The David Collection is not a museum that boasts loud and proud about its presence in the city. Despite lying quite central in the city it doesn’t have building that majestically rise or separates it from its surroundings making itself known to visitors walking outside. Unlike other collections like Thorvaldsen’s Museum and Glyptoteket The David Collection it is quite hidden thus making it one of the unknown museum collections in the city. Only the small wavering banners outside indicates that here is something to see, visit, and explore if one is into old artefacts and art. With that being said, the David Collection houses the largest collection of Islamic cultural artefacts in the country, and when one says large it is with great emphasis on large. Indeed, the whole Islamic Art exhibition could be the whole museum for all intends and purposes but the museum also house to additional floors with focus on furnitures, interior and paintings though these exhibitions pale in comparison with the quality and interests one gets from the Islamic Collection.
The collection of Islamic cultural artefacts is where the heart of the museum lies and I would also recommend skipping the first and second floor at first as they have less an impact on the visit as the Islamic Collection. The collection is enormous and could easily just have been the whole museum. It ebbs with the feeling of input heart and effort, and digging into the artefacts can take several hours to completely get through. The atmosphere is interestingly set up. Light is very dim, even to a degree where it makes reading difficult. However, it does make for a mysterious but neat atmosphere. The artefacts are presented by a fair of information and almost all of them have a long description of what they are. This is quite impressive as the amount of effort to show information about all the artefacts must have taken years to do. Even more, the exhibition is well structured with numbered rooms that guides the visitors through the ages of Islamic history. There are few times where you are in doubt of where to go next as the numbers provide great help. This is also greatly supported by the availability of touchscreens. A lot of these screens are set to only explain the different parts of the coin-collection, but they were done pretty well. If you have an interest in ancient coins you will be able to see in-depth details about their age, origins, and also a function that makes you see both sides of the coins, no pun intended. I really enjoyed these small details as it shows the curators really have catered for visitors to be more engaged with the exhibition. Even so, though the museum has provided English translations for a lot of the historical background for the whole exhibition there are still areas where translations are lacking. The museum do have have a few touchscreens to help out foreign visitors get information about the artefacts. Especially, the area called Cultural History Themes stands out. This part of the exhibition particularly explores various topics of Islamic culture and history while connecting them to artefacts in the collection. They even got videos showing the process of how the artefacts were possibly made. This is well done and everything is translated hopefully making this an inspiration for future translation of the whole exhibition to foreigners. However, even without translations there are still plenty of stuff to enjoy. Both the miniature collection and the textile collection is super huge and they have been quite smart to put them in available drawers for curious visitors to look in. You quickly realise that there are so much to look at that a few hours easily are not enough to cover it all. Yet, this might also be the weakness of the exhibition. When it is so huge it also runs the risk of becoming tedious as you enter the next room after the next room, and around the last third of the exhibition you might feel your brain shutting down. Likewise the variety is also sparse. You won’t get any particular varied interaction other than the current few touchscreens and catalogues lying on tables. Personally, I don’t mind this a particular issue as the museum is mainly about showing the collection. The impressive part is their great ambitions to show they also want to tell us about the artefacts and the history of the islamic culture. It would have been easy to simply just provide a show of the artefacts, as many other museums choose due to lack or resources or interest, but The David Collection really wish to engage the visitors with plenty of info on their islamic artefacts. So even if it is a long and huge exhibition and your brain might have a shutdown at some point I gotta give this museum great credits for putting a lot of love into the informative part as a collection museum.
After visiting the Islamic Collection one would probably be tempted to also see what the two lower floors are offering. However, in comparison with the Islamic Collection the European 18th-century art and Danish Early Modern Art both looks pretty meagre in comparison. The interior of the rooms with the shown furnitures are neatly done but it lacks pondus when it comes to how exciting and interesting it really is. Information is quite sparse and the few you get feels geared toward and expert audience who are already interested in furniture design. The only room that had some more engaging providement of information was the Roentgen room where an interactive touchscreen provided some extra animation to the various furniture in the room. This worked quite well and I would have wished this was also available in the other rooms of the exhibition. The Danish Early Modern Art was surprisingly small and I personally didn’t find much out of the ordinary from what you could find in the bigger art museums. In general, both floors basically holds a similar style as there are few engaging parts of the exhibitions that goes beyond just showing us furnitures, sculptures and a few paintings. It feels like these elements of the collection are just filler, and unless you have a particular interests for early modern art or European 18th-century furniture these floors will most likely not spark much interest. All I saw during my visit was people hurrying in, taking pictures and then out again.
David’s Collection is easy to find as it is centrally located right across from the King’s Garden. It can be hidden a bit, but the waving banners should give an indication of its location. There are also plenty of parking areas available for visitors on bike as several other places, like train station and cinemas, has spots for bikes to be parked. Wardrobes with keys are available and the museum is pretty easy to access as it has no attendance fee which is quite remarkable for a museum collection of this size. There are also a lot of security in place with both camera and guards patroling the museum. Although, I am totally in favour of them doing everything to protect the precious artefacts in the exhibition it was a bit distracting to have the guards constantly follow me into the different rooms. Still, it is a minor issue which I am sure most other people won’t find too much of a nuisance like me.
Overall, The Collection of David is a neat and hidden gem of a museum with a size that will surprise most visitors. The first two floors showing Danish and European art design might not spark the greatest excitement, but it is fully compensated by an extremely well done Islamic Collection. In fact, the whole exhibition could have been the museum alone. Its size is impressive and also done with both heart and great interest for showing and informing visitors about Islamic history and culture by the use of the artefacts being showed in the exhibition. The exhibition is still not fully translated, but the museum have put out touch screens with information for both Danish and English speakers. There is a general feeling that the [curators] have a great love for the exhibition while the great structure and awareness by the museum shines through the use of touch screens as great information tools and are greatly appreciated. The very fact that it is also a museum with free attendance makes the David Collection an exceptionally nice recommendation. Even if the sheer size of it can make your brain burnout, it is still difficult not to approve the museum as one of the really good collections you can visit in Copenhagen.
Visit if…you are looking for an easily accessible artefact-museum with a focused theme on Islamic culture and arts that really caters for providing it visitors with learning and curious show of artefacts.
Avoid if…collection museums isn’t your thing as the museum doesn’t offer much in terms of interaction or variety in the structure of the exhibitions.
Accessibility: 4/5
Interaction: 2/5
Learning: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Total: