Officials with the Danish Immigrant Museum have announced the change of its name to “Museum of Danish America,” and have elected six new members to the board of directors. The change came during the museum’s annual meeting on October 11th.

New logo for the Museum of Danish America (formerly the Danish Immigrant Museum)

Since it was founded in 1983, the focus of the museum has been to tell the story of the Danish immigration around the turn of the 20^th century, but Executive Director Dr. John Mark Nielsen said they began to recognize that the immigrant experience was changing. Nielsen says “In strategic planning meetings beginning in 2004, board members recognized the decline in immigration from Denmark and the need to expand the museum’s focus to include documenting the evolving relations between our two countries.”

Nielsen said that many supporters of the museum had come to feel that the name, The Danish Immigrant Museum, placed too much emphasis on the immigrant generation – it was not inclusive enough for the future. At the October 2012 meeting of the Board of Directors, a committee was charged with the responsibility of soliciting, reviewing and proposing possible new names for consideration at its February 2013 meeting in Houston, Texas. The committee considered fifteen different names and recommended “Museum of Danish America,” which was officially adopted on Oct. 11^th, 2013.

Six new board members join a group of 17 led by President of the Board Dagmar Muthamia of Long Beach, California. The new members include: Daniel Christensen, of West Des Moines; Bente Ellis, of San Jose, CA; Bill Jensen, of Urbandale; Carolyn Jensen, of St. Paul, MN; Brent Norlem, of Monticello, MN, and Craig Molgaard, of Missoula, MT.

(9-a.m. News)