Amos Rex
An extraordinary art museum
Amos Rex offers unique and surprising experiences through presenting new, often experimental, contemporary art.
The museum has hosted names such as teamLab, Studio Drift, Bill Viola and Hans Op de Beeck. Every three years Amos Rex showcases art by 15- to 23-year-old artists in the Generation exhibition series.
The museum entrance and shop are located in a functionalist building called Lasipalatsi (‘glass palace’ in English), a landmark of 1930s Finnish modernism. Lasipalatsi represents a novel idea of its time, as it’s one of the first buildings where restaurants, cafés, shops and a cinema, Bio Rex, came together under a single roof. The subterranean exhibition spaces in the extension were planned by JKMM Architects, and the museum opened in 2018.
The roof of the gallery bubbles up through the ground, creating a playful outdoor landscape, which is now a landmark in Helsinki. Through the skylights you can spot charming details such as Amos Rex’s chimney or stairs that seem to lead nowhere.
Values
Insight
Amos Rex is a thought-provoking art museum where you can feel and think for yourself. Here you can laugh and have fun, discover and learn new things, and be moved by art. We enable insight and create strong emotional memories.
Courage
Amos Rex is a bold forerunner as a place to visit, as an operator in the art field and as a workplace. We dare to present new things and do things our own way. At Amos Rex, we experiment, dare to make mistakes and learn from them. We are a versatile organisation that boldly explores the future. We firmly believe in a better future.
Fairness
Amos Rex is open, fair and interactive. We invest in creating a safe space for visitors and the building’s staff. We do not discriminate against anyone and work actively to be a fair, equal employer. We represent an international, multicultural world.
Administration and personnel
Konstsamfundet
Amos Rex is owned by the Föreningen Konstsamfundet association.
Business executive and arts patron Amos Anderson founded Föreningen Konstsamfundet in 1940 and named the association as his sole heir in his will. Konstsamfundet is a visionary promoter in the field of culture and education. The association’s other holdings include the Amos Anderson House Museum on Yrjönkatu in Helsinki and the Söderlångvik Manor on Kimito Island.
Staff
The director of the Amos Rex Museum is Kieran Long.
Museum Board of Directors
Chair: Stefan Björkman
Vice Chair: Elisabeth Millqvist
Board members:
Cilla Lönnqvist
Leif Jakobsson
Laura Aalto
Sara Sandström
Whistleblower Protection Directive
Föreningen Konstsamfundet and the group’s companies are committed to high ethical and responsible principles in all their operations. To support this, the group has introduced an internal whistleblowing channel.
The reporting channel and the handling process are in line with the Finnish Whistleblower Protection Act and the European Commission’s Whistleblower Protection Directive.
If an employee or partner observes activities that go against legislation or the group’s rules, they can report the matter confidentially and, if desired, anonymously via the reporting channel.
Equality and non-discrimination
Amos Rex’s management, administration and the equality working group, which is selected every two years, work together to promote equality and the work community. Promoting equality in working life means that employees are treated equally and without discrimination in all situations of working life, regardless of gender. The aim is to develop the work community by utilising the diverse abilities and skills of employees, creating space for discussion and change, improving the workplace atmosphere and facilitating the balance between work and family life.
Sustainable development
Amos Rex is an art museum where past, present and future meet. Because we want humanity and the entire spectrum of life to have a future, we are constantly working toward more sustainable museum operations.
Our environmental and responsibility activities are guided by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation’s EcoCompass environmental management system and Visit Finland’s Sustainable Travel Finland programme. Amos Rex is also included on MyHelsinki’s Think Sustainably website.
Amos Rex is a member of the international Gallery Climate Coalition network, which aims to reduce CO2e emissions in the entire art sector by at least 50% by 2030.
Renewable energy
Most of the carbon footprint of our underground museum is generated by energy consumption. The entire Lasipalatsi (Glass Palace) area switched to renewable district heating in March 2022, and the museum uses wind power.
Measures taken
- Exhibition periods have been extended from 3–4 months to 5–6 months.
- When transporting works of art, the museum aims for shared and partial transport as well as flexible pick-up and arrival times.
- Amos Rex mainly serves vegan food at its events and in its coffee room.
- The Amos Rex Shop sources products from local producers whenever possible. As a rule, our own products are manufactured from sustainable and surplus materials.
Development
- In the future, the museum’s acquisitions will be guided by comprehensive procurement guidelines. Ecology, locality and responsibility serve as key criteria guiding choices, while minimum requirements have been drawn up for eco-labels.
- We train our staff to understand effective environmental actions in the context of museum operations. We offer everyone the opportunity to impact the environmental impact of their own work and thus also their coping and well-being at work.
- When building exhibitions, we reuse plenty of materials, but will further increase the circulation and life cycle of materials, including cooperation with other museums.
- We calculate the museum’s carbon footprint, which also takes into account the digital footprint of our operations. We develop our environmental work based on these results.
Safer space
Amos Rex seeks to be open and accessible. Discrimination of any kind is prohibited at the museum.
We created safer space principles so that Amos Rex can be an open, accessible and comfortable place for everyone, as well as a safe place to work. Safer space guidelines mean common practices that everyone from staff to visitors at Amos Rex are committed to follow.