Rovaniemi Art Museum

Located in a 1933 red-brick building, the museum features the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, one of Finland’s most significant contemporary art collections.

Planning your visit

Korundi is one of the very few buildings in Rovaniemi that predates 1944. When German forces withdrew from Lapland at the end of the Continuation War they burned the town almost completely — around ninety per cent of buildings destroyed — and Alvar Aalto planned the reconstruction. This 1933 red-brick post bus depot survived, and it was converted into the art museum, opening in its present form in 2011.

The collection centres on the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation holdings, among the more significant bodies of Finnish modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on northern and Arctic artists. Sámi art and questions of Indigenous representation feature, as does environmental art responding to the Arctic.

The Korundi House of Culture also holds the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, whose concert hall was designed by Juhani Pallasmaa, so performances and exhibitions share the building.

Rovaniemi is mainly visited for Santa Claus Village and aurora tourism, and this museum is the substantial cultural alternative. Allow ninety minutes. The main booking is an entry ticket. Current availability is shown below.