.
Cafe: Connie Connie won Wallpaper Magazine’s design award in 2022. Come for the cookies, stay for the assorted chairs that are art and design objects themselves.
Statens Museum for Kunst
Known as SMK, the museum is Denmark’s National Gallery of art, and is the largest museum in the country. It originally was the royal collection, and when Denmark became a democracy, the collection became the property of the state. In 2020, the museum significantly expanded their contemporary collection. Here, you will find old and new collide: from their art collections to their building expansion, which features an addition to the old building that seamlessly takes you from classical art museum to contemporary.
Cafe: Cafeteria is owned and operated by the same group that runs Apollo and Atelier September, two Instagram worthy cafes in Copenhagen. Cafeteria is no exception. I recommend the pancakes with sausage for a sweet and savoury treat.
Images are mine unless otherwise noted.
See: me, newly 21, alone in New York, at the Guggenheim cafe, sipping a watery spritz and giving my jaw muscles a workout on some stale bread. No regrets.
I'm going to Copenhagen in a week and a half!!! This could not come at a better time! Thank you thank you!
I love this! Museums in copenhagen are the best!