Guggenheim decision to be postponed

Helsinki Mayor wants views of key municipal boards before City Council vote

Jussi Pajunen

print this

Political decisions on the proposed Guggenheim art museum planned for the Katajanokka area of Helsinki are to be postponed by nearly a month.
      Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen has decided to ask key municipal boards to give statements on his proposal before bringing it to a vote in the City Board and City Council.
      The boards have about a month to acquaint themselves with the project before it comes before the City Board on February 27th. The matter was initially to have been discussed on Monday.
     
“I want the proposal that comes before the City Board to be well prepared, and that it should include the deep understanding that the presenting official has”, Pajunen says. The presenting official of the Guggenheim project is Pajunen himself.
      Pajunen says that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has said that it understands the situation.
     
The chairman of the Social Democratic group on the City Council, Jorma Bergholm, is pleased that “the relentless haste will at least be eased”. However, he points out that the it is City Board as a whole, and not just Mayor Pajunen, that will decide what additional studies are needed.
      He said that there might be calls for an unbiased outside assessment of issues such as the economic impact of the project and its implications for arts policy. Just one month would not be enough for that to happen.
     
Bergholm says that the Social Democrats in the City Council are shocked that key material for decision-making has not yet been presented to the councillors.
      “We have not been given the letter of intent between Helsinki and the Guggenheim Foundation. In addition, the report is still only in English. Even those who understand English well say that the language in the report cannot be understood by a layman.”
      Ville Ylikahari, the chairman of the green group on the City Council agrees that it is better to make big decisions when there are more points of view available.
     
The board of the Helsinki City Art Museum is likely to emphasise in its statement on the matter that the parts of the museum that will remain outside Guggenheim should become a separate administrative unit, says the board’s chairman Veikko Halmetoja (Green).
      Halmetoja is pleased that the decision is to be made “according to