Collections

The museum’s culture-historical main collections include, among other things, objects related to urban culture, urban living, occupations and livelihoods and items manufactured by local artisans.

The main item groups include, for example, furniture, clothing and everyday textiles, and peasant artefacts. The collections also include property collections that consist of a wide selection of everyday home items. In addition to the older items, the museum has also put together so-called year boxes with a random selection of objects that characterise each specific year.

Photograph collections

The photograph collections of the K.H.Renlund Museum comprise approximately 60,000 photographs. The collections include photographic plates, film negatives, photographs and slides.

The material is primarily related to the Kokkola area. In terms of time, the collections focus on the decades of the late 19th and early 20th century, and on more contemporary times starting from the 1970s. The majority of the photographs consists of urban views and landscapes, building facades and school photos and portraits.

Culture-historical artefact collections and photograph collections:
Curator of Collections
Nina Axelqvist
+358 (0)44 7809 760
firstname.lastname@kokkola.fi

The collections comprising archive-type materials consist of a historical document collection and a historical book collection.

The document collection contains documents related to the local and personal history of the City of Kokkola and the surrounding areas. In addition to the documents, the collection includes maps and other paper materials such as small prints, cards and advertisements.

The oldest samples in the book collection date back to the 18th century. Some of the oldest books, once owned by Anders Chydenius, have been deposited to the Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius.

Archive collections and historical book collection:
Curator of Research
Erik Engberg
+358 (0)44 7809 757
firstname.lastname@kokkola.fi

Photograph and information service requests:
museo.tietopalvelu@kokkola.fi
Customers are advised to take note of the delivery period of 2–4 weeks.

Art collections of the K.H.Renlund Museum

The art collections of the K.H.Renlund Museum consist of smaller, separate collections. The building of the collections was started when the museum was first established, and so far the museum has obtained a little over 2000 pieces of art. Mainly the collections consist of paintings, drawings, graphics and sculptures, but there are also medals, photographs, items, industrial artworks, environmental pieces, collages, installations, reliefs and silhouettes. Approximately half of the artworks belong to the museum’s permanent basic collection, which emphasises themes related to Kokkola and the surrounding region. The larger entities consist of art created by local artists.

The museum also manages the art collection of the City of Kokkola, which includes, for example, the artworks owned by schools and official institutions, public artworks and pieces acquired under the Percent for Art principle, and artworks gifted to the city.

As the latest addition, a substantial collection consisting mainly of Central European art, namely the Zimmer collection, was deposited to the museum.

Contact information:
Curator of Exhibitions
Susanne Svenfors-Furu
+358 (0)44 7809 052
firstname.lastname@kokkola.fi
ITE, naïve and outsider art collections

Public art and the Percent for Art principle in Kokkola

In 2012, the City of Kokkola adopted the so-called Percent for Art principle, which dictates that a part of all construction appropriations must be reserved for art. Art acquisitions related to investments are considered in all construction and renovation projects implemented by the educational and cultural services of the City of Kokkola, and the artworks acquired during the projects are added to the art collection of the City of Kokkola.

Artist database

The artist database is an open database established by the educational and cultural services of the City of Kokkola, and it is maintained by the K.H.Renlund Museum. Artists can register for the database by submitting a portfolio to the museum’s postal address or by sending a link to their own website. The artists registering for the database thus agree that their details may be used in construction and renovation projects implemented by the city’s educational and cultural services. The goal is that the artist database would provide the right person(s) for each project to create art at the specific project site. Where possible, the aim is to get the artist(s) involved in the construction projects as early on as in the planning stage. The selection of the artist/artists is made by the art acquisition teams called up for each project site.

Additional information:
Susanne Svenfors-Furu
Curator of Exhibitions
firstname.lastname@kokkola.fi
+358 (0)44 7809 052