The Finnish National Gallery has adopted an open access policy to share digital images of its collections online through its own website and Europeana. It began by sharing archival materials in 2012 under Creative Commons licenses. In 2018, it launched sharing over 12,000 high-resolution images from its art collections with a CC0 license on both its website and Europeana. This was the result of collaboration between the Gallery and Europeana to improve access to the collections online. The open access policy aims to make the collections, which belong to the Finnish people, more accessible to wider audiences and to support education, research, and creative reuse. It has been positively received as responding to audience needs and expectations.

1. Finnish National Gallery’s collections open
access policy in collaboration with Europeana
Exposing Online the European Cultural Heritage: the impact of Cultural
Heritage on the Digital Transformation of the Society
Iasi, Romania 17.4.2019
Dr Riitta Ojanperä, Director of Collections Management

2. Ateneum Art Museum Museum of Contemporary art
Kiasma
Sinebrychoff Art Museum
Finnish National Gallery – three museums

3. Finnish National Gallery’s collections
- Collections possessed by the state of Finland
- 42000 art works
- Archival materials: artists’ letters, photographs etc
- Objects
The collection of Finnish State Art Commission
- ca. 13000 art works
- Acquiring works of art for Government properties
and buildings in Government use

4. Digitising Finnish National Gallery’s collections
Systematic digitising of Finnish National Gallery’s collections
- Funded and supported by the joint project of Finnish cultural heritage organizations, the National Digital
Library project run by the Fnnish Ministry of Education and Culture from 2008 to 2017

5. Sharing FNG collection’s
metadata and images online
• Finnish National Gallery’s art collections online since
2007, http://kokoelmat.fng.fi
• Finna service for delivering Finnish museums’, archives’
and libraries’ digital data online since 2013 ,
https://www.finna.fi
• Europeana, piloting since Europeana’s early launch in ca
2008, Finland’s national aggregator with Europeana

6. Open data policy – steps towards free licensing of collections data online
- Beginning with images from the archival collections in 2012, the initial drive coming from some Finnish OpenGLAM
activists in 2012
- First high resolution images of art works of the Finnish National Gallery’s collections were shared freely (Creative
Commons licence) in the context of Europeana 280 project in 2016 when 28 countries in the European Union
chose each ten important works of art to be published together in Europeana’s site

7. Finnish National Gallery created another channel for sharing the CC0-
licenced collections’ material in 2016
- Opening a profile in the online photo sharing application Flickr

8. On the left: Johana Tobias Sergel, Faun, 1774, marble, Finnish National Gallery / Sinebrychoff Art Museum
On the right: inspiration for creative use of FNG’s collections data: manipulated image by the Finnish National Gallery’s
photographic studio

9. Breakthrough: towards a large-scale open access procedure in 2018
- FNG’s initiative for intensifying collaboration with Europeana in 2017 in order to develop the
museum’s collections online: FNG’s Archive and Library Manager Hanna-Leena Paloposki spent two
months in the autumn of 2017 on a unique residency in Europeana’s head quarters in The Hague
- Europeana’s initiative for upgrading the FNG’s collections’ data in Europeana especially in terms of
image quality and Europeana encouraging the FNG to share the images with a free licence
The two-way process resulted in the Finnish National Gallery launching on the 15th
February 2018 sharing about 12000 images of the collections’ art works with a
CC0 license on both the FNG’s own collections website and Europeana. Larger jpg
image files than earlier can be downloaded and used for any purpose from both
sites.

10. Europeana blog by Douglas McCarthy posted on the 15th February 2018 stating the FNG’s policy:
“Opening up our collections data is one way of leading our customers towards even richer museum
experiences, and of course the requirements of national and EU cultural policies very strongly ponted the
way to a tenacious open-data policy.”

11. Europeana’s online exhibition An Ecstasy of Beauty curated together with Europeana and FNG.
The exhibition explores the travels made by Finnish artists from 1882 to 1926 and how their
journeys influenced their art and uses materials shared in the Europeana by several European
organisations.

12. Immediate positive reaction to
the launching of the FNG’s new
open access policy by the organisation’s
followers in social media (facebook and
Twitter).
- Best coverage of the year.
- New open access policy responds to
our audiences’ needs and expectations.

13. Why open access?
• The Finnish National Gallery’s collections
belong to Finnish people and are part of
our common European cultural heritage.
We want to guarantee open access but also
encourage participation in creating new
meanings and discoveries among larger
audiences than before.
• Active and innovative on-line presence
activates potential vistors, increses number
of visits in the museums and increases
interest towards art and culture.
• Facilitating and supporting education and
reserach.
• Enabling the use of collectins’ data in
creative software technologies
• Social impacts: supporting democracy and
positive objectives of open societies.

14. Thank you!
Eero Järnefelt, Lilacs
not dated, watercolour and gouache on paper
Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum