Tampere city museums attracted over half a million visitors again - Moomin Museum broke records
The Tampere Art Museum extended the duration of its exhibitions, but the attractive exhibitions still brought 81 368 visitors to the museum in 2025. In spring and summer, Surrealism - A Collective Dream opened up the 100-year-old art movement in a multifaceted way, including an internationally renowned media work by Marco Brambilla. In autumn, Man Yau, Young Artist of the Year 2025, wowed visitors with his artful and thought-provoking sculptures and installations. Media artist Hanna Haaslahti's work, "Ancestors", had museum visitors following the activities of their virtual doppelganger.
The Moomin Museum, part of the Tampere Art Museum, again set a new attendance record with 118 356 visitors in 2025, the Moomin 80 anniversary year. The magic mark of 100 000 visitors was already broken in October. At the beginning of the year, the Observatory hosted an exhibition on the career and life of Tove Jansson, entitled The Artist's Life. Since June, museum visitors have been able to get into the mood on the Moomin House salon sofa in the "Welcome to Moomin House!" exhibition, which will continue until next summer.
Tampere's art museums are among the best in terms of visitor numbers nationwide: according to Frame's visual arts statistics (2024), the Tampere Art Museum and the Moomin Museum are the most popular art museums in Finland outside the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Sara Hildén Art Museum exceeds 50 000 visitors despite renovations
The Sara Hildén Art Museum achieved a good result despite the renovation shutdown: the total number of visitors in 2025 was 50 401. The spring exhibition presented important stages and turning points in the production of Heikki Marila, one of the most important Finnish artists of his generation, over the last thirty years. The summer collection exhibition From the Beginning highlighted the development of Finnish art, artists and themes from the early 20th century to the present day through the Sara Hildén Foundation's collection. The exhibition EDES TAKAISIN Back for a moment by Maaria Wirkkala, which began in the autumn and looked at the more than 40-year career of the collection's internationally renowned Finnish artist, was still on show at the beginning of the year.
More than 300 000 people visited historical museums
Tampere's historical museums continued to attract large numbers of visitors. In 2025, the museum centre Vapriikki received 245 692 visitors, slightly fewer than in the previous year. Vapriikki's changing exhibitions were Superheroes - From Antiquity to Contemporary, which opened in May, and Ancient DNA: The Key to the Past, which opened in June. In addition, Manserock, which opened the previous year, continued to be a crowd favourite. 42 530 visitors came to the Museum Milavida during the year. Museum Milavida celebrated its tenth anniversary with opera as Bravissimo! Splendour of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma costumes opened at the end of April. The 50-year-old Amuri Museum of Historic Housing received 21 170 visitors between May and September.
- It is a great pleasure to be able to produce a wide range of exhibitions that keep bringing the public back to widen their knowledge and experience things. I believe that next year will bring people together again in our museums, says Heidi Gottskalk, Director of museum services.
- One of the things I'm looking forward to this year is seeing football become museum stuff!
