Trapholt
Trapholt is a museum of contemporary art and design located in Kolding, Denmark. It opened in 1988 and was previously named Trapholt Kunstmuseum (Trapholt Museum of Art) but its increasing focus on the broader arts lead to its shortened name. It describes itself as a "museum for modern painting, crafts, design, and furniture design".
Trapholt

Peter Leth · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Trapholt
- Founded
- 1988
- Headquarters
- Denmark
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Documentary summary
Trapholt is a museum of contemporary art and design located in Kolding, Denmark. It opened in 1988 and was previously named Trapholt Kunstmuseum (Trapholt Museum of Art) but its increasing focus on the broader arts lead to its shortened name. It describes itself as a "museum for modern painting, crafts, design, and furniture design".
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gnd · 5042146-3 · wikidata · Q1816263 · wikipedia · Trapholt
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Trapholt • Established — 1988 • Location — Kolding, Denmark • Type — Art museum • Visitors — 82,994 (2018) • Director — Karen Grøn • Curator — Vera Westergaard • Architect — Boje Lundgaard, Bente Aude • Owner — Autonomous public institution • Website — trapholt.dk
Background
Background
The museum was expanded in 1996 to house a furniture collection with contemporary Danish furniture design, with a collection of over 500 chairs from the 20th century, which is the largest in Denmark. The spiral architecture of this part of the museum is inspired by the Guggenheim Museum. It also holds collections of crafts, primarily ceramics and textiles. Trapholt comprises the museum itself and its surrounding sculpture park which includes works by Ingvar Cronhammar, Bjørn Nørgaard, Lars Ravn, and Søren Jensen. In addition to temporary exhibitions, the museum hosts a permanent exhibition of paintings by Richard Mortensen. Totalling over 2,500 square metres, Trapholt is one of the largest modern art and design museums in Denmark outside Copenhagen. Arne Jacobsen's Kubeflex modular summer house, created by the architect in 1969-70, is located at Trapholt. It is the only of its kind as it never entered production given the artist's death in 1971 and is furnished with Jacobsen's own designs. Until 2002 it was used as a private summer house by the Jacobsen family, but was moved from Sydsjælland to Trapholt in 2005 and opened to the public. In 2000, the museum gained international notability when artist Marco Evaristti exhibited his work Helena, an installation featuring ten functioning blenders each containing a live goldfish, allowing viewers to turn on and kill the fish. At least one visitor did, killing two fish. Danish animal rights charity Dyrenes Beskyttelse complained and then-Director of Trapholt Peter Meyer was fined 2000 DKK for animal cruelty as he refused a police request to turn off the blenders. After refusing to pay the fine, Meyer and the museum were taken to court, where they were eventually acquitted of the charge and the fine was retracted.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1988
Trapholt established.
1988
Trapholt is recorded from 1988.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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- Denmark
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Trapholt”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1816263: Trapholt
General reference · Wikidata
Literature
Scholarly footprint
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Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Vedtægter for Trapholt. Trapholt.dk. 1 January 2014.
- 2.TRAPHOLT ART MUSEUM. Architizer.
- 3.Trapholt An art, design and hygge immersion. Scan Magazine. 2019-08-06.
- 4.Arne Jacobsens sommerhus. Trapholt.dk.
- 5.Liquidising goldfish 'not a crime'. 2003-05-19.
- 6.Bomsdorf, Clemens. Goldfish in a Blender? Marco Evaristti Calls It Art. WSJ. 2013-08-28.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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General reference
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
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Naming and authority record. Those registers additionally record the forms Trapholtmuseet (Kolding) and Kunstmuseet (Kolding).
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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