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Milk – crucial source of nutrients or threat to children’s health?

Runsaan maitovalmisteiden käytön todettiin olevan yhteydessä kohonneeseen tyypin 1 diabeteksen kehittymiseen. Kuva: Laura Iisalo

Text and photos: Laura Iisalo

The occurrence of type 1 diabetes has multiplied in Finland since the 1950’s, and excessive consumption of cow’s milk has been found to predispose individuals to the development of the disease.

Doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki’s Doctoral Programme in Population Health, Katariina Koivusaari, has spent the past three and half years looking into the connection between the processing of milk and the development of type 1 diabetes in children. The possible link to asthma was included in the research later on.

– Cow’s milk is a source of protein, nutrients, and vitamins for children, including calcium, iodine, vitamin D, and some types of vitamin B, and milk products are very popular. On the other hand, the occurrence of type 1 diabetes is the highest in the world, which is why doing this research in Finland makes sense, Koivusaari says.

Prior to her thesis Koivusaari completed her master studies, and classified all milk-containing food products in the National Food Composition Database according to how they were heat-treated and homogenised during processing. 

In high pasteurisation the heat inactivates proteins in the milk, and in high-temperature treatment new compounds are also created. In homogenisation, the fat in milk is broken into smaller compounds, which changes the surface structure. This can, according to Koivusaari, affect the structure of the proteins attached to the fat. 

Apart from different types of commercial drinkable milk, the classification included quark, cheese, yoghurt, and other milk products. Extra attention was paid to children’s foods including formulas, porridges, and baby food products containing cow’s milk.

– Milk is a very complex matter and in previous research it has been left unclear what is the exact factor in milk that increases the risk of developing the illness. Understanding this would mean that it could be taken into consideration in processing, says Koivusaari.

High-temperature treatment is connected to asthma

Katariina Koivusaarelle myönnettiin vuonna 2018 keskusrahastosta 24 000 euron apuraha maidon prosessoinnin yhteyttä lasten tyypin 1 diabetekseen tutkivaan väitöskirjatyöhön. Kuva: Laura Iisalo

Koivusaari performed her thesis work at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. She made use of the research material collected since 1996 as part of the Finnish study, Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention, which according to Koivusaari, is one of the most important studies in the field.

Statistical analysis was prepared by a doctoral candidate at Tampere University, Essi Syrjälä and the research project was supervised by Tapani Alatossava at the University of Helsinki and Suvi Virtanen and Sari Niinistö at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

The study didn’t find any of the processing methods to be a significant marker but excessive consumption of milk products was connected to a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

High-temperature treated milk products, which include infant formulas, seem to be linked to a higher asthma risk. This is the first study in which such connection has been found.

The study results are promising, yet more research is needed in order to verify the outcome. Koivusaari intends to defend her thesis by the end of this year, and after that she is going to embark on a new study that once again relates to children and food.

– The subject is always relevant because eating is mandatory. I find it meaningful to link the knowledge in my study field to children – for me that is important and interesting, she says.

Doctoral candidate Katariina Koivusaari, was awarded a grant worth 24 000 euros in 2018 from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. She studied the connection of milk processing and the outbreak of type 1 diabetes and asthma in children.

The August Round of Applications has started

The purpose of the mobility grant is to enable artists and critics to spend time abroad to discover new tools and networks that support their art practise. Individual artist, critics, working groups as well as registered organisations such as associations from any field of art are eligible to apply for a Mobility grant.

Mobility grants may be sought for expenses ranging from EUR 2,000 to EUR 10,000. Acceptable uses of the grant include e.g. residency costs, participation in a festival, exhibition project or international collaboration. It is not possible to apply for both a working grant and an expenditure grant in the same application; working must be funded by other means. Even though travelling is still restricted in many ways, grants are worth applying for, as the rules for using the grants are flexible.

The Cultural Foundation is favourably disposed towards higher travel costs due to the journey taking place in a way that pollutes the climate and the environment as little as possible. In addition to direct travel costs, the grant may also be used to offset emissions that your form of travel produces.

The COVID-19 situation presents some changes to the residency program of the Foundation. There are two brand new residencies open for application, Fabrikken Art Center in Copenhagen and NART in Estonia. They both offer two three-month working grants. For Triangle residency in New York the Finnish Cultural Foundation offers one working grant for three months. All three programs are targeted at visual artists.

In the August Round of Applications, you may apply either for a residency offered by the Finnish Cultural Foundation or for a mobility grant, not both.

More information on August Round is available here.

