During Kiasma’s opening weekend in May 1998, the museum attracted 30,000 visitors. Kiasma has subsequently established its position as a national, but most particularly, a local meeting place. Kiasma welcomed its millionth visitor in May 2001. The milestone of two million visitors was reached five years later, in May 2006. The name derives from ‘chiasm’, which stands for an intersection, particularly the crossing of optic nerves and is reflective of the extensive network of people, ideas and ideologies that meet and mingle together in Kiasma. Kiasma breaks the boundaries of traditional art museums by following the latest trends in visual culture. Its collections include Finnish and foreign art from the 1960s onwards.

The museum is a part of the Finnish National Gallery. The Finnish National Gallery is the largest art museum organisation in Finland and a national cultural institution, operating under the Finnish Ministry of Education. The main units of the organisation are the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, and the Central Art Archives. The institution has about 270 staff, of which 214 are permanently employed. The building is designed by the American architect Steven Holl. The design is based on ideas about the golden section, Zen-like peace, a human scale. These principles are manifested, for example, by the spatial sequences on the first and third floors, by the lines and details of the galleries. All services, from security and ventilation to exhibition technology, are concealed within the wall structures.

The main aim of Kiasma’s exhibition policy is to explore and present contemporary art for a wide variety of perspectives including its local Finnish context and a wider contemporary art audience. Kiasma annually presents between 2 to 4 exhibition projects conceived and produced in house. There are also some annual projects that are produced in collaboration with Finnish or international art institutions or foundations. Alongside the main exhibition spaces of Kiama’s 4th and 5th floors, it also houses two smaller exhibition spaces, Studio K and Kontti, that operate as laboratory venues for solo projects and other special projects.

The main driving force behind the exhibition policy of Kiasma is to widen the concepts, tradition, and histories of art. Likewise the exhibition policy aims to broaden the understanding and uses of visual communication, to bring draw forward new interpretations and open fresh dialogues. Kiasma’s exhibition program strives to always be open facing to society and its local context.

A lively cultural centre and meeting place, Kiasma’s main aim is to provide easy and unforgettable access to the vibrant world of contemporary art. Successful in its mission, Kiasma is the most popular museum in Finland with 200, 000 annual visitors. The 2nd and 3rd floors of the museum are dedicated to the Kiasma collections and to the annually changing thematic collections exhibition. The other major exhibitions take place in the 4th and 5th floors and change 3-4 times a year. In addition to the main exhibition floors, the smaller spaces, such as Studio K, Kontti and Room X have their individual programs.

Studio K presents projects of both established and up-coming Finnish and international artists. The Studio K’s programme also partly focuses on more emerging phenomena and artistic practices, as the space operates on a slightly shorter lead-time than the main exhibitions. An important specific feature with the Studio K space is the special architecture of the room–a white cube with the height of two floors–which often offers the starting point artist’s projects for the space. Since 1998 the space has housed projects by artists such as Simryn Gill, Bjarne Melgaard, Marina Abramovic, Cildo Meireles, Job Koelewijn, and Jyrki Siukonen. The programme of the Kontti exhibition space is directed towards presenting media and video art of Finnish and international artists. It has worked on projects with artists such as Pipilotti Rist, Maija BlŒfield & Anu Suhonen, Peter Forg‡cs, Pia Tikka, George Legrady, Gillian Wearing, and Hanna Haaslahti.

Kiasma’s collection consists of artworks from the early 1960′s until the present day. Kiasma wants to create and expand a varied collection of international and national contemporary art for future generations. It aims to detach itself from conventional object-based art perceptions, and instead bases its collecting policies on a wide rage of interests found through varied and innovative threads of visual culture. The growth of the collection is a methodical process that aims to reveal distinctive characteristics of local, regional and geographical interests. The acquisition policy is therefore not based on distinguished art movements, but on content, artistic values and expressive quality. Kiasma collects a variety of visual culture including painting, web art, fragments of popular culture, and media art. As of September 2010, Kiasma’s collection held 8,033 works.

Kiasma presents approximately 3–4 exhibitions each year.

Most outstanding projects of the last 3-5 years:

Cream: Damien Hirst & Contemporaries, 2010;

Elixir: Pipilotti Rist, 2009;

Fluid Street – Alone, together: 10th Anniversary Exhibition of Kiasma, 2008;

Wind from the East, 2007;

ARS 06: Sense of the Real, 2006.

Through its theatre program and series of workshops and seminars, Kiasma presents a diverse and thought provoking public program.

Kiasma Theater presents it’s own programme of dance, urban culture (such as the annual URB festival for urban culture), performances, circus, sound art, concerts, and experiemental theater plays. Monthly film screenings are organised as well as a wide selection of lectures, discussions and mini-symposiums.

The main guide to the education service is to provide lifelong learning in the arts for people of all ages. The educational programme is founded in direct relation to the museums exhibition and theatre programme. The Kiasma Educational Department tries to look at the museum Kiasma from the perspective of different individuals and groups–even those who have not yet found their way into the museum.

In addition to art workshops for children and its younger audiences, Kiasma offers guided tours of topical exhibitions by its guides and curators. The educational department also works in collaboration with schools, daycare centres, artists, other museums, art schools, the business sector, civic organisations, universities and senior citizens. The programme therefore supports and promotes special events, meetings, experiences, insights and new ways of learning to explore contemporary art in the museum.

Kiasma Magazine is published regularly. Other publication programme of the museum is connected with the exhibition and theater programme (catalogues, magazines, brochures etc.)

The gross floor area is approximately 12,000 m². Exhibition spaces account for 9,200 m².