For kids

Imagine that ARKEN is underwater and that fish, prawns, sea lice and other sea creatures could also visit the museum. How would they experience the place? In the workshop, you can make your own mask depicting a sea creature. Wearing the mask, you can explore SUPERFLEX’s exhibition Come Hell or High Water and experience an underwater world – seen through your sea creature’s perspective. Where is a good place to live? Where can you hide? You might even meet other sea creatures along the way.

The workshop is open during the museum’s opening hours, and everyone is welcome.

Have you ever thought that rubbish could actually be gold? Thomas Dambo certainly has. For him, all trolls start in the same way: with something that has been thrown away, a good idea and a little troll magic. In the Troll Workshop, you can make your own Thomas Dambo-inspired troll from rubbish and recycled materials from the museum – including wood from the museum’s old foyer floor. What does your troll look like? Does it have superpowers? Does it collect screws? Can it talk to plants? Your troll can be exactly as you want it to be. What humans call rubbish, trolls call beginnings…

The Troll Workshop is open to everyone during the museum’s opening hours. Participation is free with admission to the museum. There are saws in the Troll Workshop, so younger children must be accompanied by an adult.

Competition: Thomas Dambo will build your troll somewhere in the world

Thomas Dambo is looking for a troll idea, and your troll could win. Take a photo of your troll together with your troll type card and send it to fanart@thomasdambo.com. The winning troll will be used as inspiration for a new troll, which will be built on a large scale somewhere on the planet they call Earth!

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Art is fun – even for children! That’s why ARKEN opens its doors to early risers at 10 am every weekend. Have lots of fun with art as ARKEN Kids takes over the museum on the children’s terms. Get the adults to look after your shoes whilst you jump around in the giant bouncy castles Bright Future I + II created by artist Esben Weile Kjær or take a ‘swim’ in POOL. They can also help carry the equipment case on the ARTstronaut expedition in the sculpture park. Take them along to the exhibitions, where you can explore Thomas Dambo’s troll universe and build your own troll from recycled wood. You can also discover a sunken ship underwater and make a sea creature mask, so you can have a chat with the fish about what it’s like to live beneath the sea’s surface.

ARKEN Kids runs every weekend and during all school holidays from 10am to 1pm. During the summer holidays, it runs every weekend.

The sea creatures in Køge Bay have a new neighbourhood, and you’re welcome to visit them. This new underwater housing project is part of SUPERFLEX’s exhibition Come Hell Or High Water. The blocks are part of a larger artwork created by SUPERFLEX and are eventually intended to become an Ark under water – an artificial reef that creates habitats as sea levels rise.

Follow the pink stones from the museum and walk five minutes towards Ishøj Nature Centre by the beach. Roll up your trousers and borrow a pair of underwater binoculars – and check out the new pink housing block for fish and other species: Are the new residents asleep, or are the fish already having a ‘bloc party’ with the sea lice? Keep a close eye on young children during your visit and generally look out for one another – and the species in between.

‘The Fish From the Block’ has been installed by Ishøj Nature Centre. View the map here.

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The beach and the sea are places shared by humans, seagulls, sea fleas and all manner of other species. Under the heading ‘Long Table Feast: Set the Table!’, we celebrate this cross-species community by laying on a feast on the beach for all living creatures. Together, we will experiment with creating sumptuous visual dishes and sandy culinary arrangements on the long table, fashioned from sand, water, seaweed, bird feathers, rosehip leaves, marram grass and other natural materials found in the area. For example, in honour of which animal species should we create twisted sand sausages, and which species would love to tuck into the beach’s finest seaweed stew?

Beach Day takes place over the weekend of 13–14 June 2026 from 11am to 3pm. Participation is free and everyone is welcome.

Beach Day is a collaboration with visual artist Rune Fjord and is generously supported by Nordea-fonden and the municipalities of Ishøj, Vallensbæk, Brøndby and Høje-Taastrup. Materials are sponsored by Swedish Stockings and the Red Cross in Ishøj.

Children can now get their own ARKEN KIDS annual pass. With this annual pass, the child can bring an adult of their choice for free for a whole year. Among other things, you can experience ARKEN Kids – the children's takeover of the museum – every weekend from 10am to 1pm. and during all school holidays. An ARKEN Kids card costs DKK 395 and gives free admission for one adult per visit with the cardholder in tow. Membership can only be purchased at the museum.

If you need a break from art, take a sensory bath in Pool, which is a different and fun way into art for children and the young at heart. Take off your shoes and throw yourself into the balls in the colourful universe. You might lose your bearings for a while but give in and discover the world from new angles.

Take the family on an ARTstronaut tour in the Sculpture Park. We'll pretend that ARKEN is our spaceship that has landed on ‘The Mysterious Art Planet’, where you can explore all the mysterious sculptures with all your senses.

You can borrow a free ARTstronaut kit in the museum shop. The tour takes about half an hour and must be accompanied by an adult. At the end of the tour, return the kit and get your own ARTstronaut sticker.

Take a family swing ride and fly high into the sky on SUPERFLEX' One, Two, Three, Swing! Feel how the swings transform into a human pendulum where the energy is exchanged for a shared movement. Swings are usually designed for one person, but here you can sit three people and swing up and down together.

The installation with the large connected swings was first shown in the large turbine hall at Tate Modern in 2017.

THIRD SPACE is ARKEN's new meeting place and cultural community for and by young people, where they can meet, create and participate in activities such as concerts, workshops and performances - or hang out and find new communities. THIRD SPACE is created by artist Henrik Plenge Jakobsen in collaboration with local young people. Take a trip to the sculpture park and experience the work - feel the raw concrete under your feet, crawl into the large pipes or imagine the work as a large stage you can perform on.

Combine your visit to the museum with a walk in the fresh air in the Sculpture Park around the museum or down to the beach. Can you find the rocking horse, the prehistoric dagger tails or the house with the floating floor? Some sculptures might make you look at your surroundings with new eyes, others invite you to play. There are sculptures that you can crawl on or rest on, move into or reflect in.