Finnish coronavirus vaccine developer Rokote Laboratories Finland secures significant funding

Ferring Ventures SA, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation have made a capital investment of 3.5 million euros in Rokote Laboratories Finland. In addition, Business Finland has granted a 5.5-million-euro loan to the company to support further development and clinical trials of the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

– Thanks to the funding we’ve secured now, we’ll be able to move forward in launching manufacture of the FINCoVac vaccine candidate, and we’ll be able to complete phase I and phase II clinical trials, Mr Pasi Kemppainen from Rokote Laboratories Ltd. says.

The funded coronavirus vaccine is based on research carried out at the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland, namely in the laboratories of Professor of Virology Kalle Saksela, Academician Kari Alitalo, and Academy Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala. This research has been supported by the Academy of Finland, the Wihuri Research Institute, and the Sakari Alhopuro Foundation. Both universities are also shareholders in the company.  

The vaccine is based on gene transfer technology developed by Ylä-Herttuala’s research group, and the technology has already been successfully used in several clinical trials using gene therapy to treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

– The vaccine uses a safe adenovirus carrier that contains a cloned DNA strand of the SARS-Cov-2 virus’s S protein. This can be used to program nasopharyngeal cells to produce the surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which, in turn, produces a response to the vaccine. There are no other parts of the virus in the vaccine, Ylä-Herttuala says.

Easily modifiable vaccine helps to tackle virus mutations

The genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is expected to continue mutating rapidly.

– With the vaccine we are developing now, we seek to tackle the challenge posed by new virus mutations. In the future, the vaccine can serve as an easy-to-administer booster for those who have already received a traditional vaccine, Saksela says.

Later on, the same method can also be used to develop vaccines against other viruses.

– The work carried out by Rokote Laboratories Finland Ltd. will make the use of a novel vaccine technology established here in Finland. This technology will also make us better prepared for possible future pandemics, Saksela points out.

For further information, please contact:

  • Academy Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, University of Eastern Finland, tel. +358 40 355 2075, seppo.ylaherttuala(at)uef.fi
  • Professor Kalle Saksela, University of Helsinki, tel. +358 29 412 6770, kalle.saksela(at)helsinki.fi
  • Pasi Kemppainen, Rokote Laboratories Finland Oy, pasi(at)rokote.com

Regional Funds pay out 15 million in grants

In the January round of applications, the foundation’s 17 regional funds received more than ten thousand applications. The number grew particularly in the regions of Uusimaa, Pirkanmaa and Southwest Finland (Varsinais-Suomi).

– In Uusimaa, we received approximately 600 more applications for working grants than last year. The cultural field is experiencing difficulties overall, but the situation has been especially worrying for freelancers this spring, explains Jari Sokka, Chairman of the foundation’s Board of Trustees.

The board responded to these circumstances by releasing a third batch of additional funding worth EUR 2 million. It was channelled to freelance artists in the form of full-year and half-year grants awarded by the regional funds. So far, the Cultural Foundation’s support of the arts and academic disciplines in the ongoing financial period has totalled around EUR 50 million.

Wishes of donors are evident

This spring, the regional funds awarded 204 full-year and 291 half-year grants. There were 818 grants for the arts and 345 for academic disciplines. The grants went to nearly 200 different municipalities, and around 12% of applicants were successful.

– The regional funds’ opportunities for giving out grants depend on the donations they receive. For example, the South Ostrobothnia fund is now paying out over EUR 1.1 million, of which the Viljo Syrenius Fund accounts for as much as one fifth, says the foundation’s Secretary General, Antti Arjava.

The distribution of the regional funds’ grants varies significantly. In North Savo, nearly 50% of grants go to medical sciences, due to the stated aims of its donor funds, whereas in Kainuu, the arts make up over 70%. The Lapland Regional Fund strongly supports research on Arctic regions and the Sámi culture, while the focus of the North Karelia fund is on supporting young people’s academic postgraduate studies.

With the grants paid out this spring by the regional funds, the current value of the funding provided by the Finnish Cultural Foundation since 1939 has exceeded EUR 1 billion.

– Over 80 years ago, the Cultural Foundation’s assets were raised by elementary school children. Nearly 200,000 Finns, ranging from farmers and blue-collar workers to government officials, factory managers and professors, took part in the fundraising. Indisputably, that fundraising drive has had a major impact on Finnish academia and arts, throughout the country, Arjava states.

