The joint permanent exhibitions of the Sámi Museum and the Northern Lapland Nature Centre will be renewed. The Sámi Museum has received a grant of 300 000 euros from the Kone Foundation for a project on the modernisation of the cultural part of Siida’s basic exhibitions.
https://koneensaatio.fi/en/kone-foundation-awarded-more-than-eur-30-million-for-art-and-research/
The Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida is heading for great changes: an extension, renovations, the renewal of exhibitions and transfers of collections. Before this, we will shake off the dust from Siida’s website. We have now improved the website www.siida.fi: with a fresh look, the website is now mobile optimised and available in five languages. Furthermore, tickets for our exhibitions can now be bought online.
Siida’s new website works in five languages. In addition to the earlier Finnish, English and North Sámi languages, we now offer the website also in Inari and Skolt Sámi. We use all the three Sámi languages spoken in Finland every day at Siida, for example in activities dealing with museum and nature education, exhibitions and projects. Therefore, we also want to spotlight the Sámi languages on our website and to promote their use.
With the renewed website, Siida will board the new train of tourism sales by starting to sell tickets online too. Here, we are among the first ones amid Finnish museum and nature centres. You can now buy tickets to Siida in advance at our online shop at www.siida.fi. As means of payment, you can use Finnish Internet banking and most credit cards. When you arrive at Siida, you will still be met by our customer service representatives, who will provide you with information on the exhibitions and the services available at Siida.
To celebrate the Sámi Language Week, the new website of the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida and Restaurant Sarrit will be launched on Thursday 24 October 2019. The website has been created by Advertising Kioski.
Further information:
Sales and Marketing Minna Väisänen
tel. +358 40 581 6434, minna.vaisanen@samimuseum.fi
Edited October 29th 2020: Siida’s online-ticket sales system is changing. Online sale of tickets is now closed, and will reopen for summer 2021.
Designer Harri Koskinen has been selected as the architectural designer for the new permanent exhibition at Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida. The existing exhibition will be renewed in conjunction with the expansion and renovation of Siida and will be completed in April 2022.
Harri Koskinen and his Friends of Industry company will be responsible for architecture and graphic design related to the permanent exhibition and supervision of its construction and implementation. Koskinen’s long-term partners include Iittala and Genelec. He created the architecture for the latest Tapio Wirkkala and Oiva Toikka exhibitions. Koskinen has had many international clients – mostly from Japan and Italy – during his career. A hotel concept that he designed is set to open in Kyoto at the end of this year.
The Siida exhibition renewal is an integral part of the renovation and expansion of the museum and nature centre building. The exhibition is more than 20 years old and Sámi Museum Director Sari Valkonen is very happy to see it being renewed and to have Koskinen involved in the work.
National Park Superintendent Pirjo Seurujärvi from Metsähallitus is delighted to have a renowned designer like Harri Koskinen join the team.
The selection of the architectural designer was carried out via a public procurement procedure. This was a two-stage process in which the tenderers who advanced to the second phase were asked to provide a sample of their work.
Further information:
Museum Director Sari Valkonen +358 (0)40 767 1052 sari.valkonen@samimuseum.fi
National Park Superintendent Pirjo Seurujärvi +358 (0)40 767 1052 pirjo.seurujarvi@metsa.fi
Designer Harri Koskinen +358 (0)40 5518160 harri@harrikoskinen.com
For more information about Harri Koskinen:
Located in Inari, Siida houses the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre as well as Restaurant Sarrit. The Sámi Museum Foundation is responsible for operations at the Sámi Museum. The Northern Lapland Nature Centre is part of Metsähallitus’ national network of nature centres.
The Siida building that opened in 1998 will be renovated and expanded, with the new parts housing the Sámi Museum Collections Unit and the restaurant. The joint permanent exhibition of the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre will be renewed. Things are changing, but we will remain open throughout the renovation and exhibition renewal. The larger, renovated Siida and the new exhibition will open in April 2022.
The future will bring us the renovation of the Siida Building, the construction of a restaurant wing and a renewal of our exhibitions. A new Collections Unit will be erected behind the Siida Building. We are right now in the planning phase of this project. The construction of the extension part will start in spring 2020. Until 31.3.2021, Siida will operate just as before.
In 1.4.2021-30.4.2022, when the present Siida Building will be renovated and the exhibitions renewed,you can still visit us! At that point, our exhibition centre will be situated in our Open-Air Museum, which will serve the audience in avariety of new ways. We will tell later more about our services during this exceptional period.
Our goal is to have the new, grand Siida opened on 1 May 2022.We are exhilarated to head for this newphase!
Siida – Sámi Museum and Nature Centre, Inarintie 46, FI-99870 Inari, tel. +358 (0)400 898 212, www.siida.fi, siida@samimuseum.fi, siida@metsa.fi
In 2018, Siida in Inari, Finland, was again visited by a huge number of people. The Sámi Museum, the Northern Lapland Nature Centre and the restaurant Sarrit, all based in Siida, are pleased with the 2018 visitor figures! Siida’s 20th anniversary year with its interesting exhibitions and diverse events attracted the public to a great extent.
Siida in Inari, Finland, was again visited by a huge number of people.The Sámi Museum, the Northern Lapland Nature Centre and the restaurant Sarrit, all based in Siida, are pleased with the 2018 visitor figures!Siida’s 20th anniversary year with its interesting exhibitions and diverse events attracted the public to a great extent.
