This year marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of Akseli Gallen-Kallela. In honour of the anniversary, the Gallen-Kallela Museum will host a seminar on Wednesday evening 23 April on the stage of Sello library, starting at 16:30.

In the event, we will celebrate the life and art of our beloved national artist and the legacy he left behind, especially from the perspective of the Tarvaspää cultural environment. Akseli Gallen-Kallela ultimately designed the Tarvaspää studio building with future generations in mind. It was a long-standing dream of his to transform the space into a museum.

Akseli, who was born and raised in the Pori region, eventually ended up in Tarvaspää through his wife Mary. Mary Gallen-Kallela (nee Slöör) spent her childhood summers on the Alberga estate, owned by her family. Helena Ruuska, a non-fiction writer who has done research on the life of the Gallen-Kallela family and written Mary’s biography Mary Gallen-Kallela – Olisit villiä villimpi, will speak at the event.

We will get to know the activities of Gallen-Kallela Museum. We will celebrate the museum’s past years and highlight recent projects. The Kenya Revisited -project, which has delved into the collections brought back by Gallen-Kallela from the family’s trip to Africa, has been particularly relevant to the museum in the terms of generating new knowledge, openness, and increasing international cooperation and sharing of cultural heritage. Anne Pelin, the museum’s Exhibitions Manager, and David Okelo, the project’s Community Coordinator, will both talk about the project in the event.

We will also focus on what Tarvaspää and its unique cultural environment look like as a part of the evolving landscape of the city of Espoo. Our Museum Director Tuija Wahlroos will talk about the architectural history of Tarvaspää: how Gallen-Kallela shaped the area, what he envisioned and what his handprint looks like in the area today. Johanna Piisi, CEO of the Akseli Gallen-Kallela Museum Foundation, will also speak at the event.

The main language of the event will be Finnish, but David Okelo, Community Coordinator of the Kenya Revisited -project, will speak in English.

More information can be found on the event page [link].