Cultural environment and museum with regional responsibility

K. H. Renlund Museum serves as a museum with regional responsibility in Central Ostrobothnia. Our field of activities include Halsua, Kannus, Kaustinen, Kokkola, Lestijärvi, Perho, Toholampi and Veteli.

Regional museum work

We give advice and guidance to local museums, communities and individuals in Central Ostrobothnia on recording and preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The goal is to promote the local cultural heritage and its protection in collaboration with the regional operators and to foster mutual co-operation between the local museums.

We offer help with e.g. the preservation and restoration of museum buildings and with the management of collections and planning of exhibitions in Central Ostrobothnia. The goal is to increase the awareness of the museums in the region.

We also monitor and steer the application process and use of the project grants issued to non-professionally managed local museums by the Finnish Heritage Agency. We organize education and development events in collaboration with cultural heritage organizations and operators as well as schools and educational institutions.

Additional information: Curator of Regional Heritage Risto Känsälä

Regional art museum work

We serve different operators in Central Ostrobothnia (municipalities, associations and individuals) in issues related to arts and visual culture. The tasks of the regional art museum are implemented in collaboration with the other regional responsibilities.

The aim of the regional art museum work is to promote the region’s art and visual culture. K. H. Renlund Museum produces services to different target groups (e.g. touring exhibitions, training), and provides advice on copyright issues, maps activities regarding art collections and public art, and carries out art documentation by video interviewing locally active artists.

Additional information: Art Curator Katriina Meller

Archaeological cultural heritage

Central Ostrobothnia has a rich archaeological cultural heritage spanning from the early Stone Age to modern times. Archaeological cultural heritage refers to any relics, structures, deposits and discoveries preserved on land or in water, created through human activities during the prehistoric or historical periods. Stationary relics are protected under the Antiquities Act.

Archaeological cultural heritage also includes structures and locations, whose preservation is deemed justifiable due to their historical importance and cultural heritage values. Archaeological cultural heritage must always be considered in town planning, forest use and land use.

Additional information: archeologist Lauri Skantsi

Built cultural environment and landscape

The built cultural environment consists of buildings with their interior and exterior and of gardens, parks and different structures (roads, streets and bridges).

The K. H. Renlund Museum serves and guides the municipalities, communities, companies and private persons in Central Ostrobothnia with the preservation, restoration and research of the built cultural environment. The museum’s key task is to steer and promote the protection and maintenance of the built cultural environment and cultural heritage in its own region.

The built cultural environment and landscape can be protected under the Land-Use and Building Act by means of local detailed plans, local master plans and regional land-use plans, and protective measures are also implemented under the Act on the Protection of the Built Heritage. Considering valuable built heritage sites in, for example, town planning requires an inventory prepared by a specialist with the aim of collecting, organizing and producing information about the current status of the built site and of the reasons that has led to it. The inventory allows the authorities to define the level of protection for the site either in the land-use plans or in the building protection decision and to determine ways to guarantee the preservation of the site. Information om completed inventories can be inquired from municipalities or the K. H. Renlund Museum.

Grants for the maintenance of built cultural environment and landscape can be applied from different ministries. The K. H. Renlund Museum offers advisory services for the granting of cultural heritage renovation grants, and acts as the restoration expert in its operating area.

Advice for the conservation of the built cultural environment is provided by:

• Curator of Cultural Environment Jouni Mustonen (City of Kokkola)
• Curator of Regional Heritage Risto Känsälä (Halsua, Kannus, Kaustinen, Lestijärvi, Perho, Toholampi and Veteli)

Electronic requests for a statement related to the built cultural environment can be submitted by e-mail to:

• kokkola@kokkola.fi