On the Road with the Finnish Cultural Foundation

This year, the Cultural Foundation’s regional funds will hold a joint virtual award ceremony. The premiere of “On the Road with the Finnish Cultural Foundation” will take place at 6 pm on 26 May. Invited are grantees from various years, representing every region. During the two-hour online ceremony, journalist Kimmo Ohtonen, some of the foundation’s grantees and other interesting guests will discuss regional heritage in our global world, as well as the secrets and power of creativity. For more information, please visit the On the Road with the Finnish Cultural Foundation web page.

Would you like a boxful of performing arts?

Every now again there is a public debate about the role and duty of the arts. This is a good thing and the subject should be discussed even more often, believes curator Eva Neklyaeva, who likes to experiment with her work to find out what effect art can have on the community, culture, politics, and peoples’ lives.

She is especially curious about forming a meaningful connection between art and the audience. Due to the COVID pandemic, this connection has been broken for almost one and half years, which has jeopardised the income of many artists, and made Neklyaeva come up with new types of solutions to the difficult situation.

“If we make space for art, then we as a society take a stand in what we believe in.”

– My curatorial thinking starts with a need, and all performing artists that I know have been left without work and opportunities to meet with an audience. We need new and different forms of art, says the former director of the Santarcangelo Festival, Baltic Circle Festival, and the non-profit Checkpoint Helsinki art organisation.

What Neklyaeva is most concerned about is that art and culture are not considered basic services. For her it is difficult to understand why shops are allowed to stay open but museums are forced to keep their doors shut.

– Human relations, love, and nature bring meaning to our lives, and art and culture are definitely on that list. These things cannot be defined by their financial value but if we make space for art, then we as a society take a stand on what we believe in, Neklyaeva says.

The need for new art forms is permanent

Taiteellinen kolmikko Eva Neklyaeva, Marvo Cendroni ja Lisa Gilardino.

The artistic trio Eva Neklyaeva, Marvo Cendroni ja Lisa Gilardino.

The solution to an exceptional situation was eventually formed with two colleagues,Lisa Gilardino and Marco Cendroni. The trio invited artists that they had worked with before to create a way to pack a performance in a box, and then post it to the audience.

The project was named Samara Editions, which refers to a double-winged fruit of a maple tree, which floats from the tree to the ground with the wind. The first show was produced with Italian choreographer Chiara Bersani but Neklyaeva doesn’t want to talk about its content too much – a big part of the charm is the excitement of the unpacking experience.

– In her performance Chiara talks about how there are a lot of heavy things going on right now, and we have very little opportunity to process the feelings caused by these events. We cannot even take part in events like funerals and weddings that normally allow us to feel sadness or joy. She intends to give the audience instruments that can be used to create new types of rituals at home, says Neklyaeva.

The Samara Editions artworks can be purchased online and almost 700 boxes have been sent all over the world already. The project was also shown to the audience of the Oslo International Theatre Festival, and it will be part of the Spring Festival in Utrecht, in The Netherlands, in May. The next part of the series is currently under construction with the Finnish artist Jenna Sutela.

Even though the concept was born in the middle of the COVID crisis, Neklyaeva hopes that it doesn’t stop there. She says that the need for new art forms is permanent. It is not possible for everyone – for financial or other reasons – to fly to Europe to go on a tour, and even if they could, it wouldn’t be sustainable. For the artists involved the project provides an opportunity to examine their works from a new perspective.

– I hope that there would be more space for experimenting and playfulness in general, and that art wouldn’t be an exceptional experience but a part of everyday life, Neklyaeva says.

Curator Eva Neklyaeva received a 15 000 euros grant in 2021 for her Softshell project that sends art into people’s homes.

The future of treating diseases lies in immunology

Text and photos: Laura Iisalo

Tutkijatohtori Zivile Giedraitytelle myönnettiin säätiöiden post doc -poolin apuraha

Zivile Giedraityte working in her lab.

The cost of cancer is high for both the patient and society, and the same applies for autoimmunity, a condition where the patient develops antibodies or T cells, which are a type of immune cell, that mistakenly react to the patient’s own tissues or organs. 

Both diseases cause remarkable morbidity and mortality, even with current treatment methods. The two are also strongly connected. Cancer is often caused by a faulty immune system, which fails to attack defective cells thus allowing cancerous cells to grow and divide.

Chemotherapy is frequently used to treat cancerous tumours but Postdoctoral researcher Zivile Giedraityte believes that in the future all diseases, including cancer, will be treated with immunotherapy instead. 

