AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE DANISH CULTURAL HERITAGE
The intensive work that has lasted well over a year has now come to an end. A group of Denmark's best artists and most knowledgeable art experts has been looking at hundreds of works of art, discussing them, choosing and rejecting them over and over again. The rest of us have been speculating and the press has taken a guess at what they might have come up with. And here is the final result: a canon of Danish art and culture.
This is an outline of the background to the canon project and how the Danish Ministry of Culture will be promoting the canon.
What is a cultural canon?
A canon is a collection of works which has become accepted and designated as the best or most genuine of its kind. For example, the texts of the Old and New Testaments are the canon of the Christian church; the texts have been chosen as the best of many, many sacred texts. A canon can be used as a benchmark or a model if, for example, we want to assess the quality of something. And it can also offer guidance and provide bearings if we want to acquaint ourselves with something new.
In other words, a canon contains the most important and most distinguished elements within its designated area. Here you can read about a Danish cultural canon – a collection and presentation of the greatest, most important works of Denmark's cultural heritage.
The cultural canon is intended to serve as a compass showing the directions and milestones in Denmark's long and complex cultural history. At the same time, the cultural canon is intended as a platform for discussion and debate.
Why compile a cultural canon?
There are many reasons for producing a canon of Danish art and culture. Among other things, a canon will:
• contribute to a lively cultural debate by acting as a yardstick for quality – a yardstick that will obviously be constantly challenged and discussed
• give citizens an easy introduction to Danish art and culture and hopefully also inspire them to immerse themselves further in the individual art forms
• present a competent, qualified suggestion of the elements of Denmark's cultural heritage that are valuable, of good quality and worth preserving for our descendants
• make us more aware of who we are and give us more information on the cultural history of which we are a part
• give us reference points and awareness of what is special about Danes and Denmark in an ever more globalised world
• strengthen the sense of community by showing key parts of our common historical possessions.
The cultural canon project
In December 2004, the Danish Minister for Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, announced the plan to compile a cultural canon, and in April 2005 he appointed 7 canon committees corresponding to the 7 main art forms within the Danish Ministry of Culture's remit, namely:
• Architecture
• Visual arts
• Design and crafts
• Film
• Literature
• Music
• Dramatic arts
Each committee comprised 5 members who are professionally involved with the given cultural area, and, in each committee, one member served as chairperson.
The committee members were chosen because they are leading professional authorities within their respective areas. They are either creative/performing artists or, by virtue of their training and occupation, have major insight into the individual art forms.
The assignment of the canon committees
In each committee the members were asked to jointly choose 12 Danish works of art which, in their opinion, provide outstanding artistic experiences – for us today, but also for previous generations and for those who will come after us. In other words, the works must be “indispensable”, i.e. works of art that cannot be disregarded if we want to define what is characteristic and distinctive about Danish culture. In the opinion of the committees, these works are so important that we would all benefit from becoming acquainted with them. As well as providing an outstanding artistic experience, the selected works should also illustrate that Danish art and culture have come into being in interplay and interaction with European and international trends.
Role of the chairpersons
During the working process, the committees' chairpersons held regular meetings to prevent any overlap in the works that the committees were promoting and to ensure that the final cultural canon emerges as a unified whole.
Jørn Lund, Director of the Society for Danish Language and Literature, served as “head chairperson”. This meant that he was in charge of all 7 canon committees' chairpersons. Jørn Lund has vast experience of similar assignments, including heading up the work on the Danish literature canon, which was carried out under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Education in 2004.
Promoting the cultural canon
The cultural canon will be published as a book with a DVD or CD ROM. The aim of publishing a canon book is to present the works in a lively, inspiring way. Hopefully, the combination of book and DVD or CD ROM will make the recipients want to find out even more about the individual canon works as well as the art forms which they represent.
The book will be ready on 15 August 2006, when the schools resume after the summer holiday. It will be handed out as free class sets for all primary & lower secondary schools (Folkeskole), upper secondary schools (Gymnasium), business colleges (Handelsskole), etc., in Denmark. It will also be given out free to adult learning centres (VUC), high schools (Højskole) and some higher education establishments. At the same time, the book will be on sale in retailers for DKK 99. A large number of books will be needed. In total, 175,000 copies will be printed, 150,000 of which will be distributed free to educational establishments, libraries, etc.
A high priority for the Danish Minister for Culture is to ensure that the canon project reaches all interested citizens, especially the target group of young people. The ministry is therefore developing a special canon website, which is scheduled for completion in May 2006. When the site is ready, it will be accessible via the ministry's website at www.kum.dk
The primary purpose of the canon website is to present the canon works in the very best way through sound and picture and to make use of the digital medium's interactive possibilities.
The completed cultural canon
Each canon committee has thus compiled a canon for its art form – a canon comprising 12 indispensable Danish works of art. One exception, however, is the canon for music, where the committee has drawn up a list of 24 works: 12 within popular music and 12 within score music.
Canon for children's culture
On its own initiative, the chairmanship has decided to prepare a canon of 12 works aimed specifically at children.
In January 2006, a special issue of Kulturkontakten – the magazine of the Danish Ministry of Culture – presented all the canon works in both text and pictures, reproduced here on the website. Each committee has written an introduction on how they tackled the assignment and on their many considerations, choices and rejections. Each work is then presented through an illustration and a text. The canon committees themselves chose the illustrations, and in each committee the members jointly formulated the texts, giving the reasons why the work was chosen for inclusion in the cultural canon.
Happy viewing and reading.
Kulturkontakten editorial team