Earlier in March 2022, the Ateneum museum was shut down for ventilation improvements. Restrooms the atrium (between the former museum shop and the restaurant), the Ateneuminkuja entrance, and the Ateneum Museum Shop have all undergone restorations. The rooms will be made more approachable and hospitable since the museum wants to remain the go-to gathering place and a place where people want to spend time.
Next year, three brand-new exhibitions will start taking visitors. The first is the brand-new collection exhibit A Question of Time, which opened in April alongside the museum and will be available for a while. The pieces on show will also be changed, and the exhibition’s content will be updated as necessary.
The Question of Time examines Ateneum’s four-century-old art collection, focusing on how the collection has changed through time.
According to Maja Sakari, director of the Ateneum Museum of Art, “the value of a memory facility like ours is in maintaining a continuum and understanding why and how we got to where we are today.” The new collection exhibition’s chosen works “transmit and produce knowledge and meaning, but how they are interpreted depends on the spectator and the period.”
His four exhibition themes—”Natural Times,” “Images of People,” “Contemporary Life,” and “Art and Power”—permeate issues that are currently the subject of heated public discussion.
The Ateneum will host two temporary exhibitions in 2023 in addition to the display of the new collection. Both contain pieces that have never been seen in Finland before.
An international event, the Albert Edelfelt retrospective, examines the body of work of one of Finland’s most well-known and well-liked artists. While residing and working in France, Albert Edelfelt had the opportunity to interact with numerous notable figures in art, culture, and science, as well as art dealers and collectors. The public has responded well to the show, which has sparked fresh inquiries and added to our understanding of Edelfelt’s life and work. The exhibition will be accessible, from 5 May until 17 September 2023.