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Sámi Museum in Siida, photo by Annika Haas
From 13th to 16th January, Master’s students of museology at the Faculty of Art and Culture together with microcredential students in museology went to Finland for a study trip. Specifically, they went to Northern Finland, where they got to know the museums through various examples and educated themselves about Sami cultural heritage. The field trip was a continuation of the course “Museum in Theory and Practice”.
The study trip started with a visit to the collections of the National Museum of Finland. The collections were introduced by the intendant Katri Lahti, who is in charge of the logistical organisation of the museum’s collections, as well as conservation. She talked about the repatriation of cultural heritage in Finland and the Nordic countries, and about the return of Sami cultural heritage to the community, using the example of the National Museum of Finland. In 2021, the National Museum returned more than 2,000 objects to the Sámi Museum in Siida. A tour of the collections and a visit to the museum’s conservation department, where Maria Pommer, an alumna of the Estonian Academy of Arts, who is currently an intern there, spoke about her work.
Next, we headed north to visit the Sámi Museum in Inari. The museum was founded in the 1960s and started as an open-air museum. Today it has developed into a very prominent institution for Sámi cultural heritage. The group was welcomed by the museum’s director Taina Máret Pieski, chief curator Anni Guttorm and community work coordinator Pia Nikula. Together, they intorduced the museum’s relatively recent permanent exhibition, visited the open-air museum and finally gathered around the table to hear more about what they do – returning artefacts, community work, exhibitions and how the institution works. Siida is actively engaged in making sense of and interpreting the historical heritage of the Sámi, with the Sámi community being a particular priority for the museum.
In addition, a visit was made to the Rovaniemi Art Museum, located in the Korund Culture House. There, the students and teachers were welcomed by the chief curator of the collections, Aira Huovinen. The museum is dedicated to contemporary art and every year adds new contemporary works to its collection. The exhibitions are mainly based on the museum’s own collection, donated by the Wihuri foundation. Some of us also visited the Arktikum in Rovaniemi, a science centre and history museum. On the way back, in Helsinki, we spread out, visiting museums like Kiasma, Amos Rex or the Ateneum.
At the end of each day, we gathered for a joint seminar to discuss what we had heard and seen during the day. The discussions were very interesting and helped to consolidate everything that we learned. The trip provided in-depth insights into the collecting practices of museums in the Nordic countries, art buying policies and the promotion and preservation of Sámi artistic and historical heritage.
Participants: Kersti Peetris, Eleri Paatsi, Hanna Õunapuu, Emili Kelle, Birgit Tohter, Lisette Metsniit, Eleriin Miilman, Sergei Trofimov, Annika Haas, Mikk Lahesalu, Katarina Ida-Maria Nyysönen, Hanna Strauss, Iris Peremees, Anastassia Janovskaya, Diana Illak, Anastassia Langinen, Siiri-Liis Huttunen, Ingrid Ruudi, Triinu Rannula, Annika Tiko, Rahul Sharma, Kadi Kapral, Veiko-Joel Kokk, Laura Arum-Lääts, Helena Pärenson.
Supervised by Anu Allas and Linda Kaljundi.
Text by: Hanna Õunapuu, Emili Kelle, Kersti Peetris, Anastassia Janovskaja
Photos by: Annika Haas and Annika Tiko
Trip funded by: