Museums in Helsinki

The Ateneum celebrated its inaugural opening on November 18th, 1887. The new art forum was a momentous achievement for the Finnish cultural establishment, albeit that its inception was the subject of heated controversy and debate.

The Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki city centre is one of the largest private art collections in Finland. Opened in 1965, it belongs to the organization Foreningen Konstsamfundet. The museum's founder was Amos Anderson (1878-1961), who owned several printing houses and Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland's largest wedish-language daily.

The Didrichsen Art Museum is the result of a love of art. All pieces are bought by Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen together. It was important to them that they both liked the artworks. The collection consists of Finnish art from the 20th century among others Edelfelt, Cawen, Schjerfbeck, Sarestoniemi, Linnovaara, Hiltunen and Pullinen.

The Helsinki City Art Museum is about to enter a new era with the premises in the Tennis Palace quadrupling its total exhibition space. The Art Museum will have museum galleries in Meilahti and the Tennis Palace, showing a wide variety of exhibitions, while the Kluuvi gallery continues as a venue for showcasing experimental art by young contemporary artists.

Kiasma is open from morning until late at night. The Museum offers exhibitions, interdisciplinary artistic projects, performance art, dance, music, media art and films. Kiasma's world is also made up of conversational interludes, encounters with artists, festivals, seminars, familiarization with the web, browsing in the bookstore, and workshop experiments.

The permanent exhibitions of the Maritime Museum present the history of shipbuilding, life on board a ship, merchant shipping, steam technology, winter navigation and the history of diving. The displays include material raised from the sea. Fishing and pleasure boats are exhibited in the boat hall, and at the quay outside the museum the restored lightship Kemi, built in 1901.