Designmuseum Danmark has received the prestigious DASA award of the European Museum Academy.

The conclusion of the award jury was that:

"Design Museum Denmark is a vibrant, forward-looking museum that aims to place design at the center of the life lived. The museum with its new strategy evolved from being a traditional museum to one that is relevant to the 21st century, and today attracts visitors of all ages and from all walks of life. With emphasis on excellence and lifelong learning as the museum a worthy winner of this year's DASA Award. "

This is well-deserved recognition of a very active education programme and events that attract a broad range of visitors and for an exhibition programme that presents design over a broad period and over a wide range of topics. Recently, there have been major exhibitions on the work of Kaare Klint and of the work of Hans Wegner - major figures in the history of modern Danish design - but then the current exhibition, on the interaction of the art and design of Japan with Danish taste and design, places Danish design firmly in a broader international context.

Recent exhibitions - including the work of the Danish Cabinetmakers’ Association in Unfolds and the current exhibition Side by Side Out Side, the Cabinetmakers’ Autumn exhibition - have encouraged visitors to explore and understand the works directly by touching and handling the exhibits and the important new display of chairs from the collection and the exhibition of design from 2000 to 2015 have experimented successfully with new styles of presentation including more use of videos and, for instance, interviews with designers.

Dansk Nu - that exhibition of recent design - also marks a deliberate and successful attempt to stake a claim to representing current design so the museum is seen as proactive and relevant rather than simply passive as a record of what has been accepted as the best of the past.

Events spill out into the courtyard garden and onto the entrance court with fairs and demonstrations so, with the very popular cafe and the shop that always seems busy, perhaps the best single word to describe the museum is that word vibrant used by the jury.