The method, which came of age in the early 2000’s, involves activating the patient’s own immune system to cure a tumour by identifying and destroying cancer cells. By now 25 percent of cancers have been cured this way but strengthening the immune system comes with a risk; it may cause the patient to develop autoimmunity. 

– I believe that all diseases are linked to immune responses. In the future treatment will be highly personalised and I believe that we will be able to find an immune response that is so powerful that it will kill the cancer cells in our bodies. To do that we need to understand the defence mechanisms, and to control the immune reaction. The more we understand, the more control we have of those diseases, Giedraityte says.

Discovery is the joy of science

Professori Shiv Pillai. Kuva: HMX

Professor Shiv Pillai. Photo: HMX

Giedraityte, who is currently developing new types of immunotherapies for ovarian cancer at the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki, wants to eventually become an independent researcher, and better understand the mechanisms that affect the immune system in order to find new ways to cure cancer. 

To take the next step towards her goals she will spend one year at the laboratory run by Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences & Technology at Harvard Medical School, Shiv Pillai, in the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, where everything is studied through the lens of immunology.

– Our immune systems have been designed to see an infinite number of shapes, and they can recognise anything that is foreign. Sometimes they make cells that recognise our own cells, and that is the price we pay for having strong mechanisms that protect us from infections, Pillai explains the mechanism of autoimmunity.

According to him there is no better suited environment for scientific research than Boston, which is one of the most international cities with students and postdoctoral researchers from all over the world, and where science is better funded than in any European country.

– I arrived here 37 years ago and I still feel like there is no other place in the world that gives more scientific stimulation. We have a friendly atmosphere in our lab and we like to bounce ideas off each other. I’m still learning every day, Pillai says.

The scientific community is also highly competitive, and the key to a successful launch of a career as an independent researcher is making a discovery. It is what Pillai did in the 1980’s, when he discovered the existence and importance of surrogate light chains for B cell development, and it is what he encourages his students to do.

– The joy of science is discovery and the beauty in studying biology is that we understand many things but not completely. In order to use the knowledge for therapeutic advantage we need to understand better how things work, and that is what we try to do.

Postdoctoral researcher Zivile Giedraityte was awarded a grant in 2021 from the Foundation’s Post Doc Pool which allows her to spend an academic year at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.

The results from the Säätiöiden post doc –pooli’s spring application round – increasing number of applicants

Altogether 133 post-doctoral scholars from around Finland took part in the spring application round. Thus a grant could be awarded to 22 % of the applicants. The number of applications increased by 13 percent from the previous year. You can find all the Cultural Foundation’s Post Doc pool grantees here. Choose Post doc pooli from “Erillishaut” section.

Säätiöiden post doc -pooli has proven to be an important instrument of research funding which has enabled young scholars with families to finance research periods at top universities abroad. The grants awarded by the Pool are determined flexibly in accordance with the applicant’s needs and they often include their family’s moving expenses and children’s day care or school fees.

The Pool has a role in making Finnish research more international. After twenty-three application rounds over 630 scholars have already received funding through the Pool for at least a one-year research period abroad. One third of the grantees have received a two-year funding.

The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2021, when some 1.7 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2021.

Teachers develop their teaching and learning skills also in distressed situations

Tahani Aldahdouh arrived Finland 7 years ago as a grant researcher to pursue her doctoral study in Education at Tampere University. She defended her dissertation in 2020 after which she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the digitalization in higher education project. Her work started just on the same time as COVID-19 has become a global pandemic. The focus of her research was to investigate how university teachers in Finland manage to develop their online teaching expertise during this tough period.  

– While conducting the research, I realized how COVID-19 has troubled Finnish universities even though they have already prepared plans for digitalization. Finnish universities have invested a great of their efforts and resources to support teachers with all technical and pedagogical solutions to smoothen their transition to digital teaching. Even though, we have some scientific evidences that university teachers have stumbled with difficulties related, for example, to fostering their students’ engagement, and working at home with children. Please note that we are talking about a context where teachers are enjoying all that supports and capabilities; that kept me wondering, how can ever teachers living in a context lacks even the basic needs of life survive in such harsh situation, Aldahdouh wonders.

The idea sprang from the fact that she have lived the both contexts. Before coming to Finland, she was a teacher in one of the stricken and distressed areas in the world, Gaza city in Palestine. Gaza has been subject to several wars, long-lasting and drastic blockades, and has experienced a severe electricity and fuel crisis. The poverty and unemployment rate are among the highest records in the world. All of these factors have resulted in hundreds of casualties and also have hurt the physical and functioning capacity of all higher education institutions in Gaza. 

