An exhibition for the whole family Amos Anderson Art Museum 1 March 2013 – 10 March 2014
Opening at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in the beginning of March, Forest Outing is a family exhibition that innovatively presents the collections of members of the Association of Finnish Fine Arts Foundations (STSY) to a new audience: children and families. The works on show are classics of Finnish art that have been presented through art periods or art historical themes in the association’s previous exhibitions. Now the exhibition and its hanging have been planned and designed with children in mind.
Forest Outing occupies three floors of the museum. In the section on pristine and experiential nature, viewers walk along a forest path where art merges with nature. Presented along the path are the seasons of the year, forest types and forest animals. The featured artists include Berndt Lindholm, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Pekka Halonen, Reidar Särestöniemi, Lennart Segerstråle, Jussi Mäntynen and Yrjö Liipola. The section highlighting human traces in the forest presents the forest as a cultural environment from the perspectives of forest management, wood processing and wild forest produce. The artists featured in this section include Ferdinand von Wright, Alvar Cawén, and Hannes Autere, among others.
Forest Outing is a multisensory, activity-based exhibition in which viewers can immerse themselves in the world of art through sound, light and touch. The exhibition comprises some 90 artworks: sculptures, paintings and prints, as well as historical objects of cultural interest on loan from the Serlachius museums and stuffed animals from the Finnish Museum of Natural History.
In conjunction with the exhibition, STSY and Otava are publishing an adventure book for children. Written by Susanna Luojus, the book contains fabulous illustrations by visual artist Stiina Saaristo as well as pictures of artworks from the STSY art collections. Perfect for a week’s bedside reading for primary school students, the book tells the story of Leevi, a second-grader who gets transported from a dull art museum into a strange forest, and drawn into an amazing forest outing. Where is the scary Börk hiding? Who does secret agent Martti Mus work for, and – ew! yuck! – who needs to brush their teeth? The Swedish-language edition of the book is published by Amos Anderson Art Museum.
Throughout the exhibition period there will be workshops for children and weekend events. Stiina Saaristo’s book illustrations will be on display in the workshop gallery along with artworks produced in the workshop.
The exhibition has received support from 3M Finland, DMP, Svenska kulturfonden, Finnish Forest Foundation, Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation and Sato Corporation.
Amos Anderson Art Museum
Yrjönkatu 27, PO Box 14, 00101 Helsinki. Tel. +358 (0)9 684 4460. .www.amosanderson.fi
Open: Mon, Thu & Fri 10–18, Wed 10–20, Sat–Sun 11–17. Closed on Tuesdays.
Admission as of 8 March: adults €10, seniors €8, students €2. Under-18s