Tikanoja Art Museum

The Tikanoja Art Museum is an art museum located in the centre of Vaasa, where Frithjof Tikanoja and his wife Ruusa (née Myntti) lived with their children. The building has functioned as an art house since 1951.

The art house hosts exhibitions of domestic and foreign old art, cultural-historical themed exhibitions, and exhibitions from its own collections.

The Tikanoja Art Museum is located in a house that is one of the first residential buildings built after the Vaasa fire. Church builder Erkki Kuorikoski designed the house as a residence for his family and it was completed in the early 1860s. After the Kuorikoski family the house has been home to numerous occupants. The house’s exterior has changed through several repairs and alterations carried out before, during and after the Tikanojas’ time.

Commercial counsellor Frithjof Tikanoja moved into the house in 1918 with his wife Ruusa (née Myntti). The family grew to six children during the 1920s. The Tikanoja home displayed striking paintings by Ruusa’s brother, the artist Eemu Myntti, and works by foreign modernists. Works of art were also exhibited at the Meriniemi villa, where Tikanoja maintained a large garden and entertained guests. Ruusa Tikanoja died in 1930 shortly after the birth of the family’s youngest child. Frithjof Tikanoja lived with his children in the house on Koulukatu until the 1940s.  

Frithjof Tikanoja personally experienced the inspiring effect of art and wanted to offer the same opportunity to others. He donated his book and art collections to the City of Vaasa on 22.12.1951. The new art museum opened to the public on 26.12.1951. 

Frithjof Tikanoja (1877–1964) was born into a peasant family from Kälviä. More than agriculture, Tikanoja was interested in commerce and belles-lettres. After work as a shop assistant and commercial agent he founded in 1905, together with Josef Lassila, the Lassila & Tikanoja wholesale firm in Vaasa. The company grew and expanded into the textile and shoe industries in the 1920s. Tikanoja became a commercial counsellor in 1922.

Frithjof Tikanoja began buying art around the time of the First World War, when he acquired the Meriniemi villa. His marriage to Ruusa Myntti brought a wide network of artists into Tikanoja’s circle. Ruusa’s brother was the painter Eemu Myntti and Ruusa’s sister Lyyli participated in textile exhibitions with her works. Lyyli Myntti married architect and visual artist Matti Björklund (Visanti). Visanti focused on graphic art in his visual output, and pastel painting became a central means of expression for Lyyli Visanti. The artist friends of the Myntti and Visanti families also came to belong to Tikanoja’s circle of acquaintances.

Frithjof Tikanoja was a cultural personality who loved literature and music and sang in a choir. He generously supported especially Finnish-language cultural and educational initiatives. Tikanoja was involved in founding the Vaasa Art Association in 1917 and he donated a number of purchased works to the Art Association’s collection.

Two key figures for the art collections, Karl Hedman and Frithjof Tikanoja, were active in Vaasa at the same time to some extent. Both promoted the city’s visual arts scene by participating in the activities of the Vaasa Art Association founded in 1917.