Mark Exhibitions

FROM MEADOW FARM TO MUSEUM

Stop by this exhibition in the Exhibition building before engulfing yourself in the wonders of live history in action at the Museum Farm Karensminde. Step into the story of how it all began… This is where your journey back in time starts.

The Museum Farm Karensminde is today the last remaining of the seven original meadow farms in the village of Morsbøl, once strung like white pearls along the river. It still bears the marks of its heyday – from the whitewashed walls to the distinctive carriage gates.

The fields are cultivated as they were when Danish agriculture became mechanised and industrialised from the 1920s onwards. Here, old Danish livestock breeds graze. Here, farming, industry, and tourism come together in one shared story of the Danish landscape.

Right here, between meadow and heath, you stand in the middle of a story that stretches back to the 17th century.

For centuries, the meadows along the Grindsted River and the heaths to the south formed the foundation of a unique Jutland farming culture. On these fertile meadowlands, the meadow farmers’ way of life emerged.

They harnessed the river’s water, creating ingenious irrigation systems which, in dry years, ensured hay and pasture for the cattle – their most important source of income.

At Karensminde, too, such an irrigation system was laid out. It provided the basis for a prosperous farm which, over time, became the bailiff’s farm and a central presence in the local community.

THE TRANSFORMATION ROOM

They say clothes make the person – and that goes for people in the past too! Start your visit in the Transformation Room and step straight into history.

Think of it as the ultimate dressing-up room! It’s packed with clothes and accessories for you to try on, so you can become little Karen, the farmer’s wife, a farmhand or even the parish constable.

You’re welcome to wear the costumes as you explore the museum – just remember to hang everything back up before you leave.

The costumes have been donated by local residents and lovingly made and adapted by the skilled volunteers from Karensminde’s Friends Association.

ALL ABOUT BEER

To brew beer, you need to know your agriculture

Making beer is quite the science. Through thousands of years, the process of brewing beer has developed and changed. However, one thing has been consistent: to brew beer, you need to know about agriculture. You must be able to grow grain because grain is the basis of beer.

... and a little bit of luck!

Brewing beer is a chemical and biological process. For it to succeed, you need good raw materials: barley, hops and water. In addition, it requires a reasonable hygiene, a well-executed malting (sprouted barley) and fermentation, good tools, good storage conditions and last but certainly not least: a lot of luck!

Beer followed the season in the country

Brewing beer was an annual event on the farm right up to the 1900s. It was better to brew in the spring and fall to avoid the hottest and coldest months and this was when the good and strong beer was brewed. The everyday beer was brewed when the barrel was almost empty! After the beer is prepared, it needs to brew for at least two weeks up to three months. The longer the brew, the better the beer. For home consumption, the beer is bottled in small wooden kegs with handles, which are placed on the dining table. If you needed to bring it, when working in the field, the beer was tapped on a beer barrel (see photo exhibition) or on a "bearded man", which was a can made of clay.

A space for brewing turned utility kitchen

In the 1800s, each farm had its own small brewery for private use. The Danish word ‘bryggers’ derives from 'bryggerhus', which means ‘brewing house’ - a space for brewing. Later, this room was used for other large-scale work such as baking and butchering. In modern homes, the utility room has become a kind of utility kitchen with both a deep freezer, washing machine and central heating.

Cheers, kids!

Throughout the Middle Ages and up until the 19th century, all Danes drank a lot of beer - that also applied to the children. The water in the public wells was often contaminated, so drinking water could make you sick. Beer was important in staying hydrated, but the beer also provided nourishment. Beer was, however, both brewed with a low and a high alcohol percentage. The low-percentage beer was for daily use. Strong beer was meant for special occasions and parties.

The Museumfarm Karensminde

Beer was also brewed at the Museum Farm Karensminde. However, this was not common in this region in the 1800s, so it was not something you talked about. The brewing was done in secret on the farm. This was undoubtedly connected with Inner Mission’s influence on the population of the moor. Inner Mission advocated abstinence and it was unseemly to get drunk.

A taste of history

Today, we still brew beer at the Museum Farm Karensminde. It is done according to proud traditions dating back to the 1800s, using only home-grown grain and hops. The grain is a six-row spring barley from 1860, which is cultivated at the museum farm. The most highly regarded malting barley in England is also a six-row spring barley. It gives a different kind of beer than the ordinary two-row barley, which is most often used in modern beer production.

See the exhibition about beer in the old horse stables at the Museum Farm Karensminde.

You can buy our Karensminde Ale in the museum shop.

VOICES OF THE PLANTATION

On Friday 17 May, Mark | Museum for a New History of Denmark launched a new and evocative nature experience in Karensminde Plantation. The project Voices of the Plantation combines sound, art and cultural heritage in a sensory-rich audio walk, where six fictional storytellers – including the priest, the meadow farmer, the plantation foreman and the pottery girl – guide visitors through both history and landscape.

The audio guide has been developed as part of the initiative Life in the Plantation, which seeks to explore and enrich the storytelling of the plantation’s cultural history. Life in the Plantation is supported by the Region of Southern Denmark. Volunteers from the museum’s support association, Friends of Karensminde, have contributed by constructing the wooden elements featured in the installation. The project has received strong backing from Billund Municipality, whose departments have helped bring the idea to life.

