The Container Academy
The Container Academy is a new studio and work community in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn for professional visual artists. A place where artists can work and develop, and where the public is invited inside for exhibitions and events.
In a grove called Akademos, Plato started his academy in 385 B.C., now 2400 years later, when Copenhagen expels craftsmen, students and artists from the city, we, like Plato, must establish an academy in Nordhavnen. A container is an object for holding or transporting something, they don’t have to transport all sorts of things across the oceans, but the young artists’ dreams and visions out into the world. In the cracks the new world sprouts.
– sculptor and professor Bjørn Nørgaard, initiator of the Container Academy
The Container Academy is a studio community for visual artists at Oceanvej 1 in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn, which inaugurated in January 2024. The place will secure more studio spaces for younger visual artists in the capital and at the same time form the framework for conversations and discussions between professional artists and others.
The Container Academy was initiated by sculptor and professor Bjørn Nørgaard and was developed and built in collaboration with By & Havn and Unionkul/Klaus Kastbjerg. Architect on the project is Arcgency, engineer Erik Pedersen and contractor WR Enterprise.
The developer and operator is Fonden Containerakademiet, whose board consists of Bjørn Nørgaard, Klaus Kastbjerg (Unionkul), and Henrik Steenstrup (By & Havn). The land has been made available by By & Havn, and the project is supported by the A.P. Møller Foundation, Det Obelske Familiefond and the Augustinus Foundation. AHC manages the studio spaces and takes care of the day-to-day operations as well as the artistic program of exhibitions and other events.
Read more about facilities and programming below, as well as who and how to apply for a studio.
THE CONTAINER
Originally, the Container Academy was intended to be made up of a series of mobile containers, hence the name, but due to the pandemic and then inflation, the Container Academy now consists of one ‘container’, covered with steel plates.
The Container Academy is situated in a large industrial building, consisting of 30 individual studios as well as two large shared workshops of a total of 160 m2 as well as a meeting room, kitchen, and toilet with shower.
THE ACADEMY
The “Academy” in the Container Academy refers to the “School of Athens” and the Socratic way of thinking about equal conversation between free people. The studio community will therefore not only be a place for artists to work, but also an intellectual community where a continuous, investigative conversation takes place – among other things through a public program of exhibitions and other events.
It is hoped that several of the applying artists will want to help initiate activities in the Container Academy. Each year two artists are therefore appointed in the Container Academy to supervise the preparation of an annual event program, and over time, the intention is that the ‘academy’ – the spiritual structure of the place – will be self-organising.
In order to create and secure this living ‘academy’, it is possible for artists to have a studio for a maximum of six years.
APPLY FOR A STUDIO AT THE CONTAINER ACADEMY
All professional visual artists can apply for a studio at the Container Academy. You must either be educated at the Jutland Academy of Fine Arts, the Funen Academy of Fine Arts, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts or have a similar arts education or background. It is possible to apply as a duo or collective with a CVR number. You must have had a minimum of two years in your own practice after completing your education and be connected to Denmark, based in Copenhagen or the surrounding area.
Read more about how to apply and other practical information in connection with an application here.
In collaboration with:
The Container Academy is generously supported by:
