Department of Culture & Tourism

Director

Eiríkur Björn Björgvinsson

Cultural affairs

The Department of Culture & Tourism oversees the operation of the Reykjavík City Library, Reykjavík Art Museum, and the City Museum. The Department’s Office manages policy development, and professional administration of the diverse services and projects carried out, including the administration of meetings for the Culture, Sports, and Leisure Council. Together with the Director, City Hall houses the Office of Cultural Affairs, UNESCO City of Literature Reykjavík, Music City Reykjavík, and the City’s Event Team.

• View the Cultural Policy of Reykjavík

City Library

The City Library lends books, shares stories, knowledge and culture in the city's seven districts. It has thousands of books, movies, music, newspapers, and magazines. It also offers a variety of events every week. The museum strives to equalize people's positions, accessibility, and opportunities and promotes literacy in its broadest form. The diverse spaces of the museums offer an opportunity to create connections, conversations, and experiences. The aim of the museum is to promote democratic participation and social innovation.

• Go to the Reykjavík City Library website

City Museum

The City History Museum collects, catalogs, and preserves cultural objects. The museum emphasizes being strongly connected with the community and encourages visitors to participate. The City History Museum conveys Reykjavík's intriguing history in diverse ways, makes people think, and is a creative and fun place to visit. The City History Museum consists of the Árbæjarsafn Museum, the Settlement Exhibition, the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, the Maritime Museum, and Viðey.

• Go to the Reykjavík City History Museum website

Reykjavík Art Museum

Reykjavík Art Museum is a vibrant and progressive art museum that has three locations in the city: Hafnarhús, Kjarvalsstaðir, and Ásmundarsafn. The Reykjavík Art Museum regularly holds exhibitions of contemporary art and works by three of Iceland's most well-known artists: Erró, Kjarval, and Ásmundur Sveinsson. The Reykjavík Art Museum also oversees and maintains outdoor artworks owned by the city.

• Go to the Reykjavík Art Museum website

Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature

Since 2011, Reykjavík has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities network, along with around 170 other cities. This represents a great recognition of the state of literature in Reykjavík. The City of Literature promotes word art in a broad sense, both domestically and abroad. It also manages the activities of Gröndalshús.

• Go to the City of Literature website

Reykjavík Music City

The goal of Music City is to promote Reykjavík as a city of music by establishing a strong support system and creating favorable conditions for thriving musical activities throughout the city. Additionally, the image of Icelandic music should be interwoven with the image of Reykjavík as a city of culture and an interesting destination.

• Go to the Music City website

Events and festivals

Reykjavík City organizes and supports a number of events and festivals throughout the year. The Department has an event team that manages events such as the Winter Festival, Children's Culture Festival, June 17th, Culture Night, the lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower, and the city's Advent program.

• View festivals and events

Diverse support for culture and the arts

Grants

Reykjavík City annually provides a number of grants for various cultural matters, as well as awards and recognitions. City grants are advertised each year in the fall. The relevant councils review the applications and make a decision on allocation before the end of the year.

• Would you like to apply for support from the City Fund?
• View other grants, awards, and recognitions awarded by the City.

Guest stays

The City offers guest stays for domestic and foreign artists in two locations.

• Kjarvalsstofa in Paris
• Guest stay in Gröndalshús

Other institutions

The City supports the operation of Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center, Reykjavík Theater Company, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Dance Workshop, Tjarnarbío Theater, and the Art Center at Korpúlfsstaðir, in addition to having 2-3 year collaboration agreements with various arts organizations.

Tourism

Visit Reykjavík

Visit Reykjavík works on tourism for Reykjavík City. It promotes Reykjavík as an exciting destination both domestically and internationally. Visit Reykjavík leads collaboration among municipalities in the capital area on international marketing under the shared brand of Reykjavík. The main focus of its work is the marketing of Reykjavík as a destination and it works closely with other stakeholders in tourism.

Check out our website and get ideas for things to do and see in the city as well as Borgin okkar in Icelandic or VisitReykjavik.is in English.

• View Reykjavík's Tourism Policy