Menningarsköpun: Fræðilegir áhrifavaldar, uppsprettur innblástrar og langtímaáhrif menningarsköpunar Sigurðar málara og Kvöldfélagsmanna 1857-1874 - verkefnislok
As noted in the initial application, the aim of this RANNÍS project (2011-2013) was to “define the intellectual genealogy and long-term cultural influence of the culture–creators of the Icelandic ‘Evening Society’ [Kveldfélag] (1861–1874), with emphasis on the widespread cultural influence of Sigurður málari … Guðmundsson,” tracing “the movement of ideas through the network of Icelandic intellectuals … from their initial sources from both inside and outside Iceland”; providing “as accurate a map of the movements of theories and ideas as is possible”, and establishing “an intellectual genealogy of the elements of Icelandic culture creation the Evening Society was involved in.”
Heiti verkefnis: Menningarsköpun: Fræðilegir áhrifavaldar, uppsprettur innblástrar og langtímaáhrif menningarsköpunar Sigurðar málara og Kvöldfélagsmanna 1857-1874
Verkefnisstjóri: Terry Axel Gunnell, Háskóla Íslands
Tegund styrks: Verkefnisstyrkur
Styrkár: 2011-2013
Fjárhæð styrks: 16,977 millj. kr. alls
Tilvísunarnúmer Rannís: 110619
The project also aimed “to analyse … the long-term influences of this group,” and believed that “placing … Icelandic intellectuals within a larger context of intellectual developments and trends on the continents both east and west” would provide “a view of the intellectual history of Icelandic romantic nationalism as part of larger international waves of thought which were moving across western industrial society at the time,” placing “the Icelandic writers, poets, educators, priests and artists involved in a new and clearer international context.”
The heart of the project has been the construction of the wiki website on Sigurður málari (https://sigurdurmalari.hi.is/wiki/index.php/Main_Page), created in close cooperation with the National Museum, the National Library, the National Archive and the Arnamagnean Institute in Iceland, which will be opened in the late summer of 2014. This contains not only access to newly scanned original images and new marked up and indexed transcriptions of an extensive range of source materials relating to the activities and thoughts of Sigurður and the kveldfélag 1833-1874 (books containing the minutes of Kveldfélag meetings; Sigurður’s notebooks; letters to and from members of the society; drafts of articles; notes; maps; images and more), but also detailed contextual information on the cultural life of Europe, Reykjavík, and not least the Copenhagen that Sigurður encountered during his studies there (access to information on theatrical productions, exhibitions and more). Alongside this transcription work and website construction (designed for open access by the public), the group has organised two successful conferences in March 2012 and November 2013 at which those involved and other scholars have discussed the cultural and political background of the society and Sigurður’s work on national culture, and then their long term influences. The intention is that material based on papers presented at these conferences will be published in book form at the end of 2014/ early 2015.
The web site has received a great deal of praise from those who have seen it, especially in its role of opening people’s eyes to the effective role played by Sigurður and the Evening Society in encouraging a new form of Icelandic culture (most particularly in the form of the national museum, national costume, national folk tales, art, archaeology and national theatre) using models and ideas adapted from other countries. The seminars (and other lectures presented in Iceland and abroad have helped to strengthen this awareness (not least through related interviews on national radio). This will continue in 2014 as work is completed on a peer-reviewed book containing articles based on the lectures presented at the seminars, and the web site is opened.