Pakkhúsið, Sívertsenshúsið and Beggubúð will be open from 18:00-22:00 on Museum Night the 7th of February 2025.

Pakkhúsið:

– 18:00 – 22:00 The house opens

– 18:00 – 22:00 Brand new scavenger hunt around Pakkhúsið, Sívertsenshús and Beggubúð.

– 20:00 – 21:00 Black cats, full moon and red-haired women: Símon Jón Jóhannsson folklorist gives an intriguing lecture on his newly published book and walks us through superstitions of various kinds.

Historian Símon Jón Jóhannsson has written and compiled over thirty books on ethnographic, historical, and literary subjects. He recently published the book Black Cats, Full Moon and Red-Haired Women, which discusses folklore of various kinds. Símon Jón will lead us through complex, sometimes dangerous and often funny superstitions that many of us dare not help but follow.

– 21:00 – 21:30 Margrét Lára Jónsdóttir plays violin and Tómas Vigur Magnús plays piano some classic and beautiful songs at the end of the evening.

Musicians Margrét Lára Jónsdóttir violinist and Tómas Vigur Magnússon pianist will have a concert at the end of the evening in Pakkhúsið. Their goal is to disseminate classical music to the general public, thereby arousing interest in the magic of music and the importance of music education for all social groups.

Sívertsenshús:

– 18:00-22:00 The house opens

– 18:00-22:00 Annríki’s national costume and jewelry show

Annríki – National costumes and jewelry will be in the Sívertsens house on Museum Night. They will show up in the national costume and show us various works that were previously made in the winter darkness in the bathhouses. Annríki – National Costumes and Jewelry specialize in everything related to Icelandic national costumes. The company is run by the couple Ásmundur Kristjánsson and Guðrún Hildur Rosenkjær. Ásmundur is a mechanic and goldsmith, while Guðrún Hildur Rosenkjær is a master tailor and dressmaker and historian. If you want to know all about the bathhouse works and national costumes, then come visit us on Museum Night.

– 18:00-22:00 Brand new treasure hunt around Pakkhúsið, Sívertsenshús and Beggubúð

Beggubúð:

– 18:00-22:00 Amazing objects in the dark – come and see Beggubúð in the dark

It will be pitch black in Beggubúð so it will be necessary to pull out a flashlight to look closely at the items in the store. It might be difficult to find things for the treasure hunt in the dark there.

– 18:00-22:00 Brand new treasure hunt around Pakkhúsið, Sívertsenshús and Beggubúð

Museum Night in Hafnarborg

Friday February the 7th from 6-10 p.m., we will celebrate Museum Night at Hafnarborg, welcoming you to the museum in the evening to enjoy our exhibitions and a special programme featuring an open art workshop and guided tour by flashlight:

6 p.m. Art Workshop – Image composition

In connection with the museum’s ongoing photography exhibitions, we invite guests to a special art workshop. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore how to construct an image, in both a literal and creative sense, experimenting with composition and developing their visual skills through the arrangement of found objects. The goal is to uncover the beauty in the everyday and to examine how different perspectives influence image composition, whether approaching abstraction or classical still life. All materials will be provided and participants will be encouraged to arrange objects in various ways, photograph their creations or translate them into drawings. The workshop will be led by Unnur Mjöll S. Leifsdóttir, artist and Educational Manager at Hafnarborg.

8 p.m. Settlement – Guided Tour with Flashlights

Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson will lead visitors on a guided tour of Pétur Thomsen’s photography exhibition, Settlement, in a darkened gallery lit only by flashlight. The exhibition features landscape works captured by the photographer at night, where he uses a big flash to light up the land and define the stage. In many of the works, a black sky looms over the landscape, imbuing the photographs with an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere. Among the subjects Pétur explores in this photography series are mines, roads, lava fields, woods, creeks and cultivated lands, with a particular focus on land use and how humans impact nature.

Museum Night takes place during the Winter Lights Festival, when around fifty museums open their doors to guests, offering a varied programme of events and entertainment. The cultural institutions in town: Hafnarfjörður´s Library, Byggðasafnið museum and Hafnarborg museum, are all active participants, as in years past. For Museum Night, admission to all participating museums and related events is free of charge.

Bókasafn Hafnarfjarðar / Library – 20:00-22:00

Welcome to a three-part author’s evening at Hafnarfjörður´s Library on the occasion of Museum Night, where the guest lecturer of the evening will be Einar Lövdahl – writer, musician and Icelandic scholar.

At the beginning of the program, Einar will briefly talk about the novel Gegnumtrekkur, which was published by Mál og menning last year, and read excerpts from the book. After that, he will perform original songs with tearful lyrics that deal with a man who is offended, restlessness and hysteria, and the gray of the capital area, to name a few. To celebrate the day, Einar will round off the program with a light lecture on swearing in modern Icelandic – but it is worth noting that Einar’s BA thesis in Icelandic dealt with the swear word “f***” and related words in a grammatical context. Should “sjitturinn” have a place in an Icelandic dictionary? Why do Icelanders think they are so tame to invoke the Dark Ruler? How has “f***” made its way into the beloved language?