Saarijärvi Museum: Art and History All Year Round

Saarijärvi Museum is a modern and versatile local art and culturohistorical museum in the northern part of the Lakeland Finland. The main building of the Saarijärvi Museum is open all year round with its high-quality exhibitions. The outdoor area includes an extensive Sculpture park and a traditional vegetable garden. In addition to the main building, the museum has summer attractions in the Stone Age Village and Tapper Brothers’ Juhola.

 

Contact Information, Opening Hours and Tickets

 

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Naturally Creative – Permanent Exhibition of Fine Arts in Saarijärvi
Open according to the museum’s changing exhibitions

The permanent exhibition presents art created by artists from Saarijärvi and born in Saarijärvi over a period of approximately 100 years. It also includes art created in Saarijärvi or related to Saarijärvi by artists from outside the city. The exhibition is divided into three sections: portraits and self-portraits, landscapes and contemporary art, through which the aim is to present a wide range of artists, eras and art movements. The works in the exhibition are from the collections of the City of Saarijärvi, the Beda, Katri and Aune Herala Foundation and the Saarijärvi Mannila Art Foundation, which are managed by the Saarijärvi Museum.

 

Fransu 100 – Frans Toikkanen’s 100th anniversary exhibition
Ansu – Graphic artist Anneli Klemola
Saarijärvi Museum 16 May – 13 Sep 2026

The year 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the Saarijärvi-based graphic artist and sculptor Frans Toikkanen. Frans “Fransu” Toikkanen (1926–2008) was a peasant who became a leading figure in contemporary Finnish graphic art in the 1970s after making his breakthrough with his cat mezzotints at the Florence International Printmaking Biennale in 1972.

Saarijärvi-based graphic artist Anneli “Ansu” Klemola turned 90 on October 16, 2025. Klemola graduated from the Finnish Academy of Arts in 1959 as a painter. However, she is known as a graphic artist for her woodcuts that glow with strong, energetic colors. An encounter with a fellow Ateneum student, Frans “Fransu” Toikkanen, in the late 1950s brought Anneli to Saarijärvi in ​​Central Finland, to Frans’s home farm in 1960. This was the beginning of the eventful artistic life of the artist couple Ansu and Fransu.

The works have been brought together for the exhibition from the Saarijärvi Museum, the Saarijärvi Mannila Art Foundation, the Beda, Katri and Aune Herala Foundation and private collections.

 

Saarat – Art by Saara Pylvänäinen and Saara Vallineva
Saarijärvi Museum 1 Oct 2026 – 10 Jan 2027

Born 90 years ago in Viitasaari, Saara Pylvänäinen (1936–2016) lived and worked in the village of Hoikankylä in Saarijärvi for most of her life. She focused her art on Piikkana textiles® from 1977 and on paintings from 1996 onwards. The nature of Central Finland with its different seasons served as her inspiration.

Saara Vallineva (b. 1982) is a visual artist, author and illustrator. She uses local and found materials as part of her works. The exhibition features mixed media works, as well as illustrations for books. The works are inspired by folk art, crafts, maps and cultural heritage sites.

 

Tamara Piilola
Saarijärvi Museum 28 Jan – 25 Apr 2027

Tamara Piilola (b. 1977) is a Finnish visual artist using painting as her medium. She studied at the Turku Arts Academy and in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Long stays abroad, mainly in France and Germany have influenced her work.

“Tamara Piilola’s large canvases of imaginary landscapes present viewers with startling experiences of nature. These detailed views, full of mystery and light, colour and verdancy, draw viewers to their essence and idea. These are not recognisable landscapes but the creations of countless memories stored over time as photographs and sketches. Thin layers of paint, bold fluent brushstrokes and the use of pure pigments combine to flood the paintings with light.

Landscapes do not always have to be beautiful. Piilola paints wastelands, timber stacks and dunghills, cleverly emphasising their decorativeness. She depicts decaying beauty and allows natural forms to blend into almost abstract surfaces. Occasionally a strong light stops all life in the painting. The surfaces are covered with bright pure colours. These highly detailed landscapes appear to be divorced from the world. They have a special feeling of stagnation, landscapes are memories in the same way as photographs. Glimpses, images, strictly cropped fragments of something real surrounding the picture.”

Veikko Halmetoja
Art Critic

Piilola’s works are included in collections such as the Jenny and Antti Wihuri foundation, Heino Art Foundation, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Didrichsen Art Museum and HAM Helsinki Art Museum collections. She received the Didrichsen Pro Arte award at 2016 including an exhibition in the museum wing at Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland. She is currently living and working in Helsinki.

 

Hevosella pää-see
A Horse Makes the World Go Around
Saarijärvi Museum 19 May – 17 Oct 2027

The exhibition ’A Horse Makes the World Go Around’ uses art, cultural and historical objects and photographs to tell the story of the relationship between horses and humans and the characteristics associated with horses. The stages of the breed Finnish horse and its use for various purposes in history and today are also illustrated in visual presentations. The horse is discussed in various forms of art, such as sculptures, paintings and graphics. The main artist of the exhibition is the Jyväskylä based sculptor Kirsi Tapper. Works by Hannes Autere, Yrjö Hakala, Anneli Klemola, Riitta Uusitalo and Kain Tapper are also included.

The exhibition at the Saarijärvi Museum is connected to the anniversary of the Finnish horse. In 2027, it will be 120 years since the establishment of the breed’s state studbook. The Museum of Central Finland celebrates its anniversary with the exhibition ’The Finnish Horse – Our National Treasure’, which opens at the Aalto2 Museum Centre, telling the story of the Finnish horse from its beginnings to the present day.