Guggenheim Considers a Museum in Helsinki

On the outskirts of Abu Dhabi workers recently dug the foundation for an $800 million Frank Gehry-designed outpost of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that is 12 times the size of its New York flagship. When it opens in 2013 the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, will be the fifth museum to join the galaxy of Guggenheims around the world.

And it may not be the last. On Tuesday the city of Helsinki is announcing that it has commissioned the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to undertake a feasibility study to examine the possibility of building a new Guggenheim Museum in Finland. Helsinki, with help from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, is paying the Guggenheim Foundation $2.5 million for its part in the project.

"This is the right time to take a large step forward," Jussi Pajunen, the mayor of Helsinki, the nation's capital, said in a telephone interview. "The entire Baltic region, including the city of Helsinki, is changing very fast with new developments — housing, offices — being built especially around the waterfront. A new art museum could be a significant regeneration for us."

When Helsinki's cargo port relocated in 2008, about 620 acres of waterfront areas in and near the city opened for residential and commercial projects, according to officials.

The mayor said he began talks with Guggenheim officials more than a year ago, inspired in large part by the success of the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, which, ever since it opened in 1997, has brought attention and revenue to the economically challenged Basque region. The celebrated titanium-clad building, designed by Mr. Gehry and financed by the regional government, has attracted nearly a million visitors a year.

Studies show that in its first five years the museum generated more than $1 billion for the Basque region — more than 10 times the cost of the museum's construction — and over $190 million in local tax revenue. (The income generated from the museum last year was nearly $300 million.) "We talked with people at the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Basque region, and what we heard was very exciting," Mayor Pajunen said.

The Guggenheim Bilbao has become something of a model for other economically struggling cities that have courted the Guggenheim Foundation about the possibility of building more museums. And although feasibility studies have been conducted in several cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Taichung, Taiwan, nothing ever materialized. Nor did hopes for placing a museum in Hong Kong.

Only the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is moving ahead as planned, according to officials at the Guggenheim. "This is an unusual opportunity because we are starting with a completely clean slate, no prescriptions, no promises," said Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim Foundation. "In the past we were handed a box and told to fill it. This gives us an unusual opportunity to reimagine a museum for the next century."

William Mack, the chairman of the foundation's board, said that whether a museum is built or not, the Helsinki study is "something we do to promote cultural worldwide," adding, "We have to continue to explore new ideas, and in this case we're starting with a blank piece of paper in a pivotal part of the world that is more and more in the mainstream."

The Guggenheim Foundation currently owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. It provides programming and management for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is being financed by the government of Abu Dhabi, but it too will be primarily managed by the Guggenheim. And the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin is the result of a collaboration begun in 1997 between the Guggenheim Foundation and Deutsche Bank.

The Helsinki study is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Mr. Pajunen said. Among the issues it will explore are the possible mission for a multidisciplinary art museum, the form that its exhibition and education programs might take and the potential economic impact it would have on the city.

If a decision is made to move forward, more concrete decisions will then be made, like choosing an architect and a site. According to the agreement, before that can happen approval must be granted by the City Council of Helsinki and the board of the Guggenheim Foundation. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao must also approve any agreement under which the Guggenheim would manage or operate a new museum.

The team undertaking the study includes Juan Ignacio Vidarte, the deputy director and chief officer of global strategies for the Guggenheim Foundation, and Ari Wiseman, the deputy director of the Guggenheim Foundation. (Mr. Vidarte is also director general of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.) From Helsinki, the mayor, his deputy, Tuula Haatainen, and representatives from the foundations that are helping to finance the study will be joined by Janne Gallen-Kallela-Siren, the director of the Helsinki Art Museum.

Mr. Siren has been the driving force behind the initiative. He believes the city has room for a new institution that showcases modern and contemporary art, even though it boasts some 70 art galleries and a group of museums that also includes the Finnish National Gallery and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art.

The city's art scene is in a moment of considerable transition. "In 1917, with the declaration of Finnish independence, it was not easy to come up with artists people knew," Mr. Siren said in a phone interview. "Architects yes, but not artists. However, in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century there has been a real renaissance. New winds are in the air, and artists in many ways are the drivers of change. They deserve the right infrastructure."

Mr. Siren said that unlike most feasibility studies, the question of the architecture would not be part of initial talks.

"This is an entirely different kind of approach," he said. "We are trying to create the concept of a museum for the 21st century first, then the architecture will become a part of it. If the architecture is first, the rest becomes subservient."

Mr. Siren called the study "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," adding, "We are giving ourselves permission to dream."