Birk - Den hvide by

The Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelts Museum is located in the heart of Birk - “The White City” - a place where art, architecture, and landscape merge into a distinctive sensory urban environment. A visit to the museum therefore also offers the opportunity to explore a historic area that itself forms a living artistic landscape. This unique setting is rooted in what is often referred to as the “Herning DNA,” where cultural and industrial life intersect and enrich one another in an innovative way.

Here, art is not isolated behind walls - it is woven into the surroundings. For this reason, a visit to the museum also provides access to something larger: the story of Birk as an idea, a vision, and a living artistic whole.

Since the 1960s, Birk has developed into an internationally recognized centre for art, education, and business. Enterprising industrialists, led by Aage Damgaard, created a visionary fusion of industry, architecture, and art, where art became an integrated part of everyday life. This idea continues to shape the area and remains palpable today.

The landscape is strongly defined by one of Denmark’s most influential landscape architects, C. Th. Sørensen (1893-1979), who, with his iconic geometric forms and precise compositions, established the overall structure of this unique environment. He was responsible, for example, for the layout of the Angli courtyard, the Sculpture Park, and not least the Geometric Gardens, considered a major work in Danish landscape architecture history.

In addition to the Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelts Museum, the area also includes institutions such as HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Højhuset, and Ingvar Cronhammar’s monumental sculpture Elia. Together, they make Birk a rare and concentrated cultural landscape, where major art experiences exist side by side with open landscapes.

Education and business play a central role in Birk’s identity, helping to keep the area vibrant, experimental, and internationally oriented.

VIA Design & Business – formerly known as TEKO – is Scandinavia’s largest educational environment for the fashion, design, and lifestyle industries. With strong ties to Herning’s textile heritage, the institution has evolved over time in response to the changing needs of industry. The tradition of integrating art into buildings and their surroundings continues here. Paul Gadegaard’s artistic decoration of the current administration building and sewing studio stands as a testament to Angli and Aage Damgaard’s innovative approach to art and working life.

Likewise, Aarhus University in Herning forms a significant part of the area. Here, students are educated in business development, technology, management, and engineering in close collaboration with the surrounding business community.

Together, the educational institutions, the entrepreneurial hub Innovatorium, and the diverse range of companies contribute to making Birk not only a place of business, but also a landscape of ideas and knowledge. Here, new generations shape the future of design, innovation, and society, surrounded by nature and culture in The White City.