Art and visitors are back at ARoS: Impressive visitor numbers in 2022

Although 2022 began with a few weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, ARoS is ending the year with very satisfactory visitor figures. A total of 629,674 visitors, of whom 514,332 purchased tickets for the exhibitions. Building on this and with a strong programme of exhibitions planned for the coming year, Director Rebecca Matthews predicts that ARoS is set for an even better 2023.

After exactly one year in the post as museum director, Rebecca Matthews is delighted that visitor numbers at ARoS are almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Following two extraordinary years of lockdowns, the Aarhus art museum welcomed 629,674 visitors during 2022, whilst 514,332 purchased a ticket to one of the many exhibitions.

With these visitor figures, 2022 is significantly higher than both 2020 and 2021 – years that were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – and almost on a par with 2019, which was the most recent ‘normal’ year.

“I am really pleased with the visitor figures we’ve ended 2022 on, and I’d like to thank all the visitors who come, experience and thereby support the art at ARoS. We’ve exceeded the figures we’d hoped for, and we’re pretty much back to pre-Covid levels. It’s fair to say that 2022 was the year when art and visitors returned to ARoS,” says museum director Rebecca Matthews, who joined ARoS on 3 January 2022, when the museum was still closed due to the pandemic.

Visitors returned from the start of the year

There was therefore great joy when ARoS was able to reopen its doors on 16 January.

The year began with three exhibitions, all of which had opened in late 2021: ‘Turner – Sun is God’, ‘Lu Yang – Digital Descending’ and ‘Shoplifter/Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir – Hypernature’. In addition, the year has featured the exhibitions ‘Jakob Kudsk Steensen – Berl Berl’, ‘Vertigo’, ‘Viera Collaro – Levitation, Compression, Transcendence’, ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’, ‘Franciska Clausen – The Whole Picture’, and ‘Chiraru Shiota – Invisible Line’, which opened on 3 December and runs until 16 April 2023.

“It was a great pleasure to reopen our doors, and it was wonderful that our visitors had the opportunity to see the three exhibitions from late 2021 before they closed. Furthermore, I think 2022 has offered a truly exciting programme of exhibitions, activities and talks, which, fortunately, have attracted many visitors from both home and abroad,” says Rebecca Matthews.

High hopes for 2023

As well as the many exhibitions, 2022 featured a very special event – namely on 15 June at 3.15 pm. This marked the ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion of ARoS, ‘The Next Level’, which comprises various elements. Most striking is the magnificent artwork ‘The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell’, but The Next Level will also feature an underground exhibition gallery covering 1,000 square metres and an outdoor Art Square.

‘The Next Level’ will not open until 2025, but the construction work is already attracting a great deal of attention from visitors to ARoS, who can follow the progress from the windows; and, combined with an impressive exhibition programme, this has given Rebecca Matthews high hopes for 2023.

“In 2023, we’ll be inviting visitors on a series of spectacular journeys. We’ll be exploring ideas through weavings, collages, sound and montage; we’ll immerse visitors in worlds that envelop them in fantastical visions, magic and surrealism to explore mysticism and the knowledge of the future, and we’ll create a social space brimming with artistic discoveries featuring renowned artists. “We set the bar high, and overall we believe we have put together a programme that will inspire and spark our guests’ curiosity; that is why we also expect to attract even more visitors in 2023,” says Rebecca Matthews.

For further information, please contact:

ARoS Press and Communications
presse@aros.dk
+45 61904942