The ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum is an art museum in Aarhus, Denmark.
The museum was established in 1859 and is the oldest public art museum in Denmark outside of Copenhagen. On 8 April 2004, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum opened with exhibitions in a brand new modern building, 10 storeys tall. It is designed by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Today ARoS is one of the largest art museums in northern Europe with a total of 816,468 visitors in 2015.
One of the most commonly-used words in Denmark has no English translation. “Hygge,” pronounced hoo-ga, is often translated as “coziness.” But coziness paints only part of the picture.
Simply, hygge is about living in the moment. It’s about spending quality, peaceful time in a calm environment with no agenda. It’s about humor, warmth and making connections. It’s about spending time alone and spending time with family. And it vanishes the moment your to-do list gets involved. It even has its own adjective: hyggelig. As in, “This quiet cafe is so hyggelig.”
Hygge is not entirely foreign to Americans. Consider Johnny Cash’s description of paradise: “This morning, having coffee, with her.” That’s hygge.