– What is surprising is that despite all these challenges, scientific evidences indicated that higher education continues at deprived contexts. But how? Thus, in this mobility period, I want to extend the topic of online teaching expertise running at Tampere University to conduct a comparative study between two highly variant contexts. I am heading to the Islamic University of Gaza in Jan 2022 to closely interact with teachers there and investigate how teachers manage to learn and develop their online teaching expertise.  

The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2021, when some 1.7 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2021.

The Säätiöiden post doc -pooli was set up in the autumn of 2009. During the fourth three-year-period 2019-2021 there are thirteen foundations involved, allocating altogether 3.2 million euro annually to the pool. The Pool’s foundations are Emil Aaltonen’s Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Paulo Foundation, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Finnish Medical Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Ulla Tuominen’s Foundation.

Further information:

www.postdocpooli.fi, info(at)postdocpooli.fi or from coordinator Mikko-Olavi Seppälä, tel. + 358 400 868 006

Eeva-Liisa Puhakka, 2019, South-Korea

Eeva-Liisa Puhakka: Seoul, smell, and sensory memories

An interview by Athanasía Aarniosuo

Eeva-Liisa Puhakka currently lives and works in Ruotila, near Kouvola in Finland. She moved into an old family house during spring 2020, as the world was getting used to what was to become an extraordinary year. She is currently working at art center Taidekeskus Antares where she is experimenting on creating her own bioplastics. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has somehow forced her to change her rhythm of working, it has, nevertheless, been a busy couple of years. In 2019, she spent three months in Seoul on a residency funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. 2020 found her in Spain; after traveling back to Finland, she has taken part in an environmental exhibition during summer 2020, creating a large-scale public sculpture made from metal tubes and, also, spent nearly three months in ARE residency in the Netherlands during autumn.

Seoul

Seoul was an interesting and inspiring city, Eeva-Liisa says, where everything worked well and on schedule, moving around was easy, and people were friendly. Eeva-Liisa had not been to Seoul before and did not know what to expect. What she found was a big city with massive buildings and a perfectly organised residency area near a big park, contemporary art of the highest level, and stimulating conversation. Eeva-Liisa found that Seoul activated her, motivated her to find exhibitions and openings to attend, as the recently appointed residency staff, albeit friendly, did not provide a set schedule of things to do and places to visit.

What was indeed pleasant was the social aspect of the residency. Six international and twenty local artists got along well and became friends. The residency period ended with a group exhibition. Eeva-Liisa participated with an installation investigating smell, the smell of death. The installation consisted of a space within which the audience had to step, to be confronted with four levels of the smell of a decomposing dead animal. The four smells ranged from the pleasant smell of a rose through the very unpleasant, ending with a very mild smell of just bones, investigating concepts of the afterlife. Although Eeva-Liisa has been interested in smells for many years, this particular residency gave her research a certain taboo twist. In South Korea, smells are generally frowned upon.

Smell

Eeva-Liisa’s interest in smell goes back several years. For five to six years, while living in Berlin, she was working with an artist collective called Scent Club Berlin. All the members of the collective were interested in smells in various ways. The sense of smell is such a strong, primitive sense which brings on sensory memories from as far back as one’s childhood. Together with the collective, Eeva-Liisa initiated smell dating workshops during which the audience were assigned dates based on the smell of their sweat after a 15-minute aerobics class. The projects of the collective were mostly playful, whereas Eeva-Liisa’s personal work around smell researched, for example, the smells of death and fear.

Ecology and bioplastics

One of the interests that have followed Eeva-Liisa’s art for years is the desire to make art that respects the environment. During her ARE residency in the Netherlands, Eeva-Liisa got acquainted with a local artist who inspired her to make her own bioplastics and kombucha leather. In her current experimentations, Eeva-Liisa is making bioplastics using seaweed from Asia, coloured with various local organic ingredients such as tomato, raspberry, beetroot, blueberry, and clove. In the future, Eeva-Liisa would like to experiment with local seaweed andother plant-based materials.

Milky Way, Kouvola Art Museum, 2020.

Milky Way, Kouvola Art Museum, 2020.

Nature and locality

The relationship between humans and other animals is of interest to Eeva-Liisa as well as the relationship between humans and their surrounding environment. Some of Eeva-Liisa’s work deals with the rural population decreasing. For example, some of her works use imagery of empty barns and abandoned milking machines. She often contrasts and compares nature and rural communities with technology.

