Come and meet collectors and hear their advice about starting a collection or getting deeper into collecting. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, 8 February 2020. Admission with the museum ticket.
Design Museum’s Collectors and Collections exhibition gives visitors a look at the treasure troves of Finnish collectors of design. The exhibits include top-level Finnish design and everyday objects familiar from many homes.
On this special event day, the public can meet collectors featured in the exhibition: Kyösti Kakkonen, Iivari Viilomaa and Nina Ylönen will tell about their collections and talk with museum visitors. The programme for the day includes guided visits for the public, an interview with Iittala’s vintage expert and a workshop where participants can decorate an Arabia plate with decals.
Programme
Noon – 2 p.m. Nina Ylönen will talk of her collection of Moomin mugs with advice for those who are interested in collecting these item.
12:30 p.m. Service Manager Lotta Eskolin will present Iittala’s Vintage Service
1 p.m. Guided visit to the Collectors and Collections exhibition in Swedish
1 p.m. – 3 p.m. Kyösti Kakkonen will discuss his collection of design
Starting at 1 p.m. Decorating Arabia plates with decals at the Design Workshop
2 p.m. Guided visit to the Collectors and Collections exhibition in Finnish
3 p.m. – 5 p.m. Iivari Viilomaa will talk about his collection of glass objects and finds at flea markets
3:30 p.m. Guided visit to the Collectors and Collections exhibition in Russian
Discussions about collecting and design object
Noon – 5 p.m. / The Collectors and Collections exhibition, 2nd floor
The Collectors are interviewed by Anni Korkman and Ida Kukkapuro form Helsinki Design Weekly!
From noon to 2 p.m. collector Nina Ylönen will give tips for starting a collection of Moomin mugs and tell, among other things, about how their value is determined. In 2014, Ylönen began to collect Moomin mugs systematically. Until then, they had only been in everyday use in her home. The inspiration for collecting began when one of the mugs was broken and had to be replaced with a similar one. This marked the beginning of an extensive collection of Moomin mugs that became a shared pastime for the whole family.
At 12:30 p.m. Service Manager Lotta Eskolin of the Iittala company will talk about Iittala’s vintage tableware. Last year, Iittala launched its Vintage Service through which customers can obtain items that have been removed from the product range. Customers can also use Iittala’s Vintage Service to sell Iittala and Arabia tableware that they no longer need or to find items in the continuously changing selection of vintage objects.
Appearing at 1 p.m. will be commercial counsellor Kyösti Kakkonen, one of the best-known collectors of Finnish design, whose collection contains almost 10,000 items. It mostly consists of glass and ceramics from the 1940s–1960s, the so-called golden age of Finnish design. Kakkonen has large numbers of works by, among others, Timo Sarpaneva, Tapio Wirkkala and Birger Kaipiainen. At the museum’s event, Kakkonen will describe his own motives for collecting, one of which has been the desire to keep the best works of Finnish design in the country and to have works that have wound up abroad return to Finland.
At 3 p.m. collector Iivari Viilomaa will tell how even rarities can be found at flea markets. The 27-year-old Viilomaa collects in particular coloured Nuutajärvi glassware designed by Kaj Franck and Saara Hopea in the 1950s. His collection already contains almost 700 pieces and their original packages.
Design Workshop: Decorate Your Own Plate
Starting at 1 p.m. in the Auditorium, first floor
The event day at Design Museum will include a unique workshop by Design Museum and the Iittala & Arabia Design Centre. The theme of the workshop will be decorating your own plate. Visitors will have the opportunity to design their own porcelain plate and to decorate it with decals, producing a unique plate with a decorative design. The participants can also create their own patterns by cutting the decal material with scissors or by making collages from existing designs and forms.
Participation with the museum admission ticket. The plate and the material for making the decoration will be provided at the workshops. The decorating work will be supervised by artist and designer Viivi Lehto and Design Museum’s workshop instructors.
Participation in the nonstop workshop as places become available – no advance bookings. The plate workshop is meant for everyone. No special skills are required. It is recommended for over three-year-olds. Children under ten must be accompanied by an adult. The workshop will operate as long as the material is available. The free workshop will have 120 plates to be decorated, with one plate per participant.
After the workshop the plates with the decals will be fired at the ceramics kiln of the Arabia Design Centre to affix the decoration and the participants can then collect them. The plates can be collected from the Iittala & Arabia Design Centre (address Hämeentie 135) during opening hours (Tue. – Sun. Noon to 4 p.m.) between Saturday 15 February and Sunday 1 March. Visitors collecting their plates can take the opportunity to visit the Iittala & Arabia Design Centre and Design Museum Arabia which have free entrance.
Workshop in collaboration with the Iitala & Arabia Design Centre
