One of the museums I visited while in Helsinki was the Ateneum. The museum is situated right across from the main train station. While we visited, the front was covered with a white sheet and a big pair of antlers which promotes their newest exhibition. At first, we were actually unsure if the museum was open or not as it looked like it was being worked on so we didn't go for the first few days we were in Helsinki.

Admission/ Opening Times
Tue, Fri 10-18
Wed, Thu 10-20
Sat, Sun 11-17
Mon closed
Normal admission fee Euro10
Discount admission fee Euro8
Children under 18 years free admission
S Privilege Card holders Euro9

The discount price applies to students, pensioners, conscripts, non-military servicemen, teachers, artists and the unemployed as well as groups of ten or more. Free admission also for veterans, therapy groups, assistants for the disabled, and ICOM card holders.

Ticket sale ends 30 minutes before museum closing time.

Additional Information
No bags are allowed past the ground floor of the museum so you must put them in a locker. Lockers are available on the ground floor and cost Euro1 which is returned when you collect your bags. Photography is not allowed anywhere in the museum which was very disappointing for me. I love taking photos in museums because some things are just so interesting and the chance is, I'll never get to see them again so to not be able to take photos is a terrible thing for me.

Exhibitions
Ateneum had a few different exhibits on when we visited. The biggest of them was the Magic of Lapland and it was also the newest, the one which was promoted on the front of the building. This exhibit showed Lapland from the 1800s until the present day in the form of paintings. Different seasons were shown in the paintings and showed what changes happened. I loved looking at these pictures of a place I can only ever dream of going to so for me, it was a bit of escapism. The paintings of the Northern Lights were by far my favourite of them all as so many different views of them were shown. Each painting was completely different to the next and it was amazing how so many artists could see the same thing so differently.

Another exhibit was Finland Calling by Aho and Soldan and unlike the previous, this was all done in photographs. The display showed every day Finnish life over a span of many years including The Great Flood and Industrialisation. This was my favourite exhibit mostly because of how much I love photography in general. Each photo was extremely beautiful in its own way and showed a very different and interesting culture compared to our own. Some of the photos were very basic, showing scenes of a street or a river but they were absolutely stunning in their simplicity. I could have stood looking at these pictures for hours and still been content.

One of the smaller exhibits was all about Japanese art. It only filled one tiny room but it certainly was fascinating. The exhibit was a mixture of art and video showing how Japanese pictures were carved/ cut out of wood and explained the techniques that were used. Around the sides of the room were the finished products of this technique and I loved being able to see the end product after learning just how long one of these things took to be made. The video also gave a very in depth history of who these artists were and why there were never many of these prints made. I would have really loved it if this section of the museum was bigger as there was so much more I would have wanted to see.

Gift Shop
The shop mainly sells books although there was also a lot of postcards. Unfortunately, none of them were for any exhibition that was currently on show so I didn't really see the point in that. Tourists want souvenirs of the things they have seen, especially as photography isn't allowed and the shop doesn't really provide this. As the shop was mainly full of books, it was nearly impossible to bring anything back with me. They were all so heavy that there is no way I could have got them to be included in my luggage allowance. I did manage to get a few cute bookmarks though but they had nothing to do with the exhibits at the museum either.

Overall
I really enjoyed this museum. Each exhibit was so different from the one before it and there was a lot to see. As there is so much to see here, the Euro10 entrance fee is extremely fair and I would have happily paid it again. I do wish I could have taken some photos of these great exhibits though or to even get a few pictures in the shop and this was the museums biggest downfall. Other than that though, it comes highly recommended from me.