Hyvinkää Art Museum will unveil a new type of function-based exhibition space in June 2019, called Taidelabra - Art Lab, in a process aimed at a complete overhaul of the museum's profile, services, and exhibition programme. Planning for the Taidelabra - Art Lab space began in August 2018 with funding from the Finnish Heritage Agency, aimed at innovative projects. The preparation work was carried out in conjunction with the Museums in Hyvinkää project Museovisio, which received planning-phase funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The objectives of museum education: Experience, experiment, and discover!
Taidelabra - Art Lab is designed to be an immersive, comprehensive, experiential, and experimental exhibition space that creates new types of approaches to viewing, experiencing, and understanding art on the basis of museum pedagogy and art education. Experimenting and doing things yourself opens new insights on art history, cultural heritage, and all that museum work can be. In addition, Taidelabra - Art Lab puts a spotlight on background information related to art, artists, and creating art, and it lowers the threshold to visiting museums.
A permanent collection as a learning environment
Taidelabra - Art Lab is both a permanent collection and a learning environment. Alongside 'traditional' multisensory methods, it makes use of new technologies and digital applications, and it makes novel approaches accessible to children, young people, and adults alike.
The items displayed in the Taidelabra - Art Lab space are hand-picked from the collections of the Hyvinkää Art Museum. While Yrjö Saarinen's works form the backbone of the collections, which comprise about 2,600 items, they also feature selections of pieces by Helene Schjerfbeck and numerous other Hyvinkää-based artists that extend from earlier times to the present day.
Working together for involvement and co-operation
Involvement and co-operation among various interest groups and experts by experience constitute the cornerstone of the project. Museums' experts and various user and customer groups, representing all age bands, have assisted with the planning and generation of ideas. In addition, there are user-panel meetings that involve testing the Art Lab's functional components. This work involves experts by experience and other panel members – children, young people, and adults of various ages. Accessibility and visitors with special needs too were taken into consideration from early on in the planning.
Among others, the Aalto University Department of Art Education, the Villa Arttu Art Centre for Children and Young People, and staff with the Culture for All service of the association Yhdenvertaisen kulttuurin puolesta ry participate in the co-operation.