Forssblad received the award for her 27-year long service to the museum.
“From beginning in two rooms of a run-down closed school, the museum is today nationally recognized,” Ambassador Vollebaek said.
Today the museum consists of nine galleries, three temporary exhibition spaces, and facilities hosting performances, classes and workshops. 55,000 people visit the museum annually. It is the only museum in the United States which unifies the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway – in a single institution.
“This is your legacy,” the ambassador told Forssblad.
Forssblad’s achievements as executive director includes the initiation of oral history projects to capture the stories of immigrants to the area, the start-up of a historical journal, and major fundraising in the museum’s campaign for a permanent home.
She will resign her position as head of the museum on April 30, 2007.