HURUP.- Visitors have been flocking to SMK Thy in droves ever since the museum opened the doors of its new domicile there at the end of August 2025. For its first exhibition in the new building, the national gallery presented Journey from Paris, featuring some of the most iconic works from SMK’s collection of modern French art.

On Sunday 2 November SMK Thy welcomed its last visitors for the year, marking the close of the inaugural season for the national gallery’s permanent presence in Doverodde, South Thy.

A total of 38,930 guests have visited the museum since its inauguration on 29 August. With this result, the first season has exceeded even the hopes of SMK’s director, Astrid la Cour.

‘The past few months have been quite overwhelming, and we are enormously grateful for the reception we’ve had locally, regionally, and nationally. Our ambition with SMK Thy is to make the museum’s rich art collection accessible to more Danes, and it’s wonderful to see such tremendous interest. Of course, we realise that the museum is currently in a start-up phase, and visitor numbers may settle a little over the coming years. But we certainly couldn’t have wished for a better beginning for SMK Thy,’ says Astrid la Cour.

The newly opened museum in Thy comprises a distinctive silo and a carefully reconstructed warehouse, designed by the Norwegian–Danish architectural firm Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter. The museum and its opening exhibition have been realised thanks to a generous grant of DKK 50 million from the A.P. Moller Foundation.

SMK has run activities in Doverodde in collaboration with Thisted Municipality since 2018. But only now, with the new building providing the required facilities and conditions, has it become possible to bring works from Denmark’s shared national art collection to Thy. The mayor of Thisted Municipality, Niels Jørgen Pedersen, is delighted by the warm welcome SMK Thy has received.

‘It has been absolutely fantastic to see such intense interest and huge turnouts from both locals and visitors from further afield. This confirms our belief that cultural life doesn’t belong in the capital alone – there is plenty of space, potential and passion for art and culture right out on the farthest edges of Denmark. We are proud to have kept faith in that idea and to be part of seeing this project realised,’ he says.

Next year SMK Thy will open for its first full season, running from 28 March to 18 October 2026. Visitors can look forward two brand-new exhibitions that explore, each in their own way, the relationship between humankind and nature.