ITE Collection in English

>>THE DATABASE SUPPORTS BORROWERS
The ITE collection is kept at the K.H. Renlund Museum in Kokkola, where it
is also on display in changing exhibitions. The museums council in Kokkola
is the only one in Finland to employ a professional dedicated to contemporary folk art – an ITE museum curator.
Works from the ITE collection have been loaned for exhibitions at museums and galleries in Finland and abroad, including in cities like Berlin, Budapest, London, Moscow, Paris, Rotterdam, Tallinn, in the Nordic countries,
and at most of the major art museums in Finland.
It is also possible to create exhibitions where ITE art is shown alongside
contemporary art. This has already been done successfully at the art museums in Kerava, Salo, Kotka and Lapinlahti in the past few years. Museums
can have works on a long-term loan from the ITE Museum for exhibitions
with a special theme, for example.
The works in the ITE collection are being catalogued in an electronic
DigITE database that can be accessed at www.itenet.fi. The Union for Rural
Culture and Education has received funding for developing the database
and cataloguing from the Ministry of Education and Culture. Users can be
given a researcher ID for the database that grants them wider accessibility.
Arto Liiti / Exhibition in Rovaniemi Art Museum Korundi
Herman Patiño / Exhibition in Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
Arto Liiti / Jukka Säntti
OWNER OF THE ITE COLLECTION
The Union for Rural Culture and Education
Eerikinkatu 28
FI-00180 Helsinki
ITE MUSEUM
Pitkänsillankatu 28
FI-67101 Kokkola
https://www.kokkola.fi/kulttuuri/museot
for collaboration, please contact
for enquiries about the collection, please contact
Helka Ketonen, Director for Cultural Affairs
helka.ketonen@msl.fi
tel. +358 9751 2020
K.H.Renlund Museum / ITE Arts Centre
Elina Vuorimies, ITE Museum Curator
elina.vuorimies@kokkola.fi
tel. +358 44780 94 78
Veli Granö / Parikkala Sculpture Park by Veijo Rönkkönen
>>ITE COLLECTION TOURS AND MOVES
ITE
Collection
The highlights of Finnish contemporary folk art
available for the entire museum sector
>>SCULPTURES AND SERIES AS ENTITIES
Inna Kallioinen / Martti Hömppi
T
Veli Granö / Ilmari “Imppu” Salminen
The ITE collection consists of approximately 350 works of art. In actuality, this number is much higher as it covers installations made of several
parts, such as Jorma Pihl’s series of animal figures, Ilmari “Imppu”
Salminen’s drawings and Risto Pelkonen’s bark villagers of Tuohela
(“Barkham”).
Of the “classic” ITE artists, the ones with the broadest presence
are Väinö Oja and Petri Martikainen, as well as the late Martti Hömppi,
Timo Peltonen and Ilmari Salminen.
In 2013, the collection grew considerably when German-Finnish doctors Maija and Volker Dallmeier donated almost a hundred Polish wood
sculptures depicting religious themes to the collection.
he collection of Finnish contemporary folk art, “ITE art”,
owned by the Union for Rural Culture and Education, is the
largest and most diverse of its kind in Finland. It features
wood sculptures, works produced with mixed media, paintings, collages,
entities consisting of series of pieces as well as photographs.
The collection has grown since the late 1990s through acquisitions of
art directly from artists and receiving pieces from artists’ heirs. There
are works by 50 artists in the collection, although the total is closer
to one hundred when also including artists whose work is displayed in
photographs as well.
Veli Granö / Elis Sinistö
Arto Liiti / Lauri Mustonen
>>PHOTOGRAPHS BY PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS
Photographic series by professional photographers are a significant part
of the ITE collection; they showcase ITE artists, their living environments and works. The photographers exhibited in the collection include
Pekka Agarth, Veli Granö, Jaakko Heikkilä, Juha-Pekka Inkinen, Tuomas
Jääskeläinen, Jan Kaila, Martti Kapanen, Jouko Lehtola, Arto Liiti, Esko
Männikkö, Mikko Savolainen and Nina Tuittu.
The photo series feature ITE artists such as Enni Id, Aune Kinnunen,
Veijo Rönkkönen, Elis Sinistö, Seppo Suomensyrjä, Jukka Säntti and
Ensio Tuppurainen.
Veli Granö / Risto Pelkonen
Minna Haveri / Alpo Koivumäki