Helinä Rautavaara Museum

The Helinä Rautavaara Museum presents ethnographic artefacts and information about cultures from around the world. The Museum’s exhibitions, collections and audience work showcase a variety of views of Finland as well as that of other cultures. The ritual, everyday and art objects collected by Helinä Rautavaara in Africa, Asia and Latin America comprise the core of the Museum’s collection. Photographs and audiovisual material from Rautavaara’s travels are also part of the collection, as are her notes and diaries. The Museum houses Finland’s largest collection of objects from West Africa. Ms. Helinä Rautavaara (MA) made a career of documenting foreign cultures and religions. After graduating from the university, she travelled outside Europe as a reporter during the 1950s. She wrote colourful articles for magazines and television programmes, and made many radio programmes, in several languages, based on her later travels.