Museums, Galleries, and Cultural Context

Exhibition in the Helsinki Art Museum

As part of the immersion in Finland this summer, we will be visiting many museums and galleries as a way of learning about Finnish geography, culture, and history.  Each participant in the immersion will be issued a Museum Card that provides unlimited access to over 40 museums and galleries in Helsinki and nearly 400 across the country.  This card is a wonderful resource.  While I was in Helsinki in early January, I visited many of them and left each exhibit with a powerful sense of the importance of art and design in a sustainable society.  In Finland, art and design are integrated in daily life, as seen in works of public art across the city, functional design and architecture, the fluid intersection of art and traditional crafts, and the ongoing exploration of nature and environment by past and contemporary Finnish artists.