Record year for Kuopio city museums – use of library services also increasing

Year 2023 was a record year for city museums in Kuopio. Kuopio Museum, Art Museum and Old Kuopio Museum attracted more than 129 000 visitors. Both Art Museum and Kuopio Museum broke their visiting records. The busiest single day in city museums was traditionally the Night of Arts on 25 August, when more than 7 100 visitors enjoyed the museums’ exhibitions.

In total, there were more than 211 000 visits to the exhibitions, events, workshops, museum shops and museum cafés organised by Kuopio’s museums.
Kuopio Art Museum’s diverse range of exhibitions and services attracted a record number of over 31 000 visitors to the museum. Bringing street art indoors in an unprejudiced new way, exhibition Kannun henki attracted new groups of visitors, making it the most popular temporary exhibition ever in Art Museum of Kuopio. Opening of an art lending service in spring also increased attraction of museum`s services.

Kuopio Museum’s exhibitions were visited more than 81 000 times. A total of 96 public events of various types and sizes were organised, 370 guided tours and 41 workshops.
Old Kuopio Museum was also popular with the public, with a 10% increase to 16 626 visits. During Midsummer, the Museum launched a new event, which included guided tours, workshops and games. July, the summer holiday season, and December, with Christmas exhibition were traditionally busy months.

Libraries were used more than before Coronavirus times

A total of 1 235 513 visits were recorded, 77 730 more than in 2022, 1 295 957 online visits (+91 055) and 2 129 103 loans (+57 667). These figures are a positive sign that library services and facilities are still important to customers.