Cisternerne - Museum for moderne Glaskunst (English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: The Cisterns - Museum of Modern Glass Art) is a museum in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, dedicated to modern glass art. It is located in some grotto-like former water cisterns that come complete with Stalactites formed by the changing water levels. The entrance being marked by two glass pyramids, the museum is located beneath Søndermarken

Søndermarken

Søndermarken is a park in Frederiksberg on the border to Valby and the Carlsberg area in Copenhagen, Denmark. It shares much of its history with Frederiksberg Park from which it is separated only by Roskildevej...

 park next to the Zoo. In February 2009 Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

 listed Cisternerne as one of the more unusual exhibition spaces in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

History

The cisterns were originally part of the Copenhagen municipal water supply and served as elevation reservoirs that were to create the pressure needed for water to reach the upper floors of the buildings of the city. They were constructed in 1856-1859 and served their original purpose until 1981. For a while they were used for concerts, exhibitions and events before being turned into the present, permanent museum in 1996.

The collections

The museum boasts a permanent collection of glass art by leading Danish artists such as Robert Jacobsen

Robert Jacobsen

Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen was a Danish sculptor and painter. The Danish Robert award was named after him.-Biography:...

, Carl-Henning Pedersen

Carl-Henning Pedersen

Carl-Henning Pedersen was a Danish painter and a key member of the COBRA movement. He was known as the "Scandinavian Chagall", and was one of the leading Danish artists of the second half of the 20th century....

. Peter Brandes

Peter Brandes

Peter Brandes is a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist and photographer.Brandes' art is abstract and often in brown colours. He had his breakthrough as artist in the beginning of the 1980s...

 and Tróndur Patursson

Tróndur Patursson

Tróndur Patursson is a Faroese painter, sculptor, and glass artist. He was educated in Norway and was initially a sculptor. He has since become better known as a painter and glass artist....

as well as temporary exhibitions.