The history of KP – in brief
The history begins in 1947. The initiator behind the exhibition was YOUNG ART, a local association in Aarhus, which at Easter the same year arranged the first exhibition at Aarhus Art Museum.
The following year YOUNG ART made a similar exhibition in the Art Building on Bispetoften. This time under the name of Young Artists Easter Exhibition.
KP has been housed in different places. During these last years it was housed in the very fine exhibition venues of Kunsthal Aarhus.
In 1949, the exhibition moved to the Town Hall, which provided more space, both for the exhibition and the extensive preparation work around the selection process.
For the exhibition in 1949, KP´s third year of exhibition, approx. 2,000 works were submitted for assessment.
The name of the exhibition was in 1949 changed to The Artists Easter Exhibition (Kunstnernes Påskeudstilling - KP) and has not changed since.
17 years later, The Artists Easter Exhibition was nationally recognized in 1963.
At that time there were 14 accredited juried exhibitions in Denmark, and The Artists Easter Exhibition was at this point the only one based outside of Copenhagen.
In 1970, the exhibition was moved to Kunsthal Aarhus for the first time, and the exhibition has been held there ever since, with the exception of 1998. Then Kunsthal Aarhus had a great exhibition of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe. Therefore that year KP was held in "Ridehuset".
As KP as an exhibition moved to Kunsthal Aarhus, the submitting and the selection process moved along. At the same time KP got address as an independent institution situated in Kunsthal Aarhus.
In 2002, preparatory activities regarding submitting and selection moved to the Sct. Anna Gade School. The reason for this was that KP because of the lengthy and detailed preparation work occupied two exhibition periods in Kunsthal Aarhus.
Derived from the fact, that the Aula at Sct. Anna Gade School in 2013 had to be demolished in favor of new school building, KP in 2014 took full advantage of the possibilities of information technology. For the first time, the selection process was conducted solely on the basis of photographic documentation of works, uploaded on the applicationform - in the old days a piece of paper - nowadays part of KP's website.
Of course, that's not all going on online. The exhibition consists unchanged of physical works.
KP has since 1970 had address in Kunsthal Aarhus.
KP is a membership organization
The Artists' Easter Exhibition is a membership organization led by an elected board consisting of five members. A manager is employed to conduct the administrative tasks. Anyone who within the past five years has had one or more works accepted for KP is a member of KP. It has approx. 170 members. The organization's supreme authority is the General Assembly/Artist meeting, which is held annually in conjunction with the exhibition.
The Selection Committee
The Selection Committee consists of five artists or arts professionals who are appointed by the KP Board.
Source: Hans Jørgen Wolff Andersen and Jens Aggebo / Gert Nielsen KP catalogue 1965, 1970