Exhibitions

Learning in a fun environment: the permanent and temporary exhibitions of the Maritime Museum of Finland and the Kymenlaakso Museum offer something for everyone!

Current exhibitions

Studio LeistiPhotography of Tapio Leisti 3.10.2023–17.3.2024

Studio Leisti
Photography of Tapio Leisti 3.10.2023–17.3.2024

Photographer Tapio Leisti (1912–1993) was based in Kotka and mainly photographed black-and-white portraits, compositions, and milieu images from the 1940s to the 1980s. His photographs are a combination of professional skill, playfulness, and nostalgic daily life. The...

Shifting to Wood18.5.2022-11.1.2026

Shifting to Wood
18.5.2022-11.1.2026

A tribute to the Kymenlaakso forest industry It all started with a tree, a river and a vision. These were the makings of excellent export products and the entire local identity. Shadows of smokestacks, livelihood for generations and branching out towards a renewable...

Fateful Svensksund9.6.2020-17.1.2027

Fateful Svensksund
9.6.2020-17.1.2027

Experience the Maritime Centre Vellamo’s most impressive and influential exhibition yet! The Fateful Svensksund exhibition is a never-before-seen dive into the Svensksund naval battles, the largest ever in the Baltic Sea, fought just off the coast of Kotka. The...

Play TownPlay Town for children. Enjoy!

Play Town
Play Town for children. Enjoy!

In Play Town, you can throw yourself into the world of playing houses, market stalls or even hop on a tractor. And if you want to get out on the water, get into a boat. It's also worth trying your luck at fishing! Or perhaps you would like to immerse yourself in the...

Boat HallAn impressive collection of boats from different decades

Boat Hall
An impressive collection of boats from different decades

Beautiful boats and coast guard equipment Boat Hall exhibits an impressive collection of boats from different decades. They have been used for racing and leisure cruising, military and coast guard operations, fishing and rescuing. The centre stage in Boat Hall is...

Mosaic

Mosaic

Glimpses into the history of Kotka and Kymenlaakso Mosaic provides different and even surprising glimpses into the history of Kotka and Kymenlaakso. The aim is to highlight themes, items and pictures from our collections that have not previously been on display in...

North Star, Southern Cross

North Star, Southern Cross

The sea conveys. At the Maritime Museum of Finland you can travel on the surface and in the depths. The sea is a medium for people, goods and ideas.  At the Maritime Museum of Finland you can travel on the sea through time and place, on ships, at ports, in distant...

Upcoming exhibitions

Never Never TownThe coolest place by far 15.10.2024-6.1.2030

Never Never Town
The coolest place by far 15.10.2024-6.1.2030

At the Kymenlaakso Museum’s Never Never Town exhibition, Kotka cityscape and local identity come to life through shared play and activities, exciting the imagination and creativity of the whole family. The central themes include cultural environments, cityscapes and...

Oceanista – Fashion and the Sea19.4.2024-29.9.2024

Oceanista – Fashion and the Sea
19.4.2024-29.9.2024

Oceanista reveals how the style and culture of sailors has been borrowed in high fashion over the decades. The exhibition showcases ocean-inspired fashion designed by internationally renowned fashion houses and Finnish designers. The designers include Chanel, Thom...

Past exhibitions

Escape from Pompeii31.3.-1.10.2023

Escape from Pompeii
31.3.-1.10.2023

The city that flourished and died. An exhibition of the life and abrupt destruction of this historical city. Escape from Pompeii brings an internationally successful exhibition to Kotka. The exhibition tells of the destruction of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum...

I do! Stories of Love.7.6.2019–27.8.2023

I do! Stories of Love.
7.6.2019–27.8.2023

What would life be without love or the daily life without a little celebration? Love and celebration meet at the I do! Stories of Love exhibition, where visitors get to admire Kymenlaakso region’s wedding gowns and love stories from the past 100 years. The feel-good...

Natures1.10.2021-9.1.2022

Natures
1.10.2021-9.1.2022

A group exhibition by six artists, Natures is built around the theme of landscape. In their exhibition works, each member of the group presents their own view on the theme. Nature grows and shapes itself over time, disintegrates, runs wild and assembles itself into...

90 years of coast guard operations28.9.2021-2.1.2022

90 years of coast guard operations
28.9.2021-2.1.2022

Celebrating 91 years of coast guard operations in Finland! The 90th anniversary of coast guard operations in 2020 was celebrated more modestly than planned due to COVID-19, but in honour of the anniversary the Finnish Border Guard, Coast Guard Museum and Forum Marinum...

