ITE Art Collection
The ITE Art Collection owned by the Association for Rural Culture and Education is unique and the most extensive of its kind. It contains sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations by the most famous ITE artists. The collection is stored in Kokkola, in the care of the K.H.Renlund Museum.
We are happy to loan artworks to museums and exhibition organisers. We’d also like to see other museums collect works by local ITE artists.
A unique collection
The ITE Art Collection includes sculptures, paintings and drawings by prominent Finnish contemporary folk artists, as well as photographs of art environments.
The collection consists of about 400 works and sets of works by 50 artists. However, this number does not do justice to the size of the collection, as one set of works can consist of many elements. The set of works by Ilmari Salminen, for example, contains almost 1,000 individual drawings, collages and installations.
The focus of the collection is the classics of ITE art. Artists whose works are especially well represented include Enni Id, Martti Hömppi, Petri Martikainen, Väinö Oja, Timo Peltonen and Ilmari Salminen.
The art collection is owned by the Association for Rural Culture and Education. We are happy to loan artworks to museums and exhibition organisers. We’d also like to see other museums collect works by local ITE artists.
Please contact us if you’d be interested in borrowing works from our ITE Art Collection.
The Dallmeier Collections
The K.H. Renlund Museum is home to the collection of Polish contemporary folk art donated by Maija and Volker Dallmeier to the Association for Rural Culture and Education in 2013. It contains about a hundred religious wooden sculptures.
Would you like to borrow works from the collection for an exhibition?
We loan artworks to museums and exhibition organisers. Over the years, numerous exhibitions have been arranged both in Finland and overseas based on the works in the ITE collection. The works are also regularly displayed in joint exhibitions with contemporary artists.
Artworks are also provided on long-term loans. The Katri Vala Cultural Centre in Ilomantsi, for example, has works from our collection permanently on display in its garden.
Petri Martikainen, Käärmekasvot (‘Snake face’). Image: Jaanus Heinla.
Archive database Collecte
The works in the ITE collection are catalogued in the electronic archive database ‘Collecte’, where we also store material collected in ITE art survey projects, including information about the artists and images of their works and art environments. The database facilitates planning for projects such as exhibitions and publications. The content of the database is maintained in Finnish and English.
The database is intended for professional use, for example by researchers and exhibition curators. For login details, please contact our culture department.
Viljo Luokkanen, Pelimannit (‘Musicians’).
Finna.fi – free access to archives
Some of the ITE art material stored in ‘Collecte’ will be made available to the public through the Finna.fi search service in 2021. Finna.fi offers free access to the digital materials and collection catalogues of about one hundred Finnish archives, libraries and museums.
Petri Martikainen, Pieta. Image: Jaanus Heinla.
Contact us
Please contact us if you’d be interested in borrowing works from our ITE Art Collection.
Helka Ketonen
Director for Cultural Affairs
+358 403 577 662 helka.ketonen@msl.fi Lue lisää henkilöstä
