National Museums in Finland Susanna Pettersson

Building National Museums in Europe 1750-2010. Conference proceedings from EuNaMus, European National Museums: Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past and the European Citizen, Bologna 28-30 April 2011. Peter Aronsson & Gabriella Elgenius (eds) EuNaMus Report No 1. Published by Linköping University Electronic Press: http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_home/index.en.aspx?issue=064 © The Author. National Museums in Finland Susanna Pettersson Summary This report analyses the growth of the Finnish museum scene from its early beginnings in the nineteenth century through to the big national museum organizations: the Finnish National Gallery, the National Museum of Finland and the Natural History Museum. The timeframe is particularly interesting due to the historical setting: when the first initiatives to form national collections saw the light of day, the country was in the midst of political turmoil. Separation from Sweden had taken place in 1809, and Finland, as a Grand Duchy of Russia, was searching for a new identity. The nation-building process, driven by Swedish-speaking academics, artists and politicians, was visible in all sectors, from the fine arts to literature, history writing and science. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, language-policy issues divided the field into two separate camps. Favouring either the Finnish or Swedish language became a political matter. When the country gained independence from Russia in 1917, an express need for national institutions such as national museums became evident. Nationalism reached a peak and was seen and heard in architecture, the fine arts, literature and music. The civil war in 1918 and, later on, the World War did not close the museums, but affected their work on a very practical level. The cold-war period was partly mirrored in the politically appropriate exhibition programmes. The nation’s geopolitical struggle only became the subject of exhibitions later on, when it was possible to approach their contents from an analytical distance. The development of the three national museums has depended on Finnish cultural policy and on politics in general. The nineteenth century was an era of vigorous national development and the creation of institutions, the formation of collections and collecting practices. The twentieth century featured the growth of the museum profession and expertise, and the museums’ relationship with their audiences changed. Political changes, the industrialization of the country, a relatively rapid shift from an agricultural society to a service and IT society have affected museums’ activities, too. Internationally important trends and issues have been reflected in the exhibition programmes. One of the central observations is that the crucial factor was the professional expertise used in running the museums, building up the collections and putting them on display. Thus, the success of the big national museums depends not only on the contents of the collections, exhibitions and various programmes targeted on different audiences, but on their human resources. 261 Summary table, Finland Name Inaugurated InitiatedActors Ownership Type Values Temporal Style reach Location The Finnish 1846 1834 Civil Society, Civil Society Art Finnish Art in 19th c. Various apartments Art Society Aristocracy Western Tradition, until opening of (FAS) international art. Ateneum, central Helsinki. Ateneum Art 1888 Ateneum 1870s Civil Society, Civil Society Art Finnish Art in 19th c. Ateneum, purpose- Museum, part (collections of Aristocracy Western Tradition, built, neo- of FAS/FNG the FAS) international art. renaissance, central Helsinki. Sinebrychoff 1921 1880s Private State Art International art , 17th – 19th c. Sinebrychoff, private Art Museum, (Sinebrychoff emphasis on house, classical part of Art Swedish art style, central FAS/FNG Collection) Helsinki. The Finnish 1990 1982 Parliament State Art Finnish Art in 16th – 20th c. Ateneum, Sinebrychoff, National Western Tradition, Kiasma (1998-), Gallery international and central Helsinki. contemporary art, furniture. Kiasma, part 1998 Kiasma 1990 Parliament State Art Contemporary 20th c. Kiasma: purpose- of FNG (part of (1960s) Art, National and built (1998), FNG) International. modern style, central Helsinki. 262 Etnografisk 1760, 1840 University University Cultural National Pre- Stone age to Various locations, Museum 1828 History History and 19th c. included in the Culture National Museum, central Helsinki. The National 1916 1893 Parliament State Cultural National Pre- Stone Age Purpose-built in Museum of History History and to the national romantic Finland Culture. present day style; Helsinki The Finnish 1925 1811 University University Natural National Stone age to Old school, (bought Museum of History specimens of the present 1923), neo-classical Natural nature, universal style, History values central Helsinki. 263 Introduction The Finnish museum field today consists of more than 1000 museums. Professional museum organizations run a total of 326 museum sites. Compared with the number of citizens – the population of the country is 5.5 million – the number of museums is one of the highest in Europe. This report analyses the growth of the Finnish museum scene from its early beginnings in the nineteenth century through to the big national-museum organizations: the Finnish National Gallery, the National Museum of Finland and the Natural History Museum. Other museums of national and regional relevance are the regional museums of cultural history (22), regional art museums (16) and museums with national status for presenting a special field, such as design, architecture, theatre and Finnish glass (17). Details of these are given in the appendices. The vast majority of Finnish museums were originally established on private initiatives. In the nineteenth century, this happened on both a private and semi-public level. Private collectors donated their lifetime achievements to ‘the nation’ and encouraged local authorities to establish museum institutions around their collections. As semi-public institutional bodies, various societies, such as the Finnish Art Society, played a key role by providing an institutional framework for collecting. Whereas private bodies and private funds drove the early beginnings, two hundred years later, the museum sector forms an important part of the culture industry and is supported by public funding. The State allocates funds for museums on an annual basis and supports the big nationals with substantial sums.1 Regional museums and museums of national importance also get substantial funding from the state. (Museum Statistics 2009) The responsibility for developing the museum field is in the hands of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which is the most important policy maker. (Ministry of Education and Culture Strategy 2020) On museum issues, it consults the Finnish Museum Association and, in particular, works closely with the National Board of Antiquities and the Finnish National Gallery. The Museum Act (1996/1166) provides a concrete framework for this.2 Apart from developing the museum field on the policy and stakeholder level, museum-related research also enriches the big picture. Since 1983, museology has been taught at the university level in Finland (Vilkuna 2010: 339). The first professor of museology was appointed in 1998 at the University of Jyväskylä. (Vilkuna 2010) A history of Finnish museums was published in 2010 (Pettersson & Kinanen 2010) and the Finnish forum for museum-related research was established in May 2010, bringing together scholars from different disciplines. The most significant references for the report cover the history of the big national museums: Mikko Härö’s study on the history of the National Board of Antiquities (2010) and Derek Fewster’s study Visions of the Past Glory: Nationalism and the Construction of Early Finnish History (2006) that analyses the formation of the National Museum, whereas Susanna Pettersson’s study Suomen Taideyhdistyksestä Ateneumiin. Fredrik Cygnaeus, Carl Gustaf Estlander ja taidekokoelman roolit (From the Finnish Art Society to the Ateneum: Fredrik Cygnaeus, Carl Gustaf Estlander and the roles of the art collection) (2008) covers the early history of the Finnish Art Society and its collection, thus creating the framework for the core collection of the Finnish National Gallery. The institutional developments and the history of the collections of the Natural History Museum 264 are discussed in various articles and other publications, but the institution still lacks an in-depth study. Suomen museohistoria (Finnish Museum History) (2010), edited by Susanna Pettersson and Pauliina Kinanen, provides a general overview of the development of the Finnish museum field, in-depth case studies and complete lists and statistics concerning the founding of the museums, thus forming one of the key sources for the report. A larger number of earlier publications complete the set of references. The timeframe for this report spans the formation of the collections from the seventeenth century and the academic collecting of the natural history specimens up to the first decades of the professional museums and collection management of the early twentieth century. The rapid growth of the museum sector, organizational changes and the professionalization of the field in the twentieth century will be discussed, as well as the most relevant future challenges for the big national museums. One of the key focuses, however, is the development of the nineteenth century, when institutionalized

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