Since she moved to rural Kouvola, she has also been interested in the local community and history, especially some of the local religious cults that she has been hearing and reading about.

Future plans

Aspects of these long-term interests are bound to make an appearance in Eeva-Liisa’s future exhibitions. In May 2021, she is looking to open a solo exhibition at Kouvola Art Museum, marking her three-year position as appointed artist of the city of Kouvola. The exhibition will feature works about farms, a sound installation of grey crows, kinetic sculptures of bird wings and tails, photographs of cows, and a video installation about a local Christian-influenced cult active between the 20s and the 60s. Also, the installation from Seoul investigating the smell of death will be reinstalled in Kouvola. The works of the exhibition will deal with Kouvola and the larger area, yet they have been inspired by Eeva-Liisa’s time in South Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany.

AA: Investigating death through the sense of smell is somewhat unexpected. Does this make the uncomfortable topic easier to approach?

E-LP: I do hope so. While working with this topic I try myself to accept death as a normal process and event of our life – to put it into the big context of the ecosystem and cycle of life. Death is one of the last taboos in our society and a difficult topic to talk about. We don’t know how to deal with it. Although death should be dealt with the same care as birth.

AA: What materials are you currently using for your bioplastics? Are you trying to increase sustainability by exploring more local options?

E-LP: I have grown kombucha scoby to make leather from it, but mainly I am into making bioplastics out of different kinds of seaweeds. After the first few experiments, I decided to limit my experiments to plant-based materials. The next step would be to source more local materials, as I think the locality is an important factor.

Bioplastics from Eeva-Liisa’s studio, 2021.

Bioplastics from Eeva-Liisa’s studio, 2021.

 

The Finnish Cultural Foundation to fund the new architecture and design museum

The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland are conditionally committed to the capitalisation of the architecture and design museum, planned in the Helsinki South Harbour, by at least 24 million euros in total. The project is of exceptional significance in the Finnish context.

The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation has made a conditional decision to capitalise the new museum foundation by 20 million euros. The donation is the largest private donation ever made to culture in Finland. Moreover, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland have both preliminary agreed to participate by at least two million euros.

An essential element in the implementation model created by the Government and the City of Helsinki is that capital of at least 150 million euros is raised for the new museum foundation, of which the Government and the City of Helsinki will pay 60 million euros each, while at least 30 million euros is raised from private sources.

The feasibility phase started in March 2021 with the appointment of a steering group and a project director. The project preparation phase is expected to last until the end of 2023, when the City, the Government and the private sponsors can make their final funding decisions based on the necessary studies, and the actual implementation can start.

The museum foundation, which will control the capital of the new architecture and design museum, has not yet been established and the negotiations concerning the private funding have been held by the City of Helsinki on behalf of the project, according to what has been agreed with the Ministry of Education and Culture.

– I am really impressed with the enthusiasm with which the Finnish foundations have approached the opportunity of having an internationally recognised architecture and design museum in Helsinki. It is noteworthy that even in this early preparation phase of the project, we have been able to compile a private funding arrangement, which nearly fulfils the requirements that have been set for the project. The donation of 20 million euros by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation is the largest private donation ever made in Finland. It is remarkable that Finland’s largest foundations participate in the project right from the start. This is a powerful indication of the project’s societal importance and it gives us confidence that this demanding project can be carried out successfully, says Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori.

New architecture and design museum

The preparation of the project is based on the report and the museum concept drawn up in 2018-2019 by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the City of Helsinki in collaboration with the foundation for the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the foundation for the Design Museum. During the feasibility phase, which started in March 2021, the Government and the City of Helsinki prepared a proposal concerning a model for the administration and financing of the museum. The new museum is a world-class entity in terms of quality, visibility and relevance and the nationally responsible museum in its discipline in Finland. 

A new foundation will be established for the new design and architecture museum during 2021 and it will gain possession of the collections of the current museum foundations. The foundation is in charge of the museum’s fund-raising and controls its capital. A limited company, to be established later and wholly owned by the foundation, is in charge of the museum operations.

A new building for the museum will be built in the South Harbour of Helsinki as a part of the broader development of Makasiininranta. There are plans for a separate architecture competition concerning the realisation of the museum.

The project’s steering group is chaired by State Treasury Director General Timo Laitinen, and Kaarina Gould will start as Project Director as of 1 May 2021.

Further information:

City of Helsinki:
Director of Strategic Initiatives Sanna-Mari Jäntti
tel. 0400 536 581, sanna-mari.jantti@hel.fi