Industrialists

The basic exhibition project of the Varkauden museokeskus Konsti started at the end of 2020. The unifying themes of the basic exhibition are the history of the industrial community and the history of knowledge. The exhibition team at the museums included Hanna-Kaisa Melaranta, Simo Purhonen, Millamari Kalliola and Hilkka Lehtimaa. The exhibition's visual identity and spatial concept is the responsibility of Omituinen Design/ Miia Huttu. The basic exhibition opened in April 2024 at the Varkaus Museum Centre Konst, Tehtaan School.

The exhibition's script is based on the research data generated in the People as Holders of Intangible Industrial Heritage project. The project's working group for the basic 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

A digital section Production figures, which is a visualised presentation of the production and products of the different units, with their volumes increasing/decreasing over time, is part of the basic exhibition. In addition, the Museum of Cultural History has a small (approx. 20 square metres) space for temporary exhibitions, where the themes of the basic 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-based company based in Mikkeli. The immersive and gamified implementation introduces the Laivalinna naval base community, hierarchies, daily work and background

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

Machinery and the technology industry
The engineering industry has given rise to today's technology industry. The history of engineering is long and multi-faceted. Production goes from boilers to boilers, from the potato boilers of the 19th century to today's power plants the size of apartment blocks. The Konepaja 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 Konepaja's activities, 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, knew this. Under his leadership, in 1909, the people of Satakunta 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 town has been shaken to the core. Today, Stora Enso's activities are focused on sustainable wood processing. The long tradition of papermaking is still continued by the paperboard mill.

Timber industry
The different branches of the timber industry in Stora Enso are presented as a product tree, with the main focus on the diversity of the timber 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 plywood factory, the woodworking factory, the packaging industry, the honeycomb 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 timber industry was created when LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) was started in Varkaus.

Aalto
Alvar Aalto's activities in Varkaus and cooperation 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 factory manager's apartment, the Rantala conversion works, and the Virkamiesklubi weekend house in Kinkamo. Aalto's unrealised and demolished buildings in Päiviönsaari can be explored in a virtual 3D model using VR glasses.

Living
Life and housing of the industrial community in Varkaus, from the pottery to the city of Varkaus. What kind of community lived at the Varkaus ironworks, how they lived and lived and formed first the trading house and then the town called Varkaus? The section includes a room in the cellar with furnishings, such as a bunk bed and other items from the life of an ordinary Varkaus resident.