Serlachius: Exhibition policy

1. Introduction

Exhibitions are one of Serlachius’s core activities and its most significant channel for dialogue with the public, artists, the art community and researchers.The purpose of the exhibition policy is to determine the objectives, principles and operating models according to which exhibitions are planned, produced and evaluated. Exhibition activity supports the museums’ strategy and their role in highlighting art, cultural heritage and the story of Serlachius. Exhibitions are always realised in the spirit defined by Serlachius’s values and sustainability programme.

2. Guiding principles

Serlachius’s exhibition activity is based on four guiding principles:

1. cultural heritage, based on the historical context of the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, the Serlachius family, the Serlachius company and Mänttä,
2. the museums’ established and constantly evolving activities in the field of visual art,
3. innovative methods, and
4. sustainability and sustainable development.

Our exhibition policy is based on these principles in a balanced way. Serlachius produces exhibitions that showcase history as well as exhibitions of old and contemporary art, and seeks to link these together. Serlachius also seeks to innovatively develop the principles and methods of exhibition production. All of its activities take into account the sustainability principles important to Serlachius.

3. Qualitative objectives

Serlachius is committed to producing exhibitions that are:

• high-quality and reliable in terms of content,
• high standard artistically and museum pedagogically,
• experimental, curious and eager to explore new things,
• engaging for audiences and stimulate discussion,
• accessible,
• focused on building bridges between the local narrative and the international art community,
• sustainable.

Serlachius particularly emphasises originality and curatorial courage and that exhibitions can test new perspectives.

4. Exhibition spaces and architecture

Serlachius has available nearly 3,500 square metres of diverse exhibition spacesin two museums and a residency. The exhibition architecture, including partition structures, is designed on a case-by-case basis, and the museum collaborates with artists, designers, architects, set and landscape designers, engineers, and lighting and sound designers in the realisation of the exhibitions. The flexibility of the spaces allows for the construction of both large ensembles and intimate installations. Sometimes exhibitions do not take place in the museums’ galleries spaces but in outdoor areas, in wider public spaces or in online environments.

5. Exhibition programme structure

Serlachius’s exhibition programme includes:

• permanent or long-term main exhibitions,
• changing exhibitions addressing, for example, history, old art or contemporary art,
• group exhibitions and retrospectives or thematic reviews of individual artists or artist groups
• ensembles with content linked to local history, and
• projects in which contemporary artists utilise the museum’s collection, archives and the history of Mänttä.

The overall exhibition programme is planned so that the exhibitions on display at a given time complement or challenge each other, or generally interact and engage in dialogue with one another. Serlachius usually opens 3–5 new exhibitions each year.

6. Cooperation

Serlachius values the mobility of exhibitions and collaboration with other museums and other actors in the art community. Exhibitions produced by the museum may tour domestically and abroad, and the museum also participates in co-productions.

Collaboration also takes place on a smaller scale through artwork loans. From time to time, Serlachius has sought to display its collection more broadly in specially curated exhibitions at other museums, primarily abroad.

7. International dimension

Serlachius presents both Finnish and international art. The international programme focuses on bringing to Finland artists who have established themselves in their own countries but are still relatively unknown in the Nordic region. From time to time, the museum also hosts major exhibitions of particularly well-known international artists, with the aim of strengthening the museum’s appeal and expanding its audience base.

8. Public relations and social role

Serlachius operates as an open and accessible public art space, where dialogue between the public, artists, curators and museum experts is an essential part of its activities.

Through exhibitions, the museum:

• engages with the public,
• participates in social and political debate,
• provides space for a variety of, even conflicting, views and expressions, and
• supports the role of art as a social and cultural influencer.

One of the key priorities of the museum’s exhibition activity is sustainability, which is linked to the museum’s environmental policy and its commitment to promoting sustainable development. The museum seeks to act as an influencer that reminds people of the importance of sustainable choices.

9. Relationship to audience development policy

Serlachius has a separate audience development policy. Exhibition activity and audience development form a unified whole, however. Their key intersections are:

• Exhibitions are planned with the public in mind, and their interactive nature is largely achieved through audience development. In their planning, the museum therefore aims to foster public rapport, dialogue and participation.
• To ensure that the needs of audience development are included in exhibition processes at an early enough stage, audience development experts participate in the planning of exhibitions.
• Audience development plays a key role in realising the social role of exhibitions, particularly through guided tours, workshops, public events and art education activities.
• Data collected from the public are a key tool for evaluating exhibitions. Information obtained in this way influences the planning of future exhibitions.
• Audience development is also the best way to test the accessibility of exhibitions.

10. Curation principles

Serlachius encourages bold and personal curation, where intuition and subjectivity are accepted and conscious starting points. The museum supports curation that:

• opens new perspectives on art and art history,
• develops artistic and museological working methods, and
• examines the role of the museum institution critically and constructively.

The museum works in the spirit of experimental knowledge production, particularly with young people and artists in the early stages of their careers. The focus is on processes, working methods and innovative collaboration between artists, curators and the institution. Serlachius wants to sow seeds that will contribute to developing collaboration between artists and art institutions. The Serlachius Residency also serves as a key resource in this work, providing time, space and professional support for artistic research and development.

11. Relationship to collection policy

Serlachius has a separate collection policy. The collection and exhibition activities form a unified whole, however. The key intersections of collection and exhibition activities are:

• The collection is displayed in permanent hangings and changing exhibitions.
• Changing exhibitions are often realised with artists who are already represented in the collection, which supports long-term collaboration. In this, the museum and the Fine Arts Foundation follow in the footsteps of their founder: Gösta Serlachius also actively followed the work of a few individual artists and supported them.
• Some of exhibition projects are commissions, and the works resulting from these projects end up in the collection. More narrowly, artists can be offered production grants, which help facilitate the creation of individual works. We view such approaches as both sustainable forms of support for artists, investments in our collection, and a key part of the Serlachius brand.
• The museum acquires contemporary art works particularly from its own exhibitions, allowing the collection to evolve organically alongside the exhibition programme.
• The use of the collection in exhibitions involves many issues related to artwork safety (these issues are specified in the public engagement policy and the exhibition process description).

12. Relationship to exhibition process description

The exhibition production principles are outlined separately in Serlachius’s exhibition process description.Issues related to exhibition programme decision-making, exhibition production and artwork safety are therefore not discussed separately in this document.

13. Summary and exhibition evaluation

Together with collection activity and public engagement, Serlachius’s exhibition activity supports its basic mission by highlighting art and cultural heritage and by promoting the emergence of new knowledge and artistic thinking. The museum operates as an open, communal, inclusive, evolving, accessible and influential institution that cherishes its history but actively and sustainably looks to the future.

Overall, Serlachius’s exhibition policy is based on quality, experimentation, dialogue, social presence and sustainability. These are the aspects that the museum considers when it evaluates the success and impact of its exhibitions.

The Board of the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation approved the exhibition policy in March 2026.