Traditionally, the role of a museum could be summarized in three different activity categories: research, preservation and display. Research includes the institution’s involvement in collecting, curating and interpreting artifacts of artistic, cultural or scientific relevance.

Preservation comprises all the activities aimed to their maintenance and elongation of their lifespans. Lastly, display involves those actions related to the dissemination of knowledge and education of the public. However, technological advances in the field of communications have rendered the latter category potentially dated. What is the value of visiting a museum if all its content is available instantly from everybody’s homes? How do we project a new Sara Hildén Art Museum that will stay relevant for future generations?

Visiting a museum doesn’t just offer the opportunity of seeing an object of certain relevance, but also the experience of social interaction revolving around the basis of culture itself. The social aspect of a museum transforms it into a platform for discussion and exchange of diverse points of view and cultural interpretations. It stands not as an institution for culture consumption, but as the place for culture construction in which all people can discuss about their diverse pasts, address the issues of their present and project a future based on common values and shared significance. The new role of the museum can be therefore summarized in three different categories: research, preservation and critical dialogue.

The Sara Hildén Art Museum consequentially stands, not as a traditional succession of fixed exhibition rooms, but as an open, inclusive and versatile platform for social interaction and civic discussion. The Sara Hildén permanent collection and its temporary exhibitions become the center for cultural dialogue in Tampere, and its new building emerges as a piece of public space in which critical thinking is the protagonist.