Agnes Smidt

Agnes Smidt (1874-1952) was an artist, entrepreneur and a zealous soul who constantly had the needs of others in mind and did not let himself be slowed down in his work for popular enlightenment. Her role as a female artist at a time when it was absolutely not normal - and certainly not for a woman south of the then border - and her importance as a human being both to those closest to her and to many southern Jews in general arouses wonder and curiosity. What was what made a girl from Lundsmark come to Copenhagen and get an artistic education, returned home to Sønderjylland and became a single mother to six girls at the same time as she established a kind of folk high school and subsequently a labor camp for young men, which most resembles a predecessor for today's production schools? Even later, she did summer courses for young women, which Agnes Smidt called "terns". How on earth could all this be possible in those days? What was life like in Lundsmark during the time of foreigners, and how could Agnes Smidt feed herself and the large family and create everything she did for those closest to her and for the southern Jews before the reunification in 1920 and in the years that followed? This is what the historian Inger Lauridsen tells about in a new book about Agnes Smidt, which Ribe Art Museum publishes. The book is not only a story about southern Jutland, the woman and artist Agnes Smidt, but also about life in the parishes just south of the old border at Ribe. Exhibition: Ribe Art Museum, Denmark (22.02.- 30.08. 2020)

Agnes Smidt (1874-1952) var kunstner, iværksætter og en ildsjæl som konstant havde andres behov for øje og ikke lod sig bremse i sit arbejde for den folkelige oplysning. Hendes rolle som kvindelig kunstner i en tid, hvor det absolut ikke var normalt - og da slet ikke for en kvinde syd for den daværende grænse - og hendes betydning som menneske både for de nærmeste og for mange sønderjyder generelt vækker forundring og nysgerrighed. Hvad var det, der gjorde, at en pige fra Lundsmark kom til København og fik en kunstnerisk uddannelse, vendte hjem til Sønderjylland og blev alenemor til seks piger samtidigt med, at hun etablerede en slags højskole og efterfølgende en arbejdslejr for unge mænd, som mest ligner en forløber for nutidens produktionsskoler? Endnu senere lavede hun sommerkurser for unge kvinder, som Agnes Smidt kaldte ?terner?. Hvordan i alverden kunne alt dette lade sig gøre i datiden? Hvordan var livet i Lundsmark i udlændingetiden, og hvordan kunne Agnes Smidt ernære sig selv og den store familie og skabe alt det, hun gjorde for de nærmeste og for sønderjyderne før genforeningen i 1920 og i årene derefter? Det fortæller historikeren Inger Lauridsen om i en ny bog om Agnes Smidt, som Ribe Kunstmuseum udgiver. Bogen er ikke alene en fortælling om sønderjyden, kvinden og kunstneren Agnes Smidt, men også om livet i sognene lige syd for den gamle grænse ved Ribe. Exhibition: Ribe Kunstmuseum, Denmark (22.02.- 30.08. 2020).