Jyväskylä - The city of smart everyday movers

The city of Jyväskylä encourages sustainable mobility. We wish for an increasing number of Jyväskylä residents to make their journeys smartly in the future - on foot, by bike, by bus or even by shared car. Sustainable mobility is profitable for everyone. Smart mobility choices can be seen in the wellbeing, wallet and environment.

Jyväskylä is committed to resource wisdom

"We are implementing an integrated community structure and encouraging sustainable mobility." - The strategy of the city of Jyväskylä

 Examples of promoting sustainable mobility in Jyväskylä:

• Innovative program for the promotion of cycling 2015
• Cycling Municipality of the Year 1998 and 2016
• On foot in the centre: developing the pedestrian centre and  the Green Loop
• Green Linkki buses: aim to double the number of journeys
• Public transport campaigns and free days
  • For example, the Santa Hat Day every December, when one can travel on Linkki buses free of charge while wearing a Santa hat.
• Bus leap to school! The annual tour introduces first-graders to use the Linkki buses
• Campaigning and new mobility services with cooperation partners 
• Finland's largest cycling week 
• Electric bikes can be borrowed free of charge from the cargo bike rental shop 
• Low emission biogas as a fuel 
  • In Jyväskylä, Mustankorkea Oy produces biogas from waste for transport use. The City of Jyväskylä has about 50 gas passenger cars in the use of city employees and four Linkki buses using biogas in the local traffic (2021)
• The jury of the sustainable mobility involves residents in the development
• Mobility guidance in cooperation with the employers in the area

For several years now, the city has been cooperating with employers interested in promoting smart commuting. The aim is to increase the use of public transport, walking and cycling in commuting. Support and advice is available to employers in the design and implementation of smart mobility promotion measures. For example, the employer can encourage the use of public transport by offering employees a commuter benefit.

Tips for sustainable mobility in Jyväskylä

• Car sharing 
• Cycling map
• Local traffic Trip Planner
• Public transport in the Jyväskylä region
• Biogas filling stations (in Finnish)
• Electric car charging points
• Cargo bike rental shop (JAPA ry) (in Finnish)

Linkki, bike or sneakers? What is your smart choice today? Smartly on the move in Jyväskylä video (in Finnish)

Architecture and design, cultural history from Central Finland, fascinating art exhibitions and various craft phenomena - welcome to Jyväskylä's museums and galleries!

Aalto2 is the new dimension of the Museum of Central Finland and the Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä, Finland. The Alvar Aalto Museum is responsible for Alvar Aalto’s architecture and design legacy and the The Museum of Central Finland, more familiarly known as KeMu, cherishes the cultural heritage of Central Finland. Together both museums reach further and closer in exploring their shared love — milieus of life.
 
Jyväskylä Art museum exhibits fascinating phenomena of contemporary art, Central Finnish fine art, Finnish and international graphic art and drawings. The museum also focuses on accessibility and public participation in the visual arts.
 
The Craft Museum of Finland is a specialized museum for handicraft covering entire Finland. It tells the story of Finnish craftsmanship as part of the fabric of history. Behind the unobtrusive façade in the heart of Jyväskylä, there are experiences for all the senses and all ages.
 
There are also interesting exhibitions at the University Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Finnish Air Force Museum.
 
Check out the exhibitions and events and come visit us!

Welcome to the Museum of Central Finland!

The Museum of Central Finland welcomes you on an unforgettable journey into Central Finland.

The permanent exhibition Exploring Central Finland takes the visitor from ancient Stone Age sites all the way to the technology craze of the early 21st century. The museum’s temporary exhibitions also present interesting perspectives on cultural heritage. The activity corner Nappula offers experiences for people of all ages during the museum visit.  In addition to exhibitions, the Museum of Central Finland organises various events, workshops, and guided tours.

The Museum of Central Finland operates as part of Aalto2 Museum Centre. It is located in the Ruusupuisto neighbourhood in a magnificent museum building designed by Alvar Aalto where you can hang out, check out the exhibitions or visit for no particular reason. Don’t forget to also pop into our charming small museums. 