The visitor counter by Siida’s outdoor registered 117 079 visits.The total number of visitors includes all those who enter Siida: the exhibition and event visitors and the customers visiting the Excursion Information of Metsähallitus, the Tourist Information of the municipality of Inari, and Restaurant Sarrit.
In 2018, Siida had 59 178 exhibition and event visitors, which meant that the number of exhibition visitors was the second highest during the twenty years of Siida’s existence.The year 2017 was the record year of Siida’s history.
The popularity of the national Museum Pass that was launched only a few years ago shows in Siida too, as the pass was used for entry to Siida more often in 2018 than the year before.The number of visitors entering our exhibitions with the Museum Pass was 1821, which means a 17% increase compared to 2017.
During Siida’s celebration year, Siida’s own Annual Pass was available for local people for a special price, and, indeed, the number of visitors using our annual pass increased by 37% from the year before.In future, too, we will offer Siida’s popular annual pass half-price for local people.
The Sámi Museum Siida runs a Skolt Sámi Heritage House in Sevettijärvi.The Heritage House was open from 10 June to 20 September, with 2148 guests visiting it.
Traditionally, the flow of visitors to Siida’s exhibitions from June to August has clearly surpassed that of the winter months.However, we are getting more and more visitors in the winter months.We now have more exhibition visitors in February than in September, an attractive period because of the autumn blaze.
Our exhibition visitors belong to a variety of nationalities, and our visitor structure turns more and more international all the time.Of our exhibition visitors, 40% were from Finland and 60% from abroad.The number of Finnish exhibition visitors decreased by 5.6% compared to 2017.The decrease was especially distinct in July and August when the summer was record warm in Finland.
In 2018, the French and the Germans were our biggest foreign groups of exhibition visitors.Italians were the third biggest group.The fourth biggest group came from China and Hong Kong.Our statistics show that our customers reported a total of 92 different countries/nationalities in 2018.
As concerns customer types, our exhibition visitor is most often an individual foreign adult.There has been a considerable change here, as, in the past few years, we sold most of our tickets as groupticketsto foreign tourists travelling in groups.Foreign group travellers were our second largest customer group (type) in 2018.A change that is taking place in tourism is visible in Siida too.Increasingly, people are travelling alone or as couples, families or parties.Nevertheless, group travel is still very popular.
In 2018, we arranged, on request, altogether 270 guided tours, which meant a 5.9% increase compared to the 2017 figures.English was the most common language of these guided tours.
Siida continues to be a significant player in tourism to Northern Lapland.In 2019, Siida will launch an extension and development project that will improve, for example, Siida’s collection and customer service facilities.The Siida Building will be renovated, and a new collections unit and a restaurant wing will be built.Our permanent exhibitions will also be renewed.More information on these projects and changes will be available later.
Sámi museum, Siida, Inarintie 46, FI-99870 Inari, tel. +358 (0)400 898 212, siida@samimuseum.fi, www.siida.fi
The Sámi Museum Siida’s first exhibition of this year, “The Powerful Voices of the Earth”, spotlights Sámi handicraft, or duodji. The crafts created by Jouni S. Laiti, a skilled artisan in the field of traditional Sámi handicraft, offers a view of Sámi crafts today. The exhibition provides the visitor with an opportunity to view modern Sámi handicraft both in a traditional form and as modern art.
The crafts of the exhibition tell about the present Sámi concept of beauty and use of materials. Furthermore, Laiti’s crafts contribute to the discussion on the vitality of duodji in the world today, reflecting events that take place in Sápmi and the world in general. Through some of his works, Laiti consciously participates in the present social discourse. For the Sámi, Sámi handicraft does not mean just producing objects from different materials: it is a way of interacting with the community; a language understood by those who have learned to interpret it. The way Laiti engages in social discussion through his craft is an example of the tacit social discussion of the Sámi.
Artisan and teacher of handicraft Jouni S. Laiti comes from Utsjoki. He has worked for many years as a teacher of Sámi handicraft at the Sámi Education Institute in Inari. In his work, Laiti has been especially interested in developing the instruction and preserving the language of duodji. He has reflected on how to develop Sámi craftmaking as a source of livelihood: how could an artisan get an income from craftmaking and how should the products be marketed to potential buyers.
At present, Laiti studies at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino for a master’s degree in duodji, and the exhibition is part of his thesis. The supervisors for Laiti’s MA dissertation and for the exhibition are duodjiexperts Tuula-Maija Magga-Hetta and Sigga-Marja Magga. One of the objectives of the exhibition is to create a connection between the craft maker and the viewers, and to get feedback from them on the feelings and experiences looking at handicrafts evokes in them. The information produced through a survey in connection with the exhbition will be used as source material in Laiti’s written thesis. Thus, we hope that exhibition visitors will lend some time for research on Sámi handicraft and fill the questionnaire when visiting the exhibition.
The Powerful Voices of the Earth exhibition has been produced by the Sámi Museum Siida, and it will be open from 8 January to 17 March 2019. In the winter season, Siida is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Mondays, Siida is closed. Welcome to the exhibition, to listen to the voices of the earth!
Further information:
Áile Aikio, Curator, aile.aikio@samimuseum.fi
Jouni S. Laiti, Artisan, jouni.laiti@gmail.com
Sámi museum, Siida, Inarintie 46, FI-99870 Inari, tel. +358 (0)400 898 212, siida@samimuseum.fi, www.siida.fi
Photo: Máhtte Sikku Valio