Nobel Peace Center (Norwegian: Nobels Fredssenter) is a showcase for the Nobel Peace Prize and the ideals it represents. The Center is also an arena where culture and politics merge to promote involvement, debate and reflection around topics such as war, peace and conflict resolution.
The Center presents the Nobel Peace Prize laureates and their work, in addition to telling the story of Alfred Nobel and the other Nobel prizes. This is done using multimedia and interactive technology, exhibitions, meetings, debates, theater, concerts and conferences, as well as a broad educational program and regular guided tours.
The Nobel Peace Center is a foundation and part of a network of Nobel institutions represented externally by the Nobel Foundation, which also administers informational activities and arrangements surrounding the presentation of the Nobel Prize. Bente Erichsen is director of the Nobel Peace Center. Geir Lundestad is chairman of the Center’s board, which is appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel Peace Center was opened in 2005 by HRH King Harald V of Norway in a ceremony attended by the royal families of Norway and Sweden. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai was also present. The Center has since welcomed more than 400,000 visitors (as of 1 October 2009). The Nobel Peace Center is located in the former Oslo Vestbanestasjon (Oslo West railway station) building dating from 1872, which ceased to be used as a railway station in 1989. It is located close to the Oslo City Hall and overlooking the harbor, where the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony takes place every 10 December, to commemorate Alfred Nobel’s death.
British architect David Adjaye is responsible for the Center’s creative design, including its color schemes; the American designer David Small developed its hi-tech installations. The Nobel Peace Center is financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, private sponsors and admission fees. Temporary exhibitions are fully sponsored.
Famous quotes containing the words nobel, peace and/or center:
“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Their religion was sweetness and peace amidst toil and tears.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)