Artipelag: an Art Museum in the Archipelago!

The museum, peeking through the trees

I finally had the chance to visit a museum that has been on my list for the past few years: Artipelag. It is a little outside of the city, in the archipelago, and therefore requires a full day to visit. Unfortunately, every time I have had plans to visit the museum, something has happened. I guess that is one of the few positive things to come out of the pandemic... more time over to do things you've been meaning to do. Silver linings? At any rate, I am really happy to have finally visited Artipelag. Well worth the wait and it won't be the last time!

Signature Women

The man behind the museum is Björn Jakobson, the founder of the world famous company Baby Björn. He came up with the idea of building an art museum in the archipelago and designing the building to fit in seamlessly with the beautiful surrounding nature. The museum opened up its doors in 2012 and has quickly made a name for itself in the Swedish and international art scenes. A bit of extra trivia... they do sell some Baby Björn products in the gift shop!

Signature Women

I went last week with two friends and we saw their summer exhibition called Signature Women, which presents 350 works of art by 50 Swedish female artists over the past 100 years. The works come in all types of art mediums: sculpture, painting, photography, fashion, weaving and more. It was an extensive and very interesting exhibition. If you have plans to come to Stockholm in the coming weeks, you still have time to see the exhibition. It is going on until September 27th! Artipelag also has a more permanent exhibition called Sculpture in Nature with the works of art found in the forests around the museum building.

Sculpture in nature, accessed from...

...wooden pathways...

Having works of sculpture in the forest works very well here as, just as Björn Jakobson envisioned it, the museum fits in perfectly with the gorgeous archipelago nature surrounding the museum. The main building sits on a little hill, perched up over the water. There are beautiful wooden pathways leading from the boat dock (more on that later) up to and around the museum. You have great views of the water and nearby islands, with sail boats gliding by. Very well done! I would say that, when planning your visit, save time to explore the forest. I wish we had done so and not been so rushed at the end. Oh well, next time!

...from the waterside up to the museum.

As I mentioned, the museum is in the archipelago and a bit outside of the city (though that is a big part of its charm). You do have several choices on how to get there from Stockholm. During the summer months, the Strömma company offers boat trips to and from the museum. This is what we did last week. I have to say that this is a wonderful and picturesque boat ride which takes 1½ hours in each direction. Well worth the trip as the views of the archipelago are spectacular... especially when the boat has to go through small canals and waterways part of the way.

The boat arriving at Artipelag, after a trip...

The museum is, of course, open year-round. During the cooler months of the year, you can get to Artipelag by either the museum's own buses or public buses. They have temporarily stopped running their own bus due to Covid 19. Hopefully they will be up and running again this autumn. The public buses depart from Slussen, which is just a 10 minute walk from Hotel Rival. Be aware that this trip does include changing buses (no direct bus), but the whole trip only takes around 35 minutes. Click here for more information regarding getting to the museum by bus as well as directions if you have your own car.