The story
Skagens Museum was founded on 20 October 1908 in the dining room at Brøndums Hotel. Among the founders were artists Michael Ancher, P.S. Krøyer and Laurits Tuxen, who were elected to form the first board of governors together with Victor Christian Klæbel, the local pharmacist, and Degn Brøndum, proprietor of Brøndums Hotel and Anna Ancher's brother. The idea was to collect works by the Skagen Painters and to raise funds for the construction of a building for their exhibition. It was also decided that the Brøndums Hotel's dining room should, in due time, be transferred to the new museum once it had been built. It had served as an important venue for the members of the artist colony ever since its formation in the 1870s.
The first exhibitions were arranged in the local technical school. After P.S. Krøyer's death in 1909, his house in Skagen Plantation was used as a temporary venue for the museum. In 1919, Degn Brøndum donated the old garden of his hotel for the construction of a purpose-built museum. The architect Ulrik Plesner was charged with its design. He was an active member of the artistic community in Skagen and had already designed a number of buildings in the area. The building was financed by a combination of private donors and foundations with Degn Brøndum, Laurits Tuxen and the Ny Carlsberg Foundation as the largest contributors. Construction started in 1926 and the new museum was officially opened on 22 September 1928.
In 1982, the exhibition rooms were extended with an annex designed by the Royal Surveyor, architect Jacob Blegvad. Blegvad also planned the later extension to the museum that was inaugurated in 1989.
In the period 1997–2015, the museum's administration was housed in the old Technical School, but since then has had offices on the first floor of the new museum extension.
From Wikipedia’s article on Skagens Museum, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5
