Today, on 15 January, Royal Copenhagen officially opens its new head office in Glostrup, near Copenhagen. The event is to be celebrated with the attendance of H.R.H. The Crown Princess of Denmark, who will present H.H. Bruun’s Endowment for the Promotion of Art. She will be shown around the new centre, which will be the setting for the manufacture of the exclusive Flora Danica, as well as the continued development of world-class porcelain products and design.
Royal Copenhagen is a company with deep roots in Copenhagen and close historic relations to the Danish monarchy; the Royal Porcelain Factory was actually established in 1775 with the support of the Queen Dowager, Juliane Marie.
“We are thus – our roots and history considered – very honoured to be able to welcome H.R.H. The Crown Princess to the opening of our new Danish head office and skills centre,” says Lotte Wamberg, Managing Director, Royal Copenhagen.
In conjunction with the opening ceremony, H.R.H. The Crown Princess will present H.H. Brunn’s Endowment for the Promotion of Art.
The recipients – Cathrine Raben Davidsen, Allan Otte and Louise Campbell – have all left deep personal and enduring marks in Royal Copenhagen’s design and product portfolio. Each of them will receive an endowment of DKK 125,000.
Danish skills centre ensures the continuation of design traditions and craftsmanship
Prior to the arrangement, the Crown Princess will be given a tour of Royal Copenhagen’s new skills centre, which includes a modelling room and painting studio, where the exclusive Flora Danica dinnerware series will continue to be hand-painted according to a tradition that can be traced right back to the founding of the Royal Porcelain Factory.
The skills centre in Glostrup will also come to form the setting for the continued development of world-class porcelain products and design.
“It is with great pride that we guide our design traditions onwards into a modern setting. I look forward to providing Her Royal Highness with an insight into how we at Royal Copenhagen continue to maintain our craftsmanship skills and Danish design heritage,” adds Ms. Wamberg.
The ceremony takes place today on Wednesday at 10:15am–11:30am.
Louise Campbell (born 1970) graduated from the London College of Furniture in 1992 and from Denmark’s 
Design School in 1996, where she specialised in Industrial Design. Louise Campbell is best known for her fanciful and experimental approach to her design tasks – as well as her design of the familiar Elements dinnerware, which makes strong references to Royal Copenhagen’s most famous signature series. Louise Campbell has received a number of design awards, including the Finn Juhl Prize (2004) and the Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal in 2007. Louise Campbell will receive the prize in absentia.
Allan Otte (born 1978) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. Allan Otte has made a name for himself in recent years with his original and technically skilled renewal of landscape painting, to which he always adds a note of the modern and industrial. His work for Royal Copenhagen includes the University of Copenhagen’s Teaching Award, ‘Årets Harald’ (‘Harald of the Year’), in 2012. Allan Otte has been awarded the endowment for his particular interest in porcelain as a material, and for his mastery of the airbrush technique, which corresponds to Royal Copenhagen’s familiar ‘plate technique’.
Cathrine Raben Davidsen (born 1972) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2003 and has studied art in Holland and Italy. In simple, refined lines, Cathrine Raben Davidsen attempts to carve her works into the memory of the observer, where mythology, narratives, art history and references from literature play an important role. In 2009, she created both the Årets Harald (‘the Harald of the Year’) and the Malko Prize for young conductors for Royal Copenhagen. Most recently, she has turned her artistic expression from painting to huge, metre-high vases, where form and glaze work in partnership to provide the audience with a new and very different experience of Royal Copenhagen’s traditional craftsmanship.