Rockheim (also called ''Det nasjonale opplevelsessenteret for pop og rock'', The National Discovery Centre for Pop and Rock, and ''Det nasjonale museet for populærmusikk'', The National Museum for Popular Music) is

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

's national museum for popular music from the 1950s to the present. It is a division of Museene i Sør-Trøndelag ( Sør-Trøndelag Museums) and is housed in a former grain warehouse in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. It opened in 2010; since 2013, the director has been Sissel Guttormsen. The museum also has a virtual presence, ''Virtuelle Rockheim'', which launched in 2009, and since 2011 musicians and groups have been chosen for the Rockheim Hall of Fame.

History and administration

The idea for the museum goes back to 1998; the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: *Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) *Ministry of Culture (Argentina) *Minister for the Arts (Australia) *Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan) * Ministry of ...

began planning eight years later and in 2007 Bratterøkaia AS won the commission to create it. It was to have opened in 2009, but completion of the building was delayed by a contractor bankruptcy and a fire.Elizabeth Hopkirk
"Rockheim opens in Norway"
''Building.co.uk'', 19 August 2010.Kristin Agerlie
"Her er Trondheims nye trekkplaster"

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

, 5 August 2010 . It officially opened on 5 August 2010. Rockheim is housed in a 1919 grain warehouse in Trondheim. To roughly double the space available, a new sixth floor was added in the form of a cantilevered 'box', which is clad in glass decorated with reproductions of album covers and with changeable back-lighting provided by 13,000 individually controllable LEDs; the public can affect the colours by using cellphones.Terje Mosnes
"Drømmeslott for rockevåkne"
''Dagbladet'', 6 August 2010 . ir IIbr>"Warehouse represents Norwegian rock 'n' roll"
''World Architecture News'', 29 November 2012. A "black box" building for performances was also added; the design envisaged this being covered by climbing plants. The architects for the conversion were and for the grounds, Agraff AS. The conversion was awarded the City of Trondheim's 2010 building award. The building has of floor space, of which half is exhibit space. The building and installations cost 300 million kroner. The museum is a division of Museene i Sør-Trøndelag. It was headed by Arvid Esperø during planning and construction and until 2011, when Petter Myhr became the director; he was succeeded in 2013 by Sissel Guttormsen.

Permanent and virtual exhibits

The primary mission of the museum is to preserve and document Norwegian popular music. The permanent exhibit, for which the lead designer was Canadian Stacey Spiegel, takes the form of a journey through Norwegian music and cultural history from the 1950s to the present. It occupies in the building's top-floor box, and devotes a room to each decade. The exhibition has many interactive components. Visitors first encounter an interactive map of Norway, can select the videos shown in each room, and there are three discovery rooms: in the Ronni Room they can try playing guitar with guidance from

Ronni Le Tekrø Ronni Le Tekrø (born Rolf Ågrim Tekrø, 5 October 1963) is a Norwegian guitarist best known for playing with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT and as a solo guitarist cooperating with guitarists Terje Rypdal and Mads Eriksen as "N3". LeTekr ...

, and in the Hiphop Room they can experiment with DJing,

graffiti art Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

and

breakdancing Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in t ...

. In ''Virtuelle Rockheim'', launched on 21 August 2009, they can manipulate an

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

to explore a selection of the exhibits in 3D. Spiegel, who also designed the virtual museum, predicted in 2008 that Rockheim would be "the world's most technically sophisticated virtual museum"; it was Norway's first online museum.

Temporary exhibitions

The museum opened with a temporary exhibition of photographs by

Robert Meyer Robert Meyer (born October 2, 1945 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian art photographer, professor, photo historian, collector, writer and publicist. He is the son of journalist Robert Castberg Meyer and homemaker Edel Nielsen; and brother of the in ...

titled ''Icons of the 60's''. Other temporary exhibitions have been ''Jukeboks!'' (

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

), ''Wenches Verden'' (on

Wenche Myhre Wenche Synnøve Myhre (born 15 February 1947), known in some countries as Wencke Myhre, is a Norwegian singer who has had a great number of hit songs since the 1960s in the Norwegian, Danish, German and Swedish markets and languages. Early caree ...

), ''Innenfor/utenfor'' (inside/outside; photographs by

Peter Beste Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

) and ''Teigens Tivoli'' (on

Jahn Teigen Jahn Teigen (27 September 1949 – 24 February 2020) was a Norwegian singer, musician and comedian. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest three times, in 1978, 1982 and 1983, His given name was Jan; he added the silent H later. Fr ...

Hall of Fame

The Rockheim Hall of Fame honours individuals and groups for their contributions to Norwegian popular music. Inductees must have debuted at least 25 years before and are chosen annually by a jury. a-ha,

Åge Aleksandersen Åge Aleksandersen (born 21 March 1949 in Namsos, Norway) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is one of his country's best known singer/songwriters and musicians. Some of his most well known songs are "''Lys og varme''" (''Light ...

Jokke & Valentinerne Joachim Nielsen (8 September 1964 – 17 October 2000), better known as Jokke, was a Norwegian rock musician and poet. He was the frontman of Norwegian rock band Jokke & Valentinerne, the brother of cartoonist Christopher Nielsen, and son of th ...

and

Alf Prøysen Alf Prøysen () (23 July 1914 – 23 November 1970) was a Norwegian author, poet, playwright, songwriter and musician. Prøysen was one of the most important Norwegian cultural personalities in the second half of the 20th century. He worke ...

were the first to be inducted, on 5 September 2011.Magne Gisvold
"Disse innlemmes i Hall of Fame"
Rockheim, 5 September 2011

References

External links