MÅLTIDET

When Kunsthal Spritten says “art for everyone”, reflecting our ambition to establish a genuine connection between contemporary art and a wider audience, we mean it. And we will go to great lengths to explore how best to unlock the potential of art. We do exactly that in our pilot project MÅLTIDET, which investigates what happens when a visual artist, working in collaboration with a public institution, rethinks the everyday meal.

The project comprises two parts. The first took place in February 2025 when the artist Johanne A. Stoffersen (b. 1994) launched the project in the kitchen at Madservice Aalborg, which provides meals to 38 care homes across the municipality. Here, Kunsthal Spritten tested the format on the lunches provided for 1,700 senior citizens in municipal care as Stoffersen worked closely with the kitchen team to rethink and develop traditional Danish dishes, taking them in a new, inspiring and greener direction.

The second part of the project took place in September 2025 when Stoffersen returned to a kitchen setting, this time at the Vesterkæret School in Aalborg. Working side by side with the school’s older pupils (years 7–9), she invited them, in rotating groups, to take their place in the kitchen, prepare lunch for one another, and eat together. Here, Kunsthal Spritten explored the artistic potential that can emerge when an everyday ritual such as lunch becomes a shared focal point, inviting creativity, conversation and community.

The consultancy firm Seismonaut followed MÅLTIDET throughout the process, collecting data and insights along the way. The findings and conclusions are compiled in a report that can serve as inspiration for other organisations. The report offers a series of recommendations for collaborations between cultural and welfare institutions where art can be used as an experimental driver of change. It points to how Kunsthal Spritten’s pilot project has actively helped address the societal challenge posed by a meal culture in flux within the Danish state school system, while also shedding new light on the meals provided in elder care. The report notes, for example, that:

‘Through MÅLTIDET, pupils, kitchen staff and senior citizens encounter art in a down-to-earth way that connects directly with an everyday ritual. Using a meal, specifically lunch, as its format, contemporary art reaches more people than it would in a museum. Art enters everyday life, stepping into the pupils’ and kitchen staff’s own arena and familiar settings. The safety of the familiar creates greater openness to what they are presented with, enabling them to receive the art in an honest and immediate way. Conversations arise, views are exchanged, and emotions surface during the meal.’

According to Kunsthal Spritten’s co-directors, Signe Jochumsen and Bibi Henriksen Saugman, the project is founded on a strong measure of trust and openness:

"At Kunsthal Spritten, we are committed to forging new paths and demonstrating that contemporary art has relevance in everyday life. It is much more than “something to do on a Sunday”. Sending an artist, Johanne A. Stoffersen, into the kitchens of Madservice Aalborg and then Vesterkæret School has been a very special and rewarding collaboration. Both host institutions have shown great courage and remarkable trust, welcoming art into their respective organisations from day one. Aalborg is a dynamic city where ideas can be put into action with great speed, and people pull together when it counts. That is something to be proud of, and we hope others will be inspired."

MÅLTIDET is realised in collaboration with Bikubenfonden (the Bikuben Foundation), with the ambition of creating new kinds of encounters with contemporary art.