Image: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
HAM Helsinki Art Museum will celebrate Tove Jansson’s birthday on 9 August with a free public event running from 11 am to 5 pm. According to the museum’s event listing and newsletter, the day will combine cake and coffee, music and dancing, with activities taking place inside the museum and outside under the overhang at the entrance.
The celebration is tied to HAM’s wider programming around Jansson, whose work continues to be present in the museum’s exhibitions and events. The museum identifies the occasion as ‘Tove Jansson’s Birthday’ and says admission will be free, with no advance registration required. The first 100 visitors will be offered cake and coffee in the ticket counter lobby. All of the food and drink served will be vegan.
The afternoon programme is led by Skidit-disko, which will host two dance sessions outside the museum entrance, first from 1 pm to 2 pm and then from 3 pm to 4 pm. The event description says the party will include a DJ, MC, Robo robot and Kuhilas. In the museum lobby, Paleface, also known as Karri Miettinen, will play selections from Tove and Tooti’s record bag from 2 pm to 4 pm.
HAM’s newsletter version of the announcement places the birthday celebration alongside other August programming, but the museum page gives the clearest details for the event itself. The birthday gathering is set for HAM Helsinki Art Museum at Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8 in Helsinki, the museum’s home address. The museum’s public-facing event page also notes that the celebration is free of charge.
The event arrives while HAM is presenting several summer exhibitions and activities, including ‘Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries’. The museum’s exhibition page describes that show as Abakanowicz’s first solo exhibition in Finland, and says it occupies the museum’s arcaded halls with her iconic Abakans and large jute sculptures. HAM also lists ‘Artist Family Jansson’ among its other exhibitions, a context that helps explain the prominence of Jansson-related programming in August.
The birthday event’s schedule is simple and public-facing: cake and coffee at 11 am, Skidit-disko from 1 pm to 2 pm, Paleface from 2 pm to 4 pm, and another Skidit-disko set from 3 pm to 4 pm. The museum says visitors are welcome throughout the day, with free entry and no pre-registration.
