It was a joint-venture between 29 organisations and institutions, with the weight on the private side, represented foremost by the Association of Copenhagen Industrialists.

[1] In the spring of 1883, the theme of the exhibition was narrowed down to be an idea fostered by Philip Schou (1838–1922) who served as Chairman of the Association of Copenhagen Industrialists and Vice President of the expo.

It was pointed out by Philip Schou that the expo took place to create a platform foremost for the Danish citizens, so they would recognize the products, lifestyles, and arts from all of Denmark.

To Philip Schou and those who had supported his idea from the beginning it was exactly the innermost mission of the exhibition to advocate that concept.

Simply put industrial art consisted of reminiscences of romantic thoughts, combined with a critic attitude towards the modern times.

The concept included a belief in a certain ‘spirit’ of the ethnic, which in short meant that individual groups upheld certain characteristics.

Which therefore did not become impregnated with the ‘folkgeist’ but became utterly ‘soulless.’ In that respect, the primary challenge of the modern age consisted in finding a method to keep the human touch attached to the products.

Surely this line of reasoning was not attractive to all branches, but primary to those that already included an aspect of ‘artful expression’ to the final product.

From that direction it was stated that to be successful in the world market that emerged in the second half of the 1800, every country would have to specialize in a range of products.

And it made many ears and minds perceptible to voices (no matter how high-pinched) which brought forward solutions to prevent the end.

The majority of the committee members outright disagreed that this line of thought should be placed at the front of the exhibition, and thereby state that the organizing body as a whole supported the idea.

A Nordic home market -secured by trade walls- would ensure a nice stable growth of the many small and middle sized factory units in the region.

[citation needed] When Philip Schou introduced a range of measures to promote industrial art, he faced negative response from a majority of the members.

In a far from unanimous state of mind, the Association of Copenhagen Industrialists therefore, in 1884 undertook the enormous responsibility to organize the exhibition of 1888.

It is hardly a surprise that a broad basis of interest was desirable to secure the project, which would indicate that membership of the committee was not limited to institutions.

At the close of the exhibition, the Swedish Villa was purchased by Queen Louise and had it rebuilt at Bernstorff Palace, where it was used by the Royal family until the death of Prince Valdemar in 1939.