Cultural heritage comes alive through shared experiences and participation
Would you like to support cultural heritage and connect with others who share your interest in history and museums? The friends’ and partner communities of the National Museum of Finland and its museums and castles offer opportunities to participate, learn new things and experience culture together. Explore what these communities have to offer and find your own way to get involved.
Connecting through cultural heritage
This page introduces two significant friends’ and partner communities of the National Museum of Finland, each with its own distinct character. Information about the friends’ and other partner communities of the National Museum of Finland’s various museums and castles can be found on the individual pages for each museum site.
Friends of the National Museum
Friends of the National Museum are a lively and engaged community that values cultural heritage and history and whose diverse activities support the work of the National Museum of Finland.
The friends’ association of the National Museum of Finland, which serves as a meeting place for people interested in history, celebrated its tenth anniversary with great enthusiasm in early 2025. For its members, the association organises events and inspiring visits related to cultural heritage and history in Finland and neighbouring countries, including places that are not usually open to the public. The association supports the National Museum of Finland, for example, through voluntary work and donations of objects and funds.
The Finnish Antiquarian Society
Founded in 1870, the Finnish Antiquarian Society is a learned society whose purpose is to promote archaeological, ethnological, art-historical, museological and cultural-historical research that sheds light on the ancient past of Finland and other Finno-Ugric peoples and regions, as well as to foster and maintain an interest in cultural heritage. The society organises lectures, congresses and symposia for its members and publishes scholarly and other material.
The collection of the Finnish Antiquarian Society forms an essential part of the foundation of the collections of the National Museum of Finland.