Event, a global experience and exhibition design agency and Museum Studio company, is celebrating the Carl Nielsen Museum’s nomination for the 2025 European Museum of the Year Awards (EMYA).
The Carl Nielsen Museum in Odense, Denmark, honours the country’s most famous composer. With this redesign, it sought to shed new light on the country’s most acclaimed composer and fully depict the man behind the music.
This award nomination reflects its innovative approach to developing a biographical museum that explores the mysterious and intangible nature of the creative process.
Storytelling through music
In this project, Event aimed to create a unique space to match the quality of Nielsen’s work. The agency worked with a panel of internationally renowned Nielsen experts from the University of Copenhagen to identify the key musical works and moments in time that provide insights into his complex creative spirit.
The innovative design embodies the energy and atmosphere of Nielsen’s world. Exhibits are used as portals for further discovery, while light, sound and projection evoke a sense of mystery and exploration.
Event reimagined the biographical museum by using music as a window into the composer’s life and creativity, with carefully curated snippets of raw sounds and music that create an immersive sense of Nielsen’s spirit, rather than a literal recreation.
Sounds, light, images, and objects are seamlessly combined and reveal elements of the composer’s complicated and fascinating life.
“The key goals presented to us were: how do you display music? And how do you make visual something that is, by nature, invisible?” says a spokesperson from Event.
“In listening to the music, we found our answers. The experience is inspired by music and elevated and enriched by the playfulness and elements of surprise that imbue Nielsen’s works. We are excited to see this experimental approach being recognised and celebrated by the European Museum of the Year.”
The European Museum of the Year Awards ceremony will take place on 24 May in Poland.
Recently, Event announced that three projects it has worked on had been shortlisted for the 2024 Museum + Heritage Awards. These included Oman Across Ages, the Carl Nielsen Museum and The Book of Kells Experience.