Svensksund PavilionSummer destination on Varissaari Island.

Svensksund Pavilion
Summer destination on Varissaari Island.

The Svensksund Pavilion sheds light on the battles of Svensksund in 1789 and 1790 and the wrecks that lie at the bottom of the sea around the island. In addition to the wrecks, the focus is on people’s stories. The pavilion is open 18 May-31 May 2023 Thu-Sun from noon...

From the Soil11.9.-29.11.2020

From the Soil
11.9.-29.11.2020

When you look at the curves of your body, what do you see? A fell and northern lights, pores and bone shapes? ANTOcollective’s From the Soil exhibition examines the human body, seeking landscape-like qualities and abstract shapes. The pictures, videos and soundscape...

Washed Ashore. Photographs by Johanna Sandin.1.9.-1.11.2020

Washed Ashore. Photographs by Johanna Sandin.
1.9.-1.11.2020

As I have walked along the beaches of my hometown Hanko with my camera in hand, I have become increasingly aware of the plastic and other debris lying around. More and more often I have had to remove disturbing colorful plastic objects from an otherwise scenic...

Starry Night – paintings by Maaria Märkälä5.6.-30.8.2020

Starry Night – paintings by Maaria Märkälä
5.6.-30.8.2020

Maaria Märkälä (born 1964) is a landscape painter whose paintings are inspired by her own everyday life and trips abroad. For Märkälä, the entire painting process is a form of slow travel. Märkälä’s characteristic pink and green rhododendrons have recently started to...

Living Images, Yeastograms6.9.–1.12.2019

Living Images, Yeastograms
6.9.–1.12.2019

The Living Images Research Center opens to the Kymenlaakso Museum, Maritime Centre Vellamo on the 6th of September 2019. The exhibition includes the latest research results on yeastograms and older prints of yeast photographs. There will be real living images, the...

Harbor27.4.2018 – 12.8.2018

Harbor
27.4.2018 – 12.8.2018

Satu Loukkola, Tiina Salmi, Jouni Salonen and Annukka Visapää Sculptures, graphics and photographs Harbour. It can represent safety, a destination, mobility and variety. People arrive in the harbour and depart from it. Sometimes it is calm, other times windy. It is...

Sea Monsters12.4.2019–16.1.2022

Sea Monsters
12.4.2019–16.1.2022

When the earth was flat and the seas teemed with monsters... The monsters of old naval charts have been brought to life and made concrete: Come in, explore and play! The Sea Monsters exhibition will take you to the dangerous waters of the Carta marina map from 1539....

Great Coastal Road 4.12.2015-30.9.2018

Great Coastal Road 
4.12.2015-30.9.2018

From riding trail to Coastal Road, from Coastal Road to motorway. Road, road-builders and travellers. Straight and flat. That is what the E18 motorway is like, taking drivers speedily across southern Finland. People have been making their way on this road since the...

Body Sensing 8.2.–28.4.2019

Body Sensing
8.2.–28.4.2019

This exhibition produced by the Pori Centre for Children’s Culture and the Pori Art Museum and organised by curator Päivi Setälä reflects the meaning of bodily knowledge and the senses. This exhibition makes noises, smells and feels. The...

Sex and the Sea15.6.2018 – 20.1.2019

Sex and the Sea
15.6.2018 – 20.1.2019

A pin-up girl’s picture on a cabin wall speaks of longing during an excruciatingly slow ocean voyage. This exhibition, put together by international top-level artists Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway, studies the loneliness, lust and eroticism amongst sailors Since...

Lost Lighthouses18.5.2018 – 20.1.2019

Lost Lighthouses
18.5.2018 – 20.1.2019

Lighthouses and lighted beacons are a part of our architectural and cultural history, maritime history and sea safety. They are home islands, fixed points, memories and, in many cases, also battle grounds and innocent victims of the war years. Some lighthouses have...

Glass for Everyone – Karhula 1889–200919.5.2017–31.1.2022

Glass for Everyone – Karhula 1889–2009
19.5.2017–31.1.2022

The Karhula glassworks (1889–2009) was one of Finland’s most important glassworks. In the 1930s, Karhula played a key role as Finnish glass design discovered its own language of expression and made its international breakthrough. Although art glass was important,...

Flow

Flow

I and we. The Museum of Kymenlaakso examines the human need to be part of a group but also true to oneself. “Who wouldn’t want to leave their own permanent mark on the world? As long ago as the Stone Age, people left painted handprints on cliffs and thus lived on for...