Årsberetning 2007 - Experimentarium

annual rEport 2007
2007 was an eventful year for the Experimentarium!
Purchase and rebuilding of the property at Tuborg
Havnevej 7
the most significant event of the year was the agreement
concluded with Carlsberg a/s at the end of February 2007 for the
Experimentarium to purchase the building at tuborg Havnevej 7,
including the newly-constructed underground car park with room for
99 cars, at a price of DKK 119 million. the total costs for the purchase
and associated expenses amount to DKK 120 million. the purchase
was realised on 15 april 2008, when the underground car park was
transferred to the Experimentarium. Financing of the DKK 120 million
was procured through the following donations: augustinus Foundation:
DKK 35 million; gentofte municipality: DKK 30 million; Villum Kann
rasmussen Foundation: DKK 30 million; oticon Foundation: DKK
15 million; thomas b. thrige Foundation: DKK 5 million, and a joint
donation of DKK 5 million by the Confederation of Danish industries
and the Copenhagen industries Employers’ Federation.
the Experimentarium would like to express its sincere gratitude to the
donors for the generosity they have shown in helping to ensure that
the Experimentarium could acquire the property at tuborg Havnevej
7 – and thereby become master of its own house!
Plans for the extension and rebuilding of the property
Following the acquisition of the building, our ambition is to carry out
an extension and rebuilding of the property, with the addition of an
extra third floor in the building’s north and south wings, in which a
new horizontal roof will be installed with an outdoor exhibition area,
greenery and café. a preliminary survey is currently being undertaken,
encompassing the development of a programme for an architectural
competition and a sustainability study.
Dialogue in the Dark is the exhibition about which the
public has been most enthusiastic
the Experimentarium presented the special exhibition Dialogue in the
Out go the lights. Dialogue in the Dark gave our visitors a unique
opportunity to experience at first hand what it is like to be blind.
HRH The Crown Prince is an experienced expeditionist, and in October
he was present at Experimentarium to open the new special exhibition
’Xtreme Expedition’.
Dark throughout all of 2007. When the exhibition closed at the end
of the year a total of almost 60,000 persons had sampled this highly
unusual one-hour experience, in which, in complete darkness, you
were guided by a blind person through approximately 200 m2 of park,
urban area and café. the exhibition’s second year was subsidised by
the ludvig and sara Elsass Foundation and by the Danish association
of the blind.
one of the exhibition’s success criteria was to secure permanent
employment for the project’s staff: 17 blind and partially sighted
persons, as well as seven persons with cerebral paresis. With help
from, amongst others, the ludvig and sara Elsass Foundation, the
Experimentarium has been able to employ five of the staff of Dialogue
in the Dark for other tasks in the company.
Sports & Spinach received more than 650,000 visitors
the exhibition clearly spoke directly to the hearts and stomachs of
the Danes. the exhibition opened back in october 2005, but spent
almost two years at the Experimentarium, because the dinosaurs
were so large that the hall in special Exhibition area 1 was simply
not tall enough for them. the dinosaurs thus had to occupy the main
Exhibition Hall, where the other exhibitions had to move a little closer
together. as a result, sports & spinach remained on the posters right
up to september 2007, and thereby achieved an opening period of
almost two years. one might think that the exhibition’s attraction value
would wane over such a period of time, but right to the end there were
still many people visiting the Experimentarium specifically to see
sports & spinach. During the period in which sports & spinach was on
the programme, the Experimentarium received 657,788 visitors.
The public judged T.rex to be both a predator and a
scavenger!
the special exhibition “t.rex − the Killer Question” was a great success,
particularly among families. in the 11 months that the T.rex exhibition
ran, 350,478 guests visited the Experimentarium. after their visit to