The School of Arts, Design and Architecture and its predecessors have been educating creative professionals for over 150 years. Over the years, our work has been supported by numerous individuals, communities and companies. We would like to sincerely thank all our donors for supporting the School of Arts, Design and Architecture: you are enabling the education, research and social impact of creative professionals for the future.
Your donations contribute to high quality education to try new things - and to ensure that Finnish art and design will continue to be of world-class.
Every donation is meaningful to us. This is symbolised by the two donor art works designed by our students, Bread for the Coming and Huhta, located in the main lobby of Väre. The name of every supporter, who has donated more than €250 or more, is engraved to a donor recognition wall and published on the Aalto University website with their permission.
The list of donors is updated once or twice per year. Previous and new donations are added together, so if you have previously donated, for example, €50, a new donation of at least €200 will give you the opportunity to be featured in the donor recognition wall. The donor's name will only be displayed once, regardless of the total amount donated.
Dean Tuomas Auvinen, School of Arts, Design and ArchitectureTogether, we can open doors to where creativity, open-minded design, design and art have not yet found their way.”
The major donor art work is inspired by the traditional Finnish way of drying and storing rye bread, hanging them on poles suspended under the ceiling. The glass breads "put bread on the table", symbolising money and resources to educate the creative professionals of the future. One rye bread symbolizes one large donation. The title "Bread for the Coming" reflects the importance of donations to the students of the future.
The piece consists of hand-blown glass pieces, loaves of bread, and two steel rods. The bread comes in three colours: black, green and white. The black bread is blown using an opal metallic glow paint. The green bread is transparent but also shiny. The white bread is sandblasted, which gives the object a matt finish. The work was designed by Liv Telivuo, a master's student at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and was created in the school's workshops.
Materials: Glass, steel
Manufacturing technique: hand-blowing and sandblasting of glass, welding and patination of metal parts
Year of completion: 2023
The small donor art work consists of 870 handmade glass objects hanging in a metal frame, cast in clear glass. The work hangs in the ceiling recess above the staircase in the main lobby of the Väre. Together, the glass pieces form a vibrant and gently swaying ensemble. The work was designed by Sesilia Pirttimaa, a master's student at the School of Arts, Design and architecture, and was created in the school's workshops.
'Huhta is a coniferous forest with a mound of conifers, which at best produces two fertile crops on fertile soil. This school is the fertile soil where people, students, learn, grow and mature like rye for life. The work is at its best on clear days, when it shines most beautifully and brings dignity to the donors', Pirttimaa describes.
Materials: glass, steel
Manufacturing technique: kiln casting on handmade plaster-quartz products
Year of completion: 2023
Bread for the Coming
Glassblowers: Slate Grove, Zachary Compton
Manufacture of metal parts: Maria Mastola, Teemu Mäntylä
Lead teacher, project coordinator: Kirsti Taviola
Design of the packaging of a thank-you gift: Markus Joutsela
Huhta
Glass workshop master: Slate Grove
Lead teacher, project coordinator: Kirsti Taiviola
Project Production Assistant: Ruut Launo
The donation is part of the long-term collaboration between Fiskars Group and Aalto University. The collaboration includes courses on, for example, sustainable design and materials of the future.
The foundation supports scientific research with a focus on the impact of mental wellbeing on physical health. This is a central perspective, for example, in the education and research of health and wellbeing architecture at Aalto.
With this donation, the foundation wants to support research in the arts and artistic research in particular. The aim is to safeguard the diversity of disciplines and freedom of research in fields of education that have suffered from funding cuts and educational policy prioritisation.
The substantial donation is part of the government matching funding campaign that will run until the end of June 2022.
The professorship will focus on the study of individual creativity.