New Art Museum opened in Vaasa

The Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art was opened to the public in February 2007. It is situated in a former customs warehouse in the Inner Harbour of Vaasa. The building has 2,000 m² space, which has been planned exclusively for museum activities. Thanks to the new museum, both national and international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art are now a permanent feature of Vaasa's artistic life.

The base collection in the new museum is the Kuntsi Foundation's art collection - one of the most important classic collections of contemporary art in Finland covering pop art, kinetic art as well as committed art, informalism, surrealism, new expressionism or postmodernism... Over 900 works forming the collection are a cross section of modern art history, from international modernists to the Finnish artists of today, e.g. Joan Miró, Auguste Herbin, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Kain Tapper, Kimmo Kaivanto, Leena Luostarinen, Paul Osipow. But most of all, it is the classic collection of Finnish contemporary art created in the 1950s and onward. The Kuntsi Foundation, founded in 1970 by Consul Simo Kuntsi (1913-1984), had the clear intention from beginning to provide the public with different aspects of contemporary art, as well as to collect and present art phenomena from the art world's recent history. This mission is now continued by the new museum.

Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art is also a forum for inter-artistic collaboration: music, literature, dance and theatre form a self-evident part in the museum's operation. The new museum functions also as a teacher in art education. Different advised activities, guided tours, art clubs, workshops and lectures are organized in the museum. And an atelier called Studio has been especially designed for younger visitors. The Simo Museum Café, a museum shop and an art library are also available for visitors.