Words by

Iryna Zubenko

Photo by

Joana Fontinha

Some people love a good challenge. For some, it’s pounding pints in every bar of Laugavegur on a Friday night. For an American expat Katie Teeter, it’s ticking off a museum every week. She’s already hit around 70 exhibitions, juggling her day job and a PhD. We rang her up to find out what makes Icelandic museums so special, briefly chatted about her research on turf houses, and confirmed that — no — she’s not remotely tired of museum-hopping.

I moved here in 2013 to get my first master’s degree in medieval Icelandic studies. Then I met my husband, who’s Icelandic, and I’ve just been here ever since. 

During Covid, I realised I wanted a change in direction. I was working in tourism, and then I decided to go into museum studies at the University of Iceland, the Safnafræði programme, which I would recommend to anyone interested in museums. It’s an amazing programme. I had such a good time, and that kind of started me on this track. I’ve been working and researching in the Icelandic museum field for about five years now. 

After my master’s, I started a PhD. It’s technically in environmental studies, but it’s a partnership with the National Museum of Iceland and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, focusing on Icelandic turf houses. So now, I’m working at the Geothermal Exhibition at the Hellisheiði Power Plant while also working on my PhD on turf houses. I also run the account @museumsiniceland on Instagram, where I’m on a mission to visit every museum and exhibition in the country.

Museums everywhere

I’ve always loved museums. There are a lot of good museums in Kansas City, where I’m from, but Iceland is special because there are just so many. You have principal museums, accredited museums, and private exhibitions. I think that it’s really neat that Iceland has so many museums and exhibitions, especially because of how few people are here. The museum and exhibition sector is full of super passionate people who love what they do. 

There are three principal or central museums. They’re state-funded, and they oversee accredited museums. So, you have the National Museum of Iceland, the National Gallery, and the Icelandic Museum of Natural History, and under them are 47 accredited museums. They have official accreditation and report to the principal museums and the Museum Council of Iceland; they’re also eligible for grants. So, 47 plus three, that’s 50. All of those museums have responsibilities or obligations related to research, conservation and preservation, education, safeguarding heritage, working with communities, things like that. They also follow the Museum Act and the ICOM (International Council of Museums) Code of Ethics. Those are kind of the official museums. Technically, in Iceland, to be called a museum you need to be accredited. 

Then you have private exhibitions. There are some exhibitions that are using the word museum in their title — just because, but there’s at least 200 private exhibitions. It depends a bit on how you count — you can be very creative in what you’re calling an exhibition. Some of those are huge and really professionally put together. A lot of them are geared towards tourists. Others are just very small, independent passion projects that people have that are free to the public. You can have installations or exhibitions in libraries, parks, gas stations, empty warehouses, coffee shops, and beaches. There’s just a huge variety! You have the Penis Museum, which is mentioned in a lot of podcasts all over the world because of how different it is. You have the Punk Museum in the toilets downtown. You have the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery in Hólmavík or Soffia’s Toy Museum in Borgarnes. There are just so many random themes.

I think there’s a lot of value in both museums and exhibitions. It’s not just collections being preserved. There’s a lot of educational value, a lot of communal value. They provide places where you can go and meet other people, you can learn about yourself, learn about people who are different from you. There’s so much going on.

Having a taste for turf houses

I am into Icelandic turf houses. It’s this wonderful tradition that spans over 1000 years — a form of vernacular architecture that still exists in living memory in Iceland, which is quite unique, actually. Traditional earth architecture existed all over the world, but it lasted much longer in Iceland. People come from all over the world to Iceland to learn about turf houses, to study them, to go through museum archives, and even to learn how to build them. 

For my PhD, we’re looking at the structural and hydrothermal behaviour of turf houses, because that’s a huge gap in the field of study. We’re hoping to better understand how the turf houses work, and then by better understanding how they’re working, we hope to be able to better conserve them, to continue to ensure that they’re around for future generations. 

Like with museums, people that are into turf houses are super into turf houses. So you just get to be around people who are really passionate about what they’re doing.

My schedule is a little chaotic. I have days for work and days for school, but a lot of the time they’ll overlap as well. I have a couple of days each week at the Geothermal Exhibition and a couple of days either split between the university campus or the National Museum’s main offices. Every day is completely different. If I’m at the exhibition, I’ll maybe be answering emails, giving a guided tour, working on educational material, meeting with some of our partners, or planning our social media. If I’m on campus, I’ll be researching, writing, or working in a turf lab that we’re setting up. I’m also in the process of doing interviews with people working in the turf sector, so then I’m kind of wherever they’re willing to meet me. If I’m at the National Museum, I’m in their archives, working with a 3D scanner, running comparisons on the scans, things like that. No week is the same, no day is the same, but I kind of like that. 

Not even close to done

I will always be super excited to go to a museum. If you have a positive attitude and an open mind, you can enjoy any museum even if you’ve been before. One of my favourite museums in the whole country is the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður. Every single time I go, I am blown away. I leave thinking, “Wow, what an incredible visit that was.” 

If we’re talking about the capital area, because that’s where I live, I am always at Árbæjarsafn. It’s so nice. The museum is great, but it’s also this little oasis in the city — there’s a lot of greenery and a lot of space, they have chickens and different animals in the summer as well. It’s just a really nice place to spend some time. I also like Höfuðstöðin to grab a coffee with a friend. When I’m there, I always go through Chromo Sapiens. I think it’s a gorgeous installation. The Maritime Museum — I’m there a lot as well. I live in Kópavogur, so I’m at Gerðarsafn every time they have a new exhibit. And then the Natural History Museum there — actually, they completely redid it a couple of years ago — it’s incredible and free for everyone. 

Follow Katie’s adventures through Icelandic museums on Instagram @museumsiniceland