Building the Design Museum’s collections began 150 years ago, in 1873. The extensive and versatile collections of today reflect the history and evolution of industrial arts in Finland.
The collections include over 75,000 objects, 45,000 drawings, and 125,000 images, and the data bank of designers has information of 1,000 designers. The Design Museum’s collections incorporate, inter alia, the collections of the Arabia Museum, Iittala Glass Museum, Nuutajärvi Glass Museum and the Hackman-Sorsakoski’s collections.
Before moving to its present-day facilities, the museum had been located in several addresses in Helsinki, including Villa Hakasalmi and the fourth floor of the Stockmann department store. Over the years, in addition to being featured in exhibitions, the collections artefacts have been evacuated during the war, and they also remained in storage for an extended period of time.
History of the Design Museum in brief
1871 the Craft School was founded in Finland. The first acquisitions to the museum’s collections were made 150 years ago, in 1873, with the acquisition of over 700 objects from the Vienna World’s Fair. The purpose of the collection was to support the instruction at the Craft School, which was in line with the ideals of that time.
1875 Finnish Society of Crafts and Design was established. The Craft School and its collections were assigned to the management of the society.
1912 Ateneum started to become overcrowded, and the Museum of Art and Design relocated to Villa Hakasalmi.
1939 with the threat of war looming, some of the exhibits in the collection were stored safely into the vault of the Helsingin Osakepankki Bank, and others hauled out of the city, to Heinola and Hämeenlinna.
1947–1952,
1979 the present-day building of the Design Museum is a former Swedish-language elementary school (1895, designed by Gustav Nyström). Here, the museum reopened, after a long period of closure, on Helsinki Day, 12 June 1979.
1989 the Foundation of the Museum of Art and Design was founded to manage the museum operations. At this point, the collections contained over 20,000 objects.
1989 the Association of the Friends of the Museum of Art and Design was founded. Today, the activities take place under the name Friends of the Museum of Architecture and Design.
2002 the Museum of Art and Design became Design Museum Helsinki.
2023 the Design Museum celebrates the 150 years of its collections!
