There have been many positive improvements at Vesterheim's Westby-Torgerson Education Center these past years. It started with the Knifemaking classroom in the basement. What an extreme make-over that was! Then this past year we saw the move of the gift shop from the main museum building to the education building. This move merged the gift shop with the folk art shop, leaving space on the southeast corner of the building available for something else. It became the very bright and cheery Bruening Visitor Center (BVC) with the generous support of the Bruening family of Decorah. Sigmund Aarseth and Sallie Haugen DeReus, longtime friends and supporters of Vesterheim, painted, stenciled, and rosemaled the room.
Just this spring, Jim Nelson, Jim Costello, and Dave Amdahl painted the rosemaling classrooms and kitchen area on third floor. Sallie and Darlene Fossum-Martin put the finishing touches on the walls with stenciling.
Finally it was the woodworker's turn! Darlene, Vesterheim's Education Director got the ball rolling. She and Rebecca started brainstorming ideas in March. Aaron Swenson, Arvid Swenson, and John Balstad volunteered to help Rebecca. They spent many days giving our woodworking classroom a fresh look. Walls were painted ahead of time by Jim Nelson of Vesterheim. Darlene provided coffee and treats!
Take a look at the progress - first the way it used to look!
And the transformation:
Volunteers Howard and Marlene Amundson of Hopkins, MN lend their help for a couple of days. Here we get out wainscoting that had previously been used at Vesterheim and now stored in the Jacobson farm barn.
Meanwhile, John and Aaron get busy priming the window trim.
Howard, Marlene and I get started on cleaning the old wainscoting.
Aaron primes the window motifs he carved.
We painted and painted and painted!
Finally, we move inside to start applying the pieces. Aaron works on window trim.
Arvid works on the bottom piece of the wainscot molding.
John loved working on the "plugs!"
By the end of the week, the room had a whole different look!
Then in early June, the Norsota Sons of Norway made their annual "work weekend" trip to Vesterheim - their 19th year! They also contributed to the woodworking classroom with their time and effort.
Nancy Enstad and Marlene Amundson washed windows.
Polly Bergerson helped me paint the interior window trim.
Also painting windows and doing other jobs was Jill Amdahl.
Dick Enstad worked on a chest/bench for storing parts for the workbenches.
The room was cleaned and ready for Hans Sandom's first week of Acanthus carving June 4th.
Now we need YOUR help! We have items we would like to add to our classroom. As soon as possible, we would like to add a "viewing window" - similar to the ones that look into the rosemaling classrooms. This allows visitors to look into the room without interrupting the class. Hopefully it will encourage viewers to join us some day!
On our wish list are new window blinds. The old plastic white ones are stained and brittle after years of exposure and just do not fit in now with the rich colors of the room.
If you could help with a financial donation of any size, we would greatly appreciate it! We all enjoy classes there and have certainly become a "Vesterheim Family". If you are able, please send a donation to Vesterheim and earmark it for the "woodworking classroom window". We hope to have this done in time for the Nordic Fest. We hope you'll all be able to come and view the room sometime this summer.
Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum
523 West Water Street
Decorah, Iowa 52101
If you have any questions, please email rebeccah@mchsi.com
Thank you for your consideration!
Rebecca Hanna
Decorah
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