Kumu Art Museum
Main building of the Art Museum of Estonia, cut into a Kadriorg limestone cliff.
Kumu is the main building of the Art Museum of Estonia and the largest exhibition house in the country. It stands at the edge of Kadriorg Park, where a limestone escarpment drops towards the city, and the building is partly cut into that cliff. The design came from the Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori, who won an international competition in 1994; construction began in 2003 and the museum opened in February 2006. Copper, limestone and glass make up the exterior, and a curved wing wraps around a semicircular courtyard.
Inside, permanent displays trace Estonian art from the eighteenth century to the present, arranged across several floors. They cover the Baltic German and national-awakening periods, classical Estonian modernism, the art of the Soviet decades with its official and unofficial strands, and the 1990s. The top floor holds a contemporary art gallery used for changing international and Estonian exhibitions. The museum also houses an auditorium, an education centre, a library and conservation workshops, and hosts concerts, film screenings and lectures alongside its exhibition programme.
Highlights
- Copper-clad wing built into a limestone cliff at the edge of Kadriorg Park
- Permanent survey of Estonian art from the 1700s to the present day
- Fifth-floor contemporary art gallery for changing exhibitions
- Auditorium used for concerts, talks and film programmes
