Why are we so passionate about Atheneum?

 

The spirit of Atheneum is about learning, giving and sharing reading experiences. Is it not a matter of course that a capital city like Copenhagen continues to have a high-quality bookshop with the academic profile that characterizes Atheneum? A place in which one can find books that deal with current affairs, books that stimulate anybody who thinks, seeks, feels?

 

For many Danes, Atheneum is known as a high-quality bookshop that strives to satisfy the intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic needs of its customers – for some families even for generations.  It is this spectacular space that we are so passionate about saving, continuing, re-launching in a more modern setup. Books generate empathy and insight. Books are knowledge, and when we share our stories and knowledge with each other, we create the foundations for progress and growth in our community as well as in the individual.

 

The Atheneum bookshop was founded by M.P. Madsen in 1874. To think of Copenhagen without Atheneum is devastating and unbearable. Copenhagen needs a strong, dynamic and independent bookshop like Atheneum, which continues to provide readers across age, languages, cultures and reading communities with a wide selection of literature for pleasure and enlightenment. A bookshop is where people and ideas come together, this is where the foundations of a sharing and empathetic culture is made.

 

Besides simply visiting Atheneum when a book is needed (or inspiration lacking), many of Atheneum’s regular customers (along with some new faces) have visited the shop over the years to take part in the many cultural and social events we have hosted (readings, Golden Days-events, etc. among others).

 

We are happy that so many people have expressed their support and hopeful wishes that Atheneum should continue. The Friends of Atheneum has therefore decided to meet the challenge, and together with our current and future friends we will launch the Atheneum of the future – the best bookshop in Copenhagen!

 

THE FUTURE ATHENEUM

 

The future Atheneum embraces the best of the physical bookshop as well as the digital bookish universe - it is all that a real bookshop should be. We want to show the future generations of readers what it feels like to explore a bookshop, brick-and-mortar, what it is like to go on a magical voyage of discovery in rooms wall-to-wall with real books; rooms in which one feels among friends and completely at home. The future Atheneum is where you go to look for literary excitement or where you pop in to unplug and immerse yourself in the wonderful universe of books and knowledge – digital and/or analogue. The future Atheneum also puts books and literature on the social agenda by supporting socially innovative projects, which contribute to popular education, intellectual stimulus and development – in short, Atheneum is that bookish space where knowledge, culture and reading experiences are shared, exchanged and treasured.

 

The fact of the matter is that it can be expensive and therefore challenging to run a business in the center of Copenhagen, and we need money to kickstart and re-launch the bookshop – we need start-up capital.  We need books on the shelves, the rent has to be paid, and the costs for wages, electricity and Atheneum’s own IT system must be covered too. This is so that we can serve our customers properly and re-launch our web-shop.  Once everything is up and running again, the idea is that the shop will make enough money to pay all the necessary running costs.

 

Do you want the books and Atheneum to survive too?  We want to carry them both from here to eternity!