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Tiina Merisalo

Tiina-Sisko Merisalo (nee Lehto)
Born December 25, Tornio

Master of Arts 1991 (art history), University of Helsinki
EMBA 2015, Aalto University Executive Education (AEE)

Museum director 2003–, Helsinki City Museum
Head of unit, cultural environment unit, Helsinki City Museum
Researcher 1995–98, Helsinki City Museum
Intendant 1991–95, Espoo City Museum
Substitute and acting intendant 1989–91, Research and Documentation Unit, Espoo City Museum
Building researcher 1986, 1987–88, Hanko Museum

Honours:
Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland

Photo: Juho Nurmi
Written by Tiina Merisalo (Tiia Niemelä, ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

My best memories at the University of Helsinki

My memories of my early student days include Professor Lars Pettersson’s legendary lectures on mediaeval churches and castles, in which he traced in the manner of a detective the secrets of the shields in Hattula’s church paintings, or the openings in the towers of Vyborg Castle on the basis of descriptions of a huge explosion known as the Vyborg blast. For a young novice, the professor’s methods, meticulously based on source research, and his sometimes exceptionally creative and hilarious interpretations, demonstrated what science at its best could be – exciting and fun! In Henrik Lilius’s lectures one learnt a strict analysis of classic architecture, and Riita Nikula inspired one to approach 20th century architecture.

Study trips in the 1980s took us to see such things as churches and manors, and on an excursion to Ostrobothnia we enjoyed a picnic on the sands of Kalajoki even though ice was still floating in the Gulf of Bothnia. Of the trips abroad, unforgettable were the trip to New York in 1984, organised by the department and Eidos – the association of art history students – for which we raised funds by running a café in connection with the Ateneum Art Museum’s ARS83 exhibition, and a course on the Baroque Period at the Villa Lante in the chilly spring of 1986. Rome was charming, and the physical idiom of baroque architecture with its concave and convex forms was opened in an entirely new way.

Eidos, the association of art history students, represented an important social pastime during my student days, and I participated as a board member and as secretary. In addition to trips, numerous parties at New Student House were naturally part of the life of the student association. I also fondly remember the unique atmosphere at the Department of Art History, the scent of books, plaster and dust, the hard benches in the lecture theatres and of course the people who became life-long friends through courses, tutoring and student associations.

The diversity of museum work – encounters with city-dwellers on Esplanadi street in 1999, in a Brita Reiher's outfit. Photo: Maria Ylikoski. Helsinki City Museum.

 

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