New company has been set up to run the merging Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum
AD Museum Ltd. board. photo: Anni Koponen / MFA
The foundations for the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture will merge into the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design at the beginning of 2024. AD Museum Ltd. will take over the operations and business activities of both museums.
In spring 2022, the City of Helsinki and the Finnish State established a foundation for the new national architecture and design museum, into which the foundations for the Design Museum and the Museum Finnish Architecture will merge on 1 January 2024. At the same time, the museums' operations will be transferred to AD Museum Ltd. The company will maintain the activities of the current museums and promote the establishment of the new museum together with its parent foundation.
The new museum company has been established by the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design. The Foundation has put together an implementation plan for the new museum, which will enable the main funders to make the necessary decisions during 2023. Kaarina Gould, CEO of the Foundation, has also been appointed Chair of the new museum company’s board. According to Gould, the establishment of the new museum is proceeding as planned.
"Over the coming years, the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture will continue to operate in their current buildings as separate museum brands. However, the common goal is the establishment of the New Museum of Architecture and Design, along with the delivery of a new building in Helsinki's Makasiiniranta area,” says Gould.
In addition to Gould, the board of the company appointed by the Foundation consists of Laura Aalto, Communications Director at Aalto University, Professor and Architect Jenni Reuter, Designer and Entrepreneur Mikael Silvanto, Pauli Sivonen, Museum Director of the Serlachius Museums, Petri Tervonen, Business Director of Fiskars, and Katri Viippola, CEO of the Association for Finnish Work. A staff representative will also be appointed to the Board in the beginning of 2024.
Jukka Savolainen, who has served as Director of the Design Museum since 2012 (M.A.), has been appointed as the CEO of the museum company during the transitional period as the new museum is established. Carina Jaatinen, Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture since 2020 (M.Sc.), will be in charge of content services for the new museum company.
The staff and operations of both museums will be transferred to the new museum company in connection with the merger of the foundations. The two museums are already working closely together, as the first joint exhibition Garden Futures: Designing with Nature will open in November in both current museum buildings located on the same plot in the southern city centre of Helsinki.
Photo on top depicts the AD Museum Ltd. board (from left): Petri Tervonen, Laura Aalto, Kaarina Gould, Jenni Reuter, Katri Viippola, and Pauli Sivonen. Mikael Silvanto is not in the picture.
