Competition to find a name for the new Icelandic Studies Building

The Ministry of Culture and Business Affairs, the Árni Magnússon Institute and the University of Iceland have launched a competition to find a name for the new Icelandic Studies Building due to open this spring.

The building will be home to the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and the University of Iceland's Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies. The building will be completed this February and formally opened on 19 April.

But it has yet to be christened, so the Minister of Culture and Business Affairs, the Árni Magnússon Institute and the University of Iceland have decided to hold a public competition. If you can think of a good name for the building, you can enter your suggestion on the Árni Magnússon Institute website.

The competition will run until the end of February, at which point a committee will consider all the suggestions and select a winner. The name will be revealed when the building is formally opened on 19 April and the person behind the winning entry will receive a prize.

"Before long, the Icelandic language and our most precious cultural treasures will have their own long awaited and richly deserved home. The opening of the new Icelandic Studies Buildings will mark a major milestone for the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and the University of Iceland's Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies. Finally, Iceland will have the facilities required to display our most remarkable manuscripts, which are so integral to our national identity. This will truly be a building for the whole Icelandic nation. And so I urge as many people as possible to take part in this competition to find a name for it," said Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, Minister of Culture and Business Affairs.