STOUGHTON, Wis. (AP) - At the new Norwegian heritage center in Stoughton, 33 video screens dominate one wall, forming a large, interactive mosaic.
By selecting various options, visitors can create profiles of long-ago immigrants traveling from Norway to the U.S., then watch as their voyages visually unfold before them.
The installation is the centerpiece of the permanent exhibit space, dazzling in its imagery. Giving a tour, Jerry Gryttenholm, project leader for the center, described years of work to fine-tune every detail in the facility.
“We had the opportunity to do something special here, and we wanted to get it right,” he said.
The Wisconsin State Journal (https://bit.ly/1FAJdcz ) reports that Stoughton, a city of about 13,000 people 18 miles southeast of Madison, has long capitalized on its Norwegian roots. The heritage center’s grand opening Saturday will coincide with the city’s annual Syttende Mai celebration, which honors Norwegian Constitution Day.
In designing the center, its creators sought to complement existing attractions in Stoughton, not compete with them.
“This is about helping the city and doing what we can to make it more of a destination than a pass-through community,” said June Bunting, executive director of the Bryant Foundation, which built the center and will be its sole funding source going forward.
The Stoughton-based foundation was established in 1993 by Janet L. Bryant to honor her late husband, Edwin E. Bryant, a co-founder of the Nelson Muffler Corp. in Stoughton, which became Nelson Industries Inc.
The foundation did no public fundraising for the center and will not charge admission. Gryttenholm, who serves on the Bryant Foundation’s board, said the foundation is choosing not to reveal the project’s cost.
“This is about the community, not us,” he said.
The two-story center sits on a prominent downtown corner at 277 W. Main St., next to a Sons of Norway lodge and near the Stoughton Historical Society Museum. The center encompasses 15,000 square feet, with the main floor - the public space - 9,000 square feet.
Visitors will notice the huge word “Livsreise” on the building. It is the official name of the heritage center, a mash-up of two Norwegian words that means “life’s journey.”
According to the foundation, which has trademarked the term, it is pronounced “Lifs-rye-sa.” As the word gains familiarity, foundation officials hope it will become synonymous with the center. From the street, the center’s architecture appears dignified but not flashy. more evidence of the foundation’s modesty.
“We didn’t want it to stand out and be garish-looking,” Gryttenholm said.
Patrice Roe, owner of Nordic Nook, a Scandinavian gift store nearby, said she was impressed with the extent to which the foundation’s board members sought input from the community before embarking on the effort.
“They talked to everybody,” she said. “They don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. They’re trying to enhance things, not take anything away from anybody.”
That’s why there’s no gift shop at the center. The foundation doesn’t want to poach customers from Nordic Nook and others, Bunting said.
There’s no food for sale, either, as the Sons of Norway lodge next door has a great kitchen, and there are restaurants close by, she said. Likewise, the center’s auditorium seats just 68 - enough for one busload of tourists - so as not to compete with ticketed events at the Stoughton Opera House.
Visitors will be able to watch educational videos in the auditorium, and the center may occasionally host speakers and small performance groups. The other main parts of the center are the exhibit spaces and a genealogy room with six computer terminals.
The permanent exhibit space includes the large wall screens plus numerous other mixed-media displays. The overall focus is on telling the stories of Norwegian immigrants through digital displays.
“We’re about people, not artifacts,” Gryttenholm said. Although some artifacts add context to the digital displays, the center avoids the word “museum,” not wanting to oversell itself or be confused with the historical society museum.
A smaller space at the center will host traveling exhibits. Currently, it features “Sacred Symbols: The Folk Art of Norway,” on loan from Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum & Heritage Center in Decorah, Iowa.
Of the artifacts on permanent display, a majority were purchased from the now-closed Little Norway tourist attraction in the town of Blue Mounds. Others came from area residents.
Ardis Gyland, 82, a lifelong Stoughton resident, said the center is a fitting home for her grandmother’s marriage crown and her grandfather’s Bible, water-soaked from his years as a fisherman. The couple immigrated to Stoughton in 1917 when Gyland’s mother was 5.
“What they’ve done is just spectacular,” Gyland said of the center, which she toured during a sneak preview.
Gryttenholm said early excitement over the center suggests it could become just what the foundation had hoped - a draw for tourists from around the globe.
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