The experience unfolds at six distinctive gateways – striking black wooden structures placed throughout the landscape – each one offering a new voice, a new perspective, and a fresh reflection on the natural and cultural significance of the plantation. Through immersive soundscapes and curated rest points with benches, swings, hammocks and staircases, visitors are invited to pause, listen, and view the plantation with new eyes.

Voices of the Plantation draws inspiration from the history of the site and invites audiences to encounter narratives spanning from the 18th century to the present – not as a single, linear timeline, but through six unique voices, each offering their own interpretation of the landscape and way of life.

The experience is free and accessible all year round, both during and outside of the museum’s regular opening hours. Designed especially for those seeking reflection and a deeper connection with nature, the audio walk welcomes all curious minds, across all ages.

YOUR PAST - OUR FUTURE

Your past – our future! That’s the title of this outdoor exhibition, which was created in a collaboration between the 7th grade at Grindsted Private School and Mark through the concept “Companies adopt school classes”, facilitated by The Relations Network.

Each sign stands as if it has grown out of the ground, and it seems far from random when one of the signs reads, “Hey you! I’m not your trash can! Courtesy of Mother Nature.” Mother Earth is putting on a demonstration with the help of the 7th grade class at Grindsted Private School. This ‘sign forest’ is a free space where students have been given the opportunity to speak their minds out loud. And they do so with courage, commitment and drive.

The exhibition is about man’s imprint on nature – a topic that Mark has adopted as a main theme in the communication of local cultural history, because it has roots in all the museum’s areas of responsibility: agriculture, industry and tourism. The landscape around us is created by people. The heathland, the fields, the plantation are all examples of cultural landscapes, not nature. Industry has impacted the environment in many ways and so does tourism. With these responsibilities, the museum is committed to the concept of sustainability.

Sustainable development is something that matters to all of us, and it is something that young people are concerned about when thinking about their future. This became clear to museum curator, Anna Louise Siggaard, when a few months ago she took the 7th grade class on a short walk around the heath, through the plantation, across the field and down by the water of the river Syrenøen at The Museum Farm Karensminde. The walk turned into a conversation about how nature is doing right now and what we can do to make nature better. The conversation planted the idea for this exhibition.

Listening to the audio files behind the QR codes on the signs is moving. “Should we just shut down Grindsted?” someone asks, referring to the debate about the pollution from the old Grindsted plant. The sentence expresses both frustration and powerlessness, which is precisely the point of this exhibition and a large part of the museum’s DNA: to give our citizens a space to express themselves, a place where it can be experienced and resonate with other citizens – both young and old. At the same time, we are made aware of the actions that can actually be taken to leave the earth better than we received it, and that gives us hope.

Background facts

The exhibition is outdoors and thus freely accessible and suitable for anyone over the age of 12 with an interest in social debate with a special focus on climate and sustainability. We encourage you to listen to what students have to say. It is part of the museum's mission of citizen involvement and co-creation as well as a desire for an ever-increasing focus on climate and sustainability as an integral part of the museum's work.

MAN AND NATURE

In the exhibition 'Man and Nature' you meet people who live in harmony with nature.

You meet the meadow farmer, the moor farmer and the poor who lived on the heath. You meet dairymen, factory workers, working class and city dwellers. You meet contractors and inventors who create development and sometimes pollution, and connection to this, you also meet Denmark's first minister for pollution control. You meet tourists who travel to ‘pig parties’ in Mallorca. You meet people who use nature as a stress reliever to find peace and balance.

Nature has had and continues to have a major influence on the way we live our lives, organize our society and how our culture will develop. Nature and climate create opportunities but also constraints for human activity and have influenced our use of nature, settlement patterns and social conditions.

In our interaction with nature, we leave a footprint. You leave your mark with your actions and your use of nature, and you are part of a culture and a history.

The development from the 1600s to the present day in the Billund-Grindsted area is not only local history, but also national history. The history of the area is a microcosm of our national narrative. It is a period in which Denmark developed as an agricultural country and into an industrial nation and the knowledge society we have today, where our modern welfare system and increased prosperity for more and more people has allowed for more leisure time and is the prerequisite for tourism in Denmark and abroad.

Humans have always tried to influence and utilize nature to survive, for example by lighting fires and making bonfires, cultivating the land, developing hunting methods and keeping animals. Life was about survival, and exploiting nature was the basis of existence. If you had a good harvest, you put food on the table. If the harvest failed, your life was threatened.

With technological advances, Denmark entered a new period, industrialization – a period in Western history where natural resources began to be exploited on a large scale, creating greater wealth and prosperity in both rural and urban areas. This changed social conditions and settlements and developed new industries.

With increased prosperity came opportunities for more and more leisure time. Nature now became a destination. While the 19th century Copenhagen plantations in the area were only for the wealthy minority, mass tourism gained ground during the 1960s with the construction of Billund Airport, among other things.

Today, the focus is on taking care of nature, cleaning up past pollution and utilization of nature, while nature also provides opportunities for recreational purposes where you can de-stress and find peace and balance. Sustainability and ecology have become a lifestyle and a wave of authenticity has emerged with the desire to ‘get back to nature’.

‘Man and Nature’ focuses on human use and exploitation of nature across time, place and people.