Arktikum is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

and

science centre A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in m ...

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Per� ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The building is also a popular culture destination and venue for meetings and conferences and has a cafe and library to serve the customers. Two separate exhibitions operate at Arktikum, the Arctic Center, and the Provincial Museum of Lapland.

Exhibitions

The exhibitions at the Provincial Museum of Lapland and the Arctic Center examine culture, history, and modern life in the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

. Concepts such as human life in tune with nature are explored in depth. There are also temporary exhibitions in Arktikum.

History

Arktikum opened to the public on 6 December 1992, the 75th anniversary of Finland's independence. It was designed by Danish architect group Birch-Bonderup & Thorup-Waade. The crescent-shaped new annex was designed by Claus Bonderup and Janne Lehtipalo, and it was completed in autumn 1997.

Architecture

Plenty of local natural materials have been used in the building: the floors are made from Perttaus granite – the hardest type available in Finland – and from lime-washed Lappish pine. The chairs are made from birch and reindeer hide. The most visible part of the museum, its glass corridor, is 172 metres long in all and it is dissected by the 30-metre wide Kittilä highway. The tube serves as the “Gateway to the North”, as the entrance foyer is at the southern end and guests head north when coming in. The exhibition space is sheltered below the ground, mimicking the way animals in the North take cover from the harsh, cold winter by burrowing under the snow.

Awards

According to Topworld International, the museum is the 4th best travel attraction in Finland.

Gallery

File:Rovaniemi Arktikum 1.jpg, Building File:Rovaniemi Arktikum 01.jpg, Main hall File:Arktikum and Northern Lights.jpg, Northern lights File:Arktikum museum and science centre.jpg, Winter File:Arktikum museum and science centre Polar bear.jpg, Arctic exhibition File:Arktikum museum and science centre, bear.jpg, Northern Ways exhibition File:Inuit sculpture, Canada - Arctic Museum.jpg,

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

sculpture

External links

Official website
Science museums in Finland Rovaniemi Museums in Lapland (Finland) {{finland-museum-stub