Industrialists

The permanent exhibition project of the Varkaus Museum Center Konsti started at the end of 2020. The unifying themes of the exhibition are the history of the industrial community and the history of expertise. The exhibition team at the museum included Hanna-Kaisa Melaranta, Simo Purhonen, Millamari Kalliola and Hilkka Lehtimaa. The exhibition's visual identity and spatial concept is made by Omituinen Design/ Miia Huttu. The exhibition opened in April 2024 at the Varkaus Museum Center Konsti.

The exhibition is based on the research data generated in the People as Holders of Intangible Industrial Cultural Heritage project. The project's working group for the exhibition included Pasi Saarimäki and Anne Häkkinen from the Department of History and Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä. The project was also evaluated by a panel of experts, including a multidisciplinary group of professionals from industry, culture and art, society and science. The composition of the expert panel was as follows:

• Professor Karl-Erik Michelsen, LUT
• Dozent Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto, JYU
• Author Jari Järvelä
• Principal (retired) Ari Nieminen, Andritz

As part of the permanent exhibition, there is a digital section called Production Figures, which is a visual representation of the production and products of different units, the growth/decline of their quantities over time. In addition, the permanent exhibition has a small (approx. 20 square metres) space for temporary exhibitions, where the themes of the permanent exhibition are explored in greater depth.

The sections of the basic exhibition

Laivalinna
The history of the Laivalinna naval base is presented as a digital implementation by OiOi, a Helsinki-Mikkeli-based company. The immersive and gamified implementation introduces community, hierarchies, daily work and operational backgrounds of the Laivalinna naval base.

Sawmill
The sawmill module focuses on the 19th century sawmill industry and the fascinating personality of Erik Längman.

Machine shop and the technology industry
The machine shop industry has given roots to today's technology industry. The history of machine shops is long and multi-faceted. Production goes from the manufacturing of potato boilers for households in the 19th century to today's power plants the size of apartment buildings. The machine shop section also looks strongly to the future, to future energy production and sustainable industry.

Shipbuilding
Although shipbuilding has been part of the same unit as machine shop, it has been given its own section in the exhibition. The section tells the story of the ships built at the Varkaus shipyards, their builders and construction methods, without forgetting the important war reparations industry.

Paper and pulp industry
The story of paper in Varkaus was and is a story of many dramas and coincidences. The waterways and forests surrounding Varkaus provided an excellent setting for the creation of a large-scale industry. Paper required pulp and energy. Walter Ahlström, who ran A. Ahlström Oy company, knew this. Under his leadership, in 1909, the company won a tight bidding war against the Norwegian Gutzeit for the dominion of Varkaus. In the 21st century, digitalisation has hit the traditional paper industry hard. The identity and structure of the traditional paper industry city has been shaken to the core. Today, Stora Enso's operations are aimed at sustainable wood processing. The long tradition of papermaking is still continued by the paperboard mill.

Wood industry
The different branches of the wood industry are presented in the exhibition as a "product tree", with the main focus on the diversity of the wood industry and the variety of products. Alongside the paper and pulp industry, the aim was to make greater use of wood material by building a plywood factory as early as 1926. After the plywood factory, production expanded into ever smaller and more inventive industries and more highly processed products. The branches that emerged from the expansion of production at the time of A. Ahlström Oy, such as the blockboard factory, the woodproduct factory, the packaging industry, the egg carton factory, the sound engineering factory and the house factory, were and to some extent still are operating in Varkaus. In 2016, a new branch of the wood industry was created when LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) wood product began to be manufactured in Varkaus.

Aalto
Alvar Aalto's operation in Varkaus and collaboration with A. Ahlström Oy began in the mid-1930s. The majority of the buildings commissioned by Ahlström from Aalto in Varkaus were related to housing for industrial workers and production at the Varkaus house factory. Aalto's most important individual projects in Varkaus were the sawmill, the renovation of the factory director's apartment called Rantala, and the weekend lodge for Warkaus Factory Club in Kinkamo. Aalto's unrealised and demolished buildings in Päiviönsaari can be explored in a virtual 3D model using VR glasses.

Living
The life and living of the industrial community in Varkaus, from the foundry to the city of Varkaus. What kind of community lived at the Varkaus ironworks, how they lived and formed first the market town, and then the city called Varkaus? The section includes a typical early 20th century workers' stove-room with furnishings, such as a bunk bed and other items.