Every summer, my partner and I pack up our London life and move to Denmark. The southernmost Scandinavian country might not seem like an obvious place to spend the warmer months—its mercurial weather is a far cry from the reliably balmy climes of Marseille or Sorrento. But, as an art enthusiast, I can’t get enough of Denmark’s creative spirit, and nowhere is that spirit more apparent than Bornholm.
Affectionately known as Sunshine Island thanks to a unique microclimate that grants it more rays than mainland Denmark, this rugged Baltic outcrop has been a vacation hot spot for around 200 years. I’ve been coming for three, gradually falling in love with the island and learning how this once-isolated rock became one of Europe’s top design destinations.
Though officially Danish, Bornholm floats midway between Sweden, Germany, and Poland. Historically, the island was a world unto itself, inhabited only by a few hardened farming families, fishermen, and a handful of self-taught clockmakers. That changed in the 19th century when local deposits of clay and kaolin birthed a booming ceramics industry while painters like Olaf Rude and members of the Bornholm School were drawn by the island’s granite cliffs, dramatic coastlines, and distinctive, crystalline light. After the Second World War, regular ferries turned the island into a summer favorite for Scandinavian vacationers, too, but Bornholm remained a sanctuary for artists—a status cemented when the Royal Danish Academy established its ceramics and glass school in Nexø, paving the way for a wave of galleries, showrooms, and workshops in the years since.
“Today, several elements reinforce one another,” explains Dorthea Funder Kaas, coordinator at the Bornholm Centre for Crafts. “The Royal Danish Academy’s program, the Arts & Crafts Association Bornholm, a number of committed cultural institutions and the business sector’s recognition of craft as one of Bornholm’s strengths. The island has also developed an increasingly international environment, as students and makers arrive from all over the world.” In 2017, this strength was honored by the World Crafts Council, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that designated Bornholm as Europe’s first World Craft Region. “It was an important international accolade,” Kaas adds, “but it also confirmed something that had been built over a very long period.”
