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Turku Art Museum (Fi:Turun taidemuseo) is one of the most significant art museums in Finland, located in Puolalanmäki, Turku. The museum and its extensive collection is maintained and owned by the Turku Art Association (founded in 1891), and housed in a building designed by Gustaf Nyström (1856-1917), a professor of architecture, completed in 1904. The building fund was donated by the Dahlströms, or two brothers of private businesspersons Ernst (1846-1924) and Magnus (1859-1924) as a contribution to the city of Turku. The Museum was the second Finnish national museum to be opened after the Ateneum.

The first curator of the Art Museum was the landscape painter Victor Westerholm (1860-1919). Kari Immonen has been the museum director since 2006, which post Marja Sakari  holds since 2018.

In 2018, the museum's exhibitions attracted a total of 51, 838 visitors.

The Art Association of Turku was founded to promote the appreciation, understanding and practice of art and to maintain the art collection especially in the region of Southwest Finland. Between 1904 and 1933, the first floor of the building housed the Art Association's Drawing School which is now part of the Art Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences.

The administration of Turku Art Museum annually grants scholarships to professional artists living in the Turku area. A grant from the Ellen and Magnus Dahlström Testamentary Fund has been awarded since 1931 and a corresponding grant from the Helena Bruunin Foundation since 2005. Ellen and Magnus Dahlström's a testament to the Fund shall also be granted every three years, amounting to EUR 15,000 Dahlström Eminentia Award for outstanding achievement in the artistic person's work, as well as residency and travel grants.

In 2004 Turku Art Association in accordance with the will of its long-term treasurer, Henry Lönnfors, it conceived an artist's studio, which is given every three years to an atelier scholar chosen by the board of the Turku Art Association. The scholarship holder will have free access to a studio in Turku Polo Park for three years for artistic purposes. In the years 2018-2020, the artist Hertta Kiiski will be working in the studio.or three years for artistic work. In the years 2018-2020, the artist Hertta Kiiski will be working in the studio.

Turku Art Museum also publishes literature related to art. Amour unit deux cœurs – Henry Lönnforsin miniature collection was selected as the most beautiful work of the year in 2009.

History
The business brothers Ernst and Magnus Dahlström were significant contributors to the visual arts. In April 1895, they anonymously donated an amount of Euro mk 150,000, equivalent to about € 644,000 in current money. The donation was originally intended to be used to build the City Library, but in 1897 another major donor, Fredric von Rettig (1843-1914), made a donation to the library building project. That allowed the Dahlström brothers to focus on a building suitable for the visual arts.

In 1900, a closed competition was organized between four participants to find the architect. In addition to the Dahlström brothers, the jury included Victor Westerholm and architects Sebastian Gripenberg (1850-1925) as well as S.M. Schjerfbeck (1860–1933). The competition ended equally between Professor Gustaf Nyström and architect trio Anders, Jung & Bomansson. Following the second competition, the jury ordered one of Nyström's two proposals to plan the final project.

The victory of Gustaf Nyström, a professor at the Polytechnic, was a source of criticism, especially among younger architects, who regarded Nyström's plan as outdated. However, Ernst Dahlström assured that the selection of the jury was unanimous and Nyström's plan was well in line with the competition rules and the wishes of the donors. The foundation stone of the museum building was laid on May 17, 1902. Alexander Rogatus Nyström (1869-1926), the younger brother of Gustaf Nyström, was the architect supervising the construction site of the Museum. Inauguration took place on 20 April 1904 and had a total cost of mk 461,000 (approximately EUR 1,658,000 in present value).

The monumental location of the Art Museum in Puolalanmäki, Turku, set special requirements for the façade, with red granite attached to the brick wall. The granite capitals of the main entrance pilasters depict four fields of art to symbolize the Turku Art Museum: architecture, painting, sculpture and engineering. There are decorative faceted towers on both sides of the projecting main facade, roofed in part with glass which was  foldable.

Renovation of the museum began in 1999 and was completed after six years. During the renovation, the old building of the Vartiovuori Observatory housed the Art Museum temporarily. With the renovation, the museum reserved an underground storage, with changes in the public areas including an elevator, a museum shop, a café and new toilet facilities.

Puolalanmäki and Turku Art Museum as a whole, they are one of the nationally significant construction as cultural environments designated in 2009 by the National Board of Antiquities, Finnish Heritage Agency.

Collection and exhibitions
The extensive collection of the Turku Art Museum is owned by Finnish Art Society — the collection focuses on the Golden Age of Finnish Art, Turku and nationally significant art made in the Turku area, Finnish and international Surrealism, Nordic art, artist self-portraits, Pop art from the 1960s and contemporary art. The collection now includes about 7,000 works, which are displayed in alternating hangings on the second floor of the museum, where there is also a Studio presenting contemporary art and a darkroom focused on Video art.

The first floor of the Turku Art Museum presents both new and old Finnish and foreign art in changing exhibitions. Notable exhibitions have included exhibitions of Carl Larsson, Otto Mäkilä, and Reidar Särestöniemi. In 2008, the museum hosted an exhibition of Stalinist art from its collection, of those works that have never been exhibited before that outside of the country. Also in spring 2013, an exhibition of Max Walter Svanberg, the leading name in Swedish surrealism, was planned at the Museum in collaboration with the Malmö Art Museum.

In 2004, approximately one fifth of the works of the Turku Art Museum were received as donations. Donations have included works such as:


 * Sculptors Walter Runeberg, Felix Nylund (1878–1940), and Ville Vallgrenilta.


 * Painters Eero Järnefelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallelalta, Albert Edelfelt, Hugo Simberg.

The Friends of Turku Art Museum founded in 1985 is a major donor. The association has donated over 100 works to the Museum over 30 years, which keeps them as a separate Friends of the Turku Art Museum Collection. The most generous donation in the history of the Museum was made by Ernst Dahlström's grandson Nils Dahlström (1907-1978) in 1973. The collection received nearly 100 works of Golden Age and modern Finnish art. In 2004, the Art Association of Turku received a testamentary donation from its long-term treasurer, Henry Lönnfors of a large collection of miniatures and a selection of Finnish fine arts.

Over the decades, museum acquisitions have been guided by museum directors, members of the Arts Association board, and many others involved in museum operations. The Turku Art Museum's collection is a significant part of the national cultural heritage, and the museum can be considered as the second national gallery in Finland.

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