Adopt a Monument scheme will expand
The Adopt a Monument scheme will expand to Helsinki in the Uusimaa region where these activities are maintained by the Helsinki City Museum’s cultural environment team. This work is excellently suited to Helsinki, as the City Museum’s focuses of work include activities carried together with local residents and the development of volunteer activities.
The residents of Helsinki will be given the opportunity to adopt a historic or prehistoric site requiring upkeep and to participate in this way in the care of the local cultural environment. The adoptive party can, for example, be an association or a school.
The work was studied via the example of the Pirkanmaa Provincial Museum, with which there is close cooperation within the scheme. Sites for adoption in Helsinki include a number of First World War fortifications. They are accessible in the city’s forest and outdoor recreation areas near housing and many of the sites require some cleaning and clearing to make the structures visible. There are sites, for example, in the Kannelmäki and Haaga districts of Helsinki. Further information on the sites will be posted on the Adoptoi monumentti (Adopt a Monument) webpages in early 2018.
We also intend to investigate possibilities for adopting buildings. In Helsinki, for example small buildings that are no longer used but are of architectural or landscape-related importance would be suitable for this purpose.
The long-term care and maintenance of archaeological sites or buildings, or even a one-day volunteer cleaning session, provide enriching experiences for all parties involved and these activities may reinforce local identity. The activities also aim at making the sites more widely known and arousing the residents of Helsinki to notice the chronological layers of their own immediate surroundings.
More information:
Relics
Heini Hämäläinen, 040 334 5521, heini.hamalainen@hel.fi
Buildings
Anne Salminen, 040 334 7012, anne.salminen@hel.fi
