The Sirens’ architecture and pollinators attracted visitors to KAMU museums in 2021 despite the pandemic

Feedback from museum visitors on the Siren exhibition was very positive. Created in cooperation with the Museum of Finnish Architecture and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition received attention not only in the Finnish media but also in international architectural media. Exhibited at Glims in the summer, “Hero Pollinators” was a new kind of exhibition that diversely highlighted the importance of pollinators and presented items related to beekeeping. In November, Glims opened a photography exhibition of Kenzi Rinno’s photos of Glims landscapes from the early 1970s. The exhibition is part of this year’s celebration of Espoo’s 50th anniversary as a city.

In order to provide city residents with remote services, too, KAMU has been producing and developing new historical content for social media and the web throughout the pandemic. The museum’s Finna search service published photos of Espoo’s historical buildings and cultural landscapes, for example. During the year, KAMU’s Finna attracted about 84,000 visitors. New kinds of mobile guides were also completed last year, many of them with architectural themes, such as the mobile guide to Tapiola through the stories of its residents and mobile guides to Otsolahti, Otaniemi and Itäranta. Published in October, Lagstad School Museum’s virtual museum takes visitors to Lagstad folkskola, Espoo’s oldest school building and its courtyard.

At the beginning of the year, the five locations of KAMU Espoo City Museum were closed to the public for five months due to COVID-19 restrictions. At the beginning of June, the museums reopened and public events began to be held again. As COVID-19 restrictions eased, it was possible to carry out the archaeological excavations of KAMU’s “Mullankaivajat” (“Soil Diggers”) project together with the pupils of Karhusuon koulu school at the beginning of September. At the excavations, the pupils had a great opportunity to learn about the work of an archaeologist for two weeks. The museum’s first “Adopt a Monument” cooperation project was agreed with the Olari-seura association.

The total number of visitors to the five museums of KAMU Espoo City Museum in 2021 was 79,423.