Kulttuuriaitta - Children´s culture network

Kulttuuriaitta is a children’s culture network operating in Jyväskylä, Muurame, Hankasalmi, Toivakka, Uurainen, Laukaa, Petäjävesi, Keuruu, Multia and Äänekoski in Central Finland. It is one of the original founder members of the Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centers. Kulttuuriaitta provides arts and cultural opportunities for children and professionals working with them, offering multi-disciplinary, participatory and inspiring workshops, cultural outings, events. It also runs training sessions, seminars and networking events for people working within the sector.  The network also awards the bi-annual children’s culture prize that celebrates fresh and innovative contributions made to children’s culture by local practitioners. 

Kulttuuriaitta’s work is based on ambitious cultural education curricula, and it offers training opportunities for education professionals. Our facilitator database offers a wealth of useful contacts too.

Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centers

Kulttuuriaitta is a member of the Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centers. The Association’s purpose is to support the work of professional children’s cultural centres, raise the profile of art and culture aimed at children and promote skills development within the sector. Every year, the association convenes a National Forum on Children’s Culture, providing excellent opportunities for networking.

Kulttuuriaitta in Jyväskylä

Kulttuurineuvola

Kulttuurineuvola first kicked off in Jyväskylä in 2019 and it is run in maternity and child health clinics in collaboration with culture services, social and health care providers. The aim is to provide staff working at maternity and child health clinics with the advice and information they need to disseminate information about cultural events happening in the local area to young families. All clinics now have named cultural coordinators in place, and training will be offered by local arts and culture organisations, including private and public bodies.

Arts and culture training for expectant first-time parents and families with babies

Kulttuurineuvola’s family training sessions offer sneak-peeks and tasters on upcoming cultural events for families with babies along with useful hints on how you can explore your own creativity at home through songs, rhymes and play. These sessions will be run at a number of different venues, including libraries and art museums. You can sign up via your local mother and child health clinic website.

Early childhood education programme   

As a part of the early chilhood education programme, each day care centre in the city of Jyväskylä, both municipal and private day care centres, will be provided with a cultural experience every year. Day care centres are invited to choose their own performer / show, that will visit the day care centre over the course of the year. The shows and performances cover a variety of arts, for example music, theatre, puppet theatre and circus. 

Each year, the early childhood workshop programme turns its attention to one particular area of Jyväskylä, visiting day care centres in that part of the city. All groups within each day care centre are invited to choose their own workshop topic, and an artist will be on hand to facilitate it with the children over the course of a year. The workshop topics include for example music, visual and word art as well as circus.

Kompassi - cultural education plan

Kompassi, the City of Jyväskylä’s cultural education curriculum, invites children to explore art and culture. It incorporates annual cultural excursions as well as workshops and performances involving a variety of genres. In the course of the year, all children from pre-school age onwards will be involved in Kompassi activities. These include arts workshops for pre-school and school children, cultural visits to museums and galleries, workshops for students with additional needs as well as touring arts workshops, which will tour a different school district each year. The workshops cover a variety of topics including visual arts, drama, music, media art and circus.

National Taidetestaajat (Art Testers Campaign) delivers cultural delights to all Year 8 students

Kulttuuriaitta also acts as a coordinator for a number of other projects and initiatives, including the nationwide Art Testers programme.

Art Testers is the largest culture education program in Finland, offering all 8th graders and their teachers 1–2 annual visits in esteemed cultural institutions. Our program reaches over 65,000 people annually in all Finnish municipalities. The attractions and the number of visits vary according to the funding of our program. The core goal of our program is to offer young people experiences in art and to find them tools to form well-versed opinions on their experience. What did they think? Would they revisit?

The Art Testers program is produced by the Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centres. The program was initiated in the school years 2017–2020 by our main financer, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, followed by The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland. In fall 2020, the Ministry of Education and Culture joined in by the decision of the Parliament.

Key persons, contact information

Coordinator Marjo Tiainen-Niemistö
p. 040 736 4328
marjo.tiainen-niemisto[at]jyvaskyla.fi

Culture designer Maria Poikonen
p. 050 306 3967
maria.poikonen[at]jyvaskyla.fi

Regional coordinatior / Art Testers Campaign Hanna Brotkin
p. 050 325 2904 
hanna.brotkin[at]jyvaskyla.fi / hanna.brotkin[at]taidetestaajat.fi

Jyväskylä City Theatre

Jyväskylä City Theatre, founded in 1961, produces versatile, high-quality theatre experiences. The theatre moved to its current location in 1982 when the construction of the theatre building was completed. The theatre house, designed by Alvar Aalto, is situated in the centre of Jyväskylä, right next to the beautiful Church Park.

