HAM is turning 50 – come and join the celebrations!

Celebrating half a century of art! This year marks the 50th anniversary of the donation of the collection of Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka to the City of Helsinki and the opening of a new museum in Meilahti. Since 1999, our home has been at Tennispalatsi, where we can now come together to celebrate the 50-year-old HAM.

To mark our anniversary, we will be hosting celebrations throughout the last week of November. Look forward to music, interviews, our very own Memory Station, a peak behind the scenes, an artwork unveiling event, free 15-minute and Intro tours, and, of course, coffee and cake. Come and celebrate this big milestone with us!

Wednesday 25 November at 12–13
Unveiling event of Sara Bjarland’s new public artwork

Artist Sara Bjarland’s artwork Still Expanding has been installed on Halkopiipunkallio in Keski-Pasila. The artwork comprises five bronze sculptures and takes its form from polyurethane found on construction sites, serving as a monument to the changes the area has undergone.  

The unveiling event, open to all, will be held on Wednesday 25 November from 12 noon to 1 pm. The event will take place outdoors, so please dress appropriately for the weather. The artwork will be unveiled by Finance Director Pia Ojavuo from the City of Helsinki. The artist, Sara Bjarland, will also be present at the event. 

Location of the event meeting point on a map (closest street address: Höyrypolku 4 B)

Location of the artwork on a map

On the same day at 2.20 pm, Sara Bjarland will also be appearing on Radio Helsinki’s CADIA programme to talk about her new artwork. The CADIA programme features guests from HAM every Wednesday. You can find all the episodes on the Radio Helsinki website and app.

Thursday 26 November at 16–19
Visit to HAM’s collection centre

In honour of HAM’s 50th anniversary, we will be offering those who are interested the opportunity to visit our collection centre.

HAM takes care of the art collection of the City of Helsinki and all Helsinki residents. Artworks from the collection are on display in schools, official buildings, squares and parks, and the collections are put on show at constantly changing exhibitions in Tennis Palace and through loans of artworks to exhibitions in Finland and further afield. The home of the more than 10,000 artworks that make up the collection is the collection centre, which is located in the Helsinki region and is where the collection is stored and conserved.

HAM will be inviting the 17 fastest people to register to come along on a free tour to find out more about the collection centre. Only those aged 18 years or over may participate in the tour. The tour will be held in Finnish. Sign up here.

Friday 27 November at 11–19
Free Friday

HAM offers free entry to all on the last Friday of each month. To celebrate our birthday, there’ll be a special programme!

At 13–16: Radio Helsinki Live

Radio Helsinki’s Friday afternoon host, Laura Friman, will be coming to HAM for a live broadcast, providing your soundtrack to relax into the weekend with. HAM employees and various artists will also be making guest appearances. Come along to listen or get yourself into a celebratory mood over the radio waves.

At 13–18: Exhibition intros to Leena Luostarinen – Misfit

Intro is a short, 20-minute presentation that introduces you to the highlights of the Leena Luostarinen – Misfit exhibition. The guide presents the exhibition’s themes and central works with images and shares fascinating stories about the life of the artist. Participants will follow the presentation seated in the tranquil HAM auditorium, after which you can tour the exhibition at your own pace. 

at 13 / Finnish
at 14 / Finnish
at 15 / English
at 16 / Finnish
at 17 / Finnish
at 18 / English

Saturday 28 November
Cake, memories and music

At 11–13 and 14–16: Cake and coffee!

In honour of our 50th anniversary, we will be serving vegan raspberry cake to visitors. We will start serving as soon as the museum has opened and continue until 13:00, or until the first 200 pieces of cake have been served up. We will then have an hour’s break, and begin serving another 200 slices of cake to more friends of the museum from 14:00.

At 12–15: Memory Station

What impression does the museum leave when it has touched people?

HAM is turning 50, but instead of holding the traditional celebratory speeches, HAM will be celebrated with a collective Memory Station. Here, memory collectors will be on hand to help make memories of particular moments, moods, artworks, or encounters visible.

Rather than just remembering, together we will tickle the memories out in surprising artistic acts. Each shared experience will be like the visitor’s own personal congratulations to the museum, regardless of whether the experience took place five minutes or ten years ago. Throughout the day, the impressions collected will grow into a living history of the museum, written together by visitors of all ages.

The Memory Station is the creation of Performance Artist and Author Meiju Niskala, who invites visitors to share their silliest, most normal, most touching, and, above all, their own experiences with art. This is not the first time Niskala and HAM have worked together, as Niskala previously created the interactive artwork It Occurred to Me, But a Bit Too Late for the inaugural Helsinki Biennial in 2021.

At 12–14 and 15–17: DJ Suva

DJ Suva will be bringing the party vibes with tracks picked from all decades from the 1970s to the 2020s. Hypnotic house, warm soul, and swinging funk will blend into an enticing mix that is sure to get you dancing.

At 15–15.45: Antti Tolvi’s performance

Antti Tolvi encourages us to reflect on time and listening. For Organ and Pause is both an installation and a long-duration performance that begins when the exhibition opens and ends when it closes.

Lucy Abrams-Husso (clarinet) and Jaakko Arola (flute) will perform alongside Antti Tolvi (flute).

Sunday 29 November
15-minute tours in our exhibitions

at 12.00 Leena Luostarinen – Misfit / Finnish
at 12.30 Leena Luostarinen – Misfit / English
at 13.00 Emma Talbot: You Are Not the Centre / Finnish
at 13.30 Emma Talbot: You Are Not the Centre / English
at 14.00 Mauno Markkula and Petri Ala-Maunus: Blazing Sky / Finnish
at 14.30 Mauno Markkula and Petri Ala-Maunus: Blazing Sky / English
at 15.00 Artist Family Jansson / Finnish
at 15.30 Artist Family Jansson / English
at 16.00 Leena Luostarinen – Misfit / Finnish