Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Helsinki Art Museum, known as HAM, is the city's art museum, housed in the Tennis Palace, a functionalist building from 1938 in the centre of Helsinki. It looks after the city's own art collection, including much of the public art around town, and shares its building with a cinema multiplex and restaurants. The place itself carries a story of Olympic plans that never happened.

The story behind it

The Tennis Palace was completed in 1938, when Helsinki was preparing to host the 1940 Olympic Games. It was built as a sports venue, with tennis at its heart, and culture was not part of the original idea. Then the Second World War arrived and the 1940 Games were cancelled. Helsinki finally got its Olympics in 1952, twelve years later than planned.

The building outgrew its sporting purpose over the decades. In 1999 it became home to Finland's first multiplex cinema, and it has since filled with films, exhibitions, food and drink. HAM is the art museum inside it, and its work reaches well beyond these walls: it cares for the city's art collection and aims to make art easy to approach for everyone.

What to look for

• The clean, plain lines of the building's 1930s functionalist architecture, which still read as a sports hall rather than a classic museum.
• The mix of uses under one roof, with cinema screens, restaurants and gallery space sitting side by side.
• The current exhibition at HAM, which often features Finnish and international contemporary artists, so what you see changes from visit to visit.
• Sculptures and other works in the streets and parks nearby, many of which belong to the city collection that HAM looks after.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about an hour for the museum itself, longer if you also want a film or a meal in the building.
• Check current opening hours and admission details before you go, as they can change with each exhibition.
• The Tennis Palace is a short walk from Kamppi and the Central Railway Station, and close to other art spaces such as Kiasma and Amos Rex, so it pairs well with a wider art walk.
• It is a good rainy day stop, since you can browse, eat and see a film without leaving the building.

See it on a quest

Try Helsinki Highlights: Gold Heist, a self-guided quest that takes you on foot through central Helsinki. You reach the Helsinki Art Museum as one stop on a longer route, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle right in front of what you are looking at. You start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers your whole group.