The theatre has two stages: the main stage (551 seats) and the small stage (approx. 100 seats). Annually, Jyväskylä City Theatre premieres six to eight new productions, and each year the approximately 250 produced performances are seen by some 60,000 people.

In its decades of existence, the theatre house has seen thousands of performances varying from classic musicals and contemporary plays to concerts and operas. Each year, different types of events, seminars and festive occasions of different sizes are held at the theatre as well.

The theatre’s own program is enriched with multiple, diverse visiting productions. In addition, Jyväskylä Sinfonia orchestra organises most of their concerts on the theatre’s main stage.

Jyväskylä City Theatre is currently managed by Director Marietta Kunnas.

@lastenlysti

Kangas

Kangas is the main urban development project of the City of Jyväskylä for the next several decades. Located right next to the City Center we can talk about City Extension when referring to Kangas.
 

A living fabric of business and people

Kangas will be the Smart City area and a living ecosystem of innovative companies and educational institutes. In the future Kangas will be a home to 5 000 inhabitants and 2 100 new jobs. The total investment of Kangas will be approximately 1 billion euros. In 2023 there are already 1300 residents living and 1200 employees working at Kangas. 

Kangas area has been a place for new ideas, businesses and innovations for a long time. Already in the middle of 1800’s it was filled with water mills and later there were all kinds of businesses wanting to get their share of the river Tourujoki. Kangas paper mill was opened in 1874. The last paper mill owned by Sappi was closed in 2010 and the area of 27 hectares became the property of the City of Jyväskylä. The new era of Kangas was started.

Smart Ecosystem and Pioneering Spirit

Kangas will be built into a cyber secure area and its ICT infrastructure is based on future projections. The area is partly energy self-sufficient, the fibre networks are reliably maintained. The smart infrastucture benefits homes, businesses, supported living, energy companies and public services. For companies Kangas offers plenty of new opportunities to develop and grow as part of innovative business ecosystem. Two modern office buildings (Kankaan Arkki and Optimes Business Garden) guarantee optimal conditions for work. Valkoinen talo, a former office building, and parts of old paper mill building also provide premises for businesses.
 
Kangas is be a sandbox for new ideas and technologies, a Living Lab where everyday life can be quantified. Sensor data from the urban environment will be an information gold mine for service developers and researchers. Few projects have already been conducted with the University of Jyväskylä and selected high-tech companies.
 

Easy living in Sustainable Community

Wise use of resources is one of the main themes in Kangas. Kangas is for example one of the first two areas in Finland that are trying out the One Planet Living approach. Kangas is also designed with a car-free lifestyle in mind.

There is a dedicated service company to support the Kangas area. Services like parking, common areas and waste disposal are produced centrally to make life at Kangas flow easily both for people and businesses. Parking is available in parking carages with modern solutions. Yards are dedicated for people and life. Light traffic lanes are planned carefully to support biking, walking and car-free way of life in general.

1% of building cost are allocated to culture in other words to art and events. There are several works of art in Kangas Area and tens of events organized during a year.

Kangas is located about 600 meters from the City Center and easily reachable from all over the city. The Travel Center of Jyväskylä is located less than 1 km from Kangas and is reached in 20 minutes by foot and 5 minutes by car.

Find more about the City of Jyväskylä and doing business in Jyväskylä.
 

Ratamo Printmaking and Photography Centre includes Galleria Ratamo and printmaking and photography studios. It is aimed at those interested in creating, experimenting and learning printmaking and photographic techniques.

Read more about Galleria Ratamo's exhibitions here.

The Ratamo centre is designed for both professionals and amateurs. The space is used for classes and workshops which are organized by both Ratamo and other organizations such as the Adult Education Centre (Kansalaisopisto). Professional artists and experienced amateurs are able to rent studio space for their personal creative production. The centre also maintains an active international artist residency programme.

The Ratamo centre is run by the Jyväskylä Art Museum and the Centre for Creative Photography.