History

Rovaniemi Art Museum officially came into being in the autumn of 1983 at the 100th birthday celebrations of Antti Wihuri at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki when Rakel Wihuri donated the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation art collection to the city of Rovaniemi. The city of Rovaniemi, in turn, undertook to provide a well-equipped art museum to house the collection. There was a 1930s mail truck depot in the centre of Rovaniemi suited to this purpose. In the first phase one wing of it was completely refurbished into an art museum according to plans drawn by a Professor of Architecture, Juhani Pallasmaa. In addition, the city of Rovaniemi undertook responsibility for running the museum. The donated collection included almost 500 contemporary Finnish artworks from the 1940s up to the present day. Both the Wihuri Foundation and the city of Rovaniemi also decided to further augment the collection with annual allocations of funds. The ceremonial opening of the Rovaniemi Art Museum took place on October 17th in 1986.

Finally, the former Rovaniemi mail truck depot became Korundi House of Culture. Construction work on the Korundi House of Culture began in October 2009. The building was opened to the public on May 2011.