Museum Awards 2025 were announced at the Museum Award Gala in Hämeenlinna on 21st May. The Museum of the Year 2025 award was given to Särestöniemi museum.

The Museum of the Year Challenge Trophy, the Esko sculpture designed by Pekka Kauhanen, is awarded to a museum that has significantly advanced the social visibility and impact of the museum sector within its own field of activity. The work of the Museum of the Year has introduced new or different perspectives, ideas, and concepts to the museum field. The prize is presented jointly by the Finnish National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Finland) and the Finnish Museums Association.

The award jury described Särestöniemi museum, selected as Museum of the Year, as follows:

“Särestöniemi Museum stood out with its strong, open-minded, and wide-ranging activities from a northern perspective. The museum meets the award criteria in an exceptionally comprehensive way, expanding the understanding of the museum’s role as an active, relevant, and socially impactful actor.

Among artist home museums, Särestöniemi Museum is exceptionally active and significant. Its work is guided by a strong value base and an ecological ideology that extends the safeguarding of a single artist’s cultural heritage into a broader context. The museum has successfully brought the recurring themes in Reidar Särestöniemi’s art and thinking – human rights, equality, and nature conservation – into the forefront of national public debate. These themes and values are visible in the museum’s daily activities as concrete actions, not merely as a historical context.

The strong commitment and passion of the small team of only six staff members are reflected in all aspects of the museum’s work and are experienced by visitors as a rare sense of warmth and authenticity.

Särestöniemi Museum demonstrates that a local actor can be important both regionally and nationally. As a regional actor, the museum operates within numerous collaborative networks together with its communities and stakeholders. This has enabled the museum to offer a programme that is broader and more diverse than its size would suggest. The anniversary year of Reidar Särestöniemi in 2025 was utilised extensively and effectively, and the museum has continued its ambitious work beyond the anniversary year. Overall, the museum’s public engagement and educational activities are diverse, participatory, and bold, deepening the visitor experience and strengthening a sense of inclusion. The museum has also acted as an active expert in national collaborative projects and has increased awareness of Särestöniemi in cooperation with other museums.”