Danish Immigrant Musuem in Elk Horn, IA, announces expansion
My personal ancestry is one-quarter Danish, so any news of the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa, is of interest. Here is the latest from my Hometown weekly newspaper:
Coon Rapids Enterprise - Thursday, May 23, 2013, Page 4:
Elk Horn
Museum plans $3 million expansion
The Danish Immigrant Museum has announced plans to construct
an 8,000 sq. ft. curatorial center at its location on the western edge of
Elk Horn. The center will be located below ground on the west side
of the present building and will feature an environmentally-friendly
green roof. The project cost estimates are $3 million -- $2 million for
construction and $1 million to be invested in the museum’s endowment
to meet increased operational costs. To date, over $2.3 million
has been raised or is anticipated, though construction will not begin
until the $3 million fundraising goal is reached. “Our museum is the
only museum in the country dedicated to preserving artifacts of the
Danish American community here in the United States,” said the museum’s
executive director, Dr. John Mark Nielsen. “The planned curatorial
center will assure that the museum has appropriate space for
expanded artifact collection and for creating traveling exhibits that
will be shared with museums across the country and in Denmark.”
An initial gift of $100,000 in November 2011 from Omaha museum
members, Bill and Berniece Grewcock, enabled museum staff to work
with conservation professionals and AHTS Architects of Waterloo,
Iowa, in designing the planned expansion. The resulting plans have
been shared with potential donors, which led to a $1 million gift from
an anonymous donor family. The museum has also received word
that it was the residual beneficiary of the estate of Richard Hellman
of Oceanside, CA and formerly of Atlantic, who died on March 6 of
this year. “I met with Richard annually since coming to the museum
ten years ago,” Nielsen said, “and it was always his hope that his estate
gift would be significant enough to name the expanded space
after his parents, Peter and Karen Hellman, who were Danish immigrants.”
Audubon County Advocate Journal
Families are Forever! ;-)
