Visitor numbers at Vaasa’s museums remain strong

The Ostrobothnian Museum welcomed 20,612 visitors in 2024. The Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art had 11,660 visitors, the Tikanoja Art Museum 10,554, the Vaasa City Art Gallery 171 (in January), and the Old Vaasa Museum 7,415 visitors. The total number of visitors to the museums was 50,412. Visitor numbers at the Old Vaasa Museum saw a significant increase compared to last year.

– Significant changes were made to the museum’s operations in 2024, but these had little impact on visitor numbers. The number fell short of last year’s record by only a few thousand, although Vaasa City Art Gallery’s exhibition activities were transferred to the Vaasa Artists’ Association at the beginning of the year, and for cost-saving reasons, the museums were closed also on Tuesdays since the summer, says Elina Bonelius, Museum Director.

In the role of the museum with regional responsibility, two pop-up exhibitions and several touring exhibitions were produced across Ostrobothnia. These exhibitions attracted a total of 14,390 visitors.

Seven new temporary exhibitions

The museums’ programme for 2025  includes seven new temporary exhibitions, with the first ones opening in April and May. The exhibitions will highlight local, Nordic, and naïve art. The Tikanoja Art Museum as well as the Ostrobothnian Museum will showcase their own collections also this year. The Ostrobothnian Museum will also reopen its renovated Money Room. The touring exhibition Ostrobothnia through the eyes of the Lundgren sisters, presenting the works of the three sisters from Vaasa, will visit six municipalities in Ostrobothnia.

Starting in January, the Ostrobothnian Museum will be open on Sundays

From January onwards, only the Ostrobothnian Museum in Vaasa will be open on Sundays, while the Tikanoja Art Museum and the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art will be closed. The Sunday closures are due to cost-saving measures.

– It is unfortunate that Sunday openings are limited to only the Ostrobothnian Museum, but this is necessary due to cost-saving measures. The Ostrobothnian Museum was selected as the only museum to be open on Sundays because its exhibition offerings are the most diverse among our sites, and, in terms of visitor numbers, it is also the most visited of our museums, explains Bonelius.

The Tikanoja Art Museum will undergo façade and roof renovations, along with interior renovation work, in the summer of 2025. The museum will reopen on 27 September with new exhibitions.

Positive feedback from visitors

Due to the changes in opening hours, guided tours at the Tikanoja Art Museum and the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art will now be organised on Saturdays. Guided tours at the Ostrobothnian Museum will still take place on Sundays.

Guided tours will explore the temporary exhibitions on display at three museums: Eero Järnefelt at the Tikanoja Art Museum, Meta Isæus-Berlin’s The Philosopher at the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, and the photography exhibition Forests of the North Wind by Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo at the Ostrobothnian Museum. The exhibitions have received highly positive feedback from the public, with many museumgoers returning to the same exhibition multiple times.

See the times for guided tours at: https://www.vaasa.fi/koe-ja-nae/kulttuuria-vaasassa-ja-seudulla/vaasan-museot/vieraile/yleisoopastukset/ (in Finnish).