Northern Norwegian Art Museum

Loved three oil paintings, one showing sailors fighting polar bears the others showing polar landscapes.

I came to see art, I left with my own. The exhibits were captivating—especially the photography one Layers of time, Everyday life in Svalbard, touched me—but my favourite part was the craft/workshop section where I spent 1.5 hours making collages, earrings, and embroidery to the sounds of soft jazz (in case you wondered, I'm over 12 years old). That alone would have made the price worth it.

A wonderful art museum focused on northern Norwegian and Scandinavian artists. It’s a relatively small museum (there were three exhibits on our visit), which makes it very manageable as part of a day in Tromsø. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the exhibits, particularly the photography and music exhibit on Svalbard. We were lucky to arrive around the time of a guided tour, which I highly recommend. The tour guide was very sweet and added a lot of historical and local context that made the exhibits more meaningful. The rest of the staff was so lovely as well.

Especially the top floor is filled with beautiful paintings of arctic nature. My favourite painting is in the attached images.

Starting off with general aspects about the museum itself: it has three floors with multiple rooms for different artworks and a nice little shop on the ground floor. From what I understood, there is also a corner to sit, drink coffee and talk with fellow visitors. About the current exhibition: some of the people here talk a lot about how they didn't like "Gába – female resilience" because it was too short or too simple. I would say that these people did not understand what this exhibition is about. Only 28% of the museum walls are covered, showing the limited representation of female painters. It is a message to the public. That's why it's short. Personally, I really enjoyed the paintings and cultural features that had stories to tell about womanhood in different countries. Additionally, the museum has multiple sitting opportunities and very clean toilettes. What was missing for me though was more in depth stories regarding each painting or artist. Perhaps, some additions to go more into the "resilience" part would also be preferable. Other than that, it was very thought-provoking and interesting to see art present in such a way. If anyone wants to immerse themselves for a short 30–35-minute period of time into educative, cultural art, this is the place.

LOVED this museum and especially the just opened Kvaani Biennaali that just opened (it will be until sept 30, 2026). Beautiful museum, lovely staff and gorgeous installation of art.

This place is nothing short of being spectacular. We were expecting a “regular” arts museum but boy were we wrong. The highlight has to be the artist’s workshop. It was fully equipped with everything that a true artist could wish for. The kids spend nearly 1.5 hrs in there while us parents could enjoy a cup of coffee free of charge. Last but not least the staff was very helpful & kind. Thank you for an amazing experience.

We visited the museum twice. On Friday we did the guided tour related to the Sami-week. A Sami artist exhibition was on the 3rd floor. On Saturday we went back because there would be a Sami singer. Unfortunately that tour was in Norwegian, the signing was nice but most of the people in the group were no Norwegian speaking so couldnt understand the guided part of the tour.