The Ateneum is an internationally renowned and respected art museum and a beloved meeting place for people and art, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Through its chosen themes, our collection exhibition, A Question of Time, participates in the social debates of the 21st century. At the same time, the exhibition explores how Finland’s oldest and largest art collection can feel like it belongs to all of us, both individually and collectively.

Our popular temporary exhibitions showcase international and Finnish art. Backed up by current research, the exhibitions provide our visitors with new information and perspectives.

The Ateneum Art Museum is part of the national museum of visual arts, the Finnish National Gallery, together with the Sinebrychoff Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. The collections of the Finnish Art Society, which was founded in 1846, form the basis for the Ateneum operations. Today, these collections are part of the national heritage of Finland. The Ateneum has operated from its own building since 1888. Over the years, the building has seen celebrities from the past and present: up until the 1980s, the building housed an industrial arts school (currently the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) and the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society (currently the Academy of Fine Arts, the University of the Arts Helsinki).