The Finnish Cultural Foundation has granted the Alvar Aalto Museum and Museum of Central Finland 350,000 euros. The Museovisio grant will enable the Museum of Central Finland and the Alvar Aalto Foundation to begin creating an operating concept and brand for the new joint museum centre in Jyväskylä’s Ruusupuisto Park. The museum centre, which will integrate the two separate museums, will make it possible to pool resources in both use of space and operations, and hence further enhance Jyväskylä’s reputation as a city of museums and Alvar Aalto.

“The new museum centre’s profile will be as a multi-purpose hub specializing in the cultural environment, architecture and design, with experience content that will attract a broader public than ever,” says the Director of Jyväskylä Museums Heli-Maija Voutilainen.

The new museum centre will, for instance, allow the museums to put on a joint exhibition programme and a better-planned range of events for diverse target groups. The centre, which is aimed at everyone in the city, will seamlessly combine the arts and sciences, a cultural environment, architecture and design. It will also provide a unique, inspiring learning environment for schools, both locally and nationally.

“The step-by-step completion of the museum centre is going according to schedule and the total renovation of the Alvar Aalto Museum and the project planning for the extension linking the two museums is due to be completed in January 2020. The fully renovated Museum of Central Finland will open to the public in February 2020. The aim is for the entire new museum centre – a meeting point for diverse audiences and events – to open to the public in 2023,” says the Alvar Aalto Foundation’s Managing Director Tommi Lindh.

The Finnish Cultural Founation has awarded Museovisio grants totalling three million euros to ten museums in various parts of Finland. For further details (in Finnish) see the Finnish Cultural Foundation press release here.

Earlier in the autumn, the Ministry of Education and Culture conferred on both museums the status of designated museum. From the start of 2020, the Museum of Central Finland will serve as the regional designated museum for Central Finland and the Alvar Aalto Museum as the national designated museum for Alvar Aalto’s architecture and design heritage.

Further information:
Alvar Aalto Foundation
Tommi Lindh, Managing Director
+358 (0)44 562 1625
tommi.lindh@alvaraalto.fi

Museum of Central Finland
Heli-Maija Voutilainen, Director of Jyväskylä Museums
+358 (0)50 355 5048
heli-maija.voutilainen@jyvaskyla.fi

Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland. Photo Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.