Renewed Museum of Student Life brings together student cultures of Aalto community

AYY’s museum will expand its exhibition and activities to cover the student cultures of the entire Aalto community – technology, business and arts. From now on, the museum will be known as the Museum of Student Life (in Finnish: Opiskelijakulttuurimuseo; in Swedish: Museet för studerandekultur), as the former name no longer covered the expanded museum activities. The development and renaming of the museum is a sub-project of AYY’s 2021 plan of action confirmed by the Representative Council in autumn 2020. The steering group of the museum has involved a group of experts in the project, including representatives from the Helsinki City Museum (regional museum for Central Uusimaa), KY, TOKYO, Teekkari Section, Museum Section, the Guild of the Round Tower, as well as Eternal Teekkari and AYY’s Executive Director, Communications Specialist and Archivist. The museum, formerly known as the Polytechnical Students’ Museum, has been under renovation since 2019. The renovated museum will open its doors in early autumn 2021.  

“The aim of the renewed museum is to present the history and present of Aalto student cultures. With the renewal, the museum aims to create cohesion and pride in Aalto community”, comments Museum Director Anna Merikari.  

The competition for the new name of the museum was open to the student union members and others interested from 22 Feb to 7 Mar 2021, and we received more than 100 proposals for the new name. The steering group of the museum selected 15 well-reasoned proposals to be further considered by the group of experts. The new name of the museum, the Museum of Student Life, was among these proposals. We wanted the new name to describe the activities and be neutral and suitable for all cultures. The new name was also supported by the Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus). In addition to Kotus, the Swedish-speaking student nation Teknologföreningen has been consulted on the Swedish translation. The English name Museum of Student Life is connected to AYY’s vision on the best student life in the world.  

“It has been brilliant to have the section involved in creating the foundation for the next stage of the museum. The essence of AYY’s voluntary activities is depicted in the new name – student culture, our own, common and different”, says Chair of the Museum Section Petra Ekroos.  

After the renaming project of the museum, we will continue to develop museum activities with the renewal of the museum’s visual identity, exhibition and communications. After the new name, the next step in museum activities is to strengthen the position of the museum to cover the student cultures of the entire community. 

Further information:  

Museum Steering Group

Museum Director Anna Merikari, tel. 0505209439

Museum Intendant Rasmus Ruohola

Chair of Museum Section Petra Ekroos

Board Member (Museum Affairs) Sara Selonen

Email: firstname.lastname@ayy.fi.   

The Museum of Student Life is a museum presenting the history and present of the student cultures of Student Union and its predecessors, run by a strong group of volunteers and museum staff in Otaniemi, Espoo.