Báta- og Listasavnið

Savn við gomlum bátum og málningum hjá listafólkum við tilknýti til Leirvík.

• Community Museum

The Boat and Art Museum is placed in a building, which was built in 1951for fishing industry such as salting and drying fish, and it was used for that purpose until the beginning of the 1980ies.

In 1986 Sjóborg Ltd. bought the building for the purpose of making trawl equipment and mending trawls on the 1st floor, while the 2nd floor was established office and room for stock etc. In the beginning of the 1990ies the trawl mending stopped, and the 1st floor was not in use for some years.

In 2000 Osmund Justinussen, the owner of Sjóborg Ltd. got the idea to establish an exhibition on 2nd floor. He got the idea one day in November 2000 as he went for a walk on the shore here in Leirvík. Osmund caught sight of a boat – “The Boaster”- lying by the shore. The boat was dilapidated and was to become burned on New year´s eve. This was a custom used for old faroese boats that were to no use any longer. Osmund thought, that it could not be right, that so much of the Faroese boat history should be burned - go up in smoke.

Osmund knew, that this boat had been used for fishing in Faroese as well as in Icelandic waters for many years, and knew that this part of Faroese fishing was about to become history. The owners were contacted and without hesitation the boat was granted, as he had found it, dilapidated and with no engine and no equipment at all. The boat then was brought in to the basement of the Sjóborg building and put in original shape. Thus the Boat Museum had started.

In the same way as the Boat Museum on 1st floor was owned by the trawler-company – Sjóborg Ltd.- so was the Paintings Collection.

From time to time during the years since 1965 Sjóborg Ltd. had bought paintings form local painters. In 1999 Osmund was consulted by a local person, who had gathered a collection of paintings, primarily by two local painters, Sámal Toftenæs and Jóannes Kristiansen. His intentions were to set up some kind of an exhibition, but as he now was not able to do so, he had decided to sell all the paintings in one. We made a deal regarding all the 23 paintings. At this time we had plenty of store-room on the 2na floor, which previously had been used for trawl equipment and spare parts.

In 2000 the exhibition became reality. Before opening of the exhibition Sjóborg Ltd. had purchased more paintings from other local painters in Leirvík.

The painting exhibition opened on the 19th of May 2000. This is a permanent exhibition representing local artists from Leirvík. On the other hand there is a possibility for other artists to have time limited exhibitions.

In 2012 Sjóborg Ltd. moved to the capital Tórshavn and the owners, Jórun and Osmund Justinussen, handed the complete museum to Eysturkommuna as a gift to the citizens of Leirvík and Eysturkommuna is very greatful for their generousity.