Sustainability at the Adamson-Eric Museum
Cultural heritage, the environment and people are inseparably connected; all of them require equal care and protection. Our mission is to collect, research, preserve and present art in a way that is sustainable, supports social cohesion, and helps raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of the world around us.
For us, environmental responsibility means making small but consistent choices in our everyday work: from exhibition design and energy use to waste sorting, as well as educational and public programmes.
Heritage and the Environment
- We preserve Adamson-Eric’s artistic legacy with great care and professional expertise, ensuring that it can be enjoyed by future generations.
- In our small historic building, there is no unused or redundant space: all rooms and exhibition halls are multifunctional, allowing us to use resources within the building and in our activities as efficiently as possible.
- We organise small-scale exhibitions with minimal environmental footprints, while still offering meaningful experiences and new knowledge.
- We use all resources responsibly, following the guidelines for sustainable event organisation (in Estonian) and sustainable exhibition practices (in Estonian).
- We organise workshops that promote sustainable values and make use of environmentally friendly materials. For example, bird nesting boxes have been built at the museum, and wooden drop spindles have been carved to teach participants how to spin yarn from sheep’s wool.
- We reduce waste in creative and innovative ways. Old paper posters are reused as gift bags or packaging material (for example, for packing students’ works), and textile waste generated at the museum is turned into tote bags and other souvenirs.
- Our inner courtyard offers shade for visitors on hot summer days and provides a pleasant micro-environment for plants, wild strawberries and urban birdlife.
Social Sustainability and Accessibility
- Our programme regularly includes exhibitions with a focus on sustainability and environmental awareness, such as:
Material Change: Design and New Technologies
(Un)Balanced: Exhibition About Noticing and Peace of Mind
The Politics of Slowness
- We act consciously to ensure that both our staff and visitors always feel safe and welcome in the museum.
- We offer museum lessons at all education levels, including CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) classes that support language learning, as well as specially developed educational programmes for visitors with visual impairments and for students with intellectual disabilities.
- We organise public events and workshops for people of different ages, ranging from city camps for children aged 7–10 to slow-paced guided tours for seniors as part of the Art Enjoyers series.
- We strive to make museum activities accessible to people with special needs. In cooperation with the local deaf community, we have organised a workshop in sign language. Together with other branches of the Art Museum of Estonia, we regularly offer programmes for people with dementia and their loved ones as part of the Reunions series.
- Visitors with visual impairments can explore artworks through audio description, tactile relief drawings and touch-adapted figures. Museum spaces are also described and supported with floor plans. All materials for visitors with visual impairments and their companions can be borrowed on site at the museum ticket desk. Audio descriptions for five artworks are also available on our website.
- Unfortunately, due to its location in a historic conservation area, the museum building is currently difficult to access for visitors with reduced mobility, and work is ongoing to improve this situation. Information for visitors with special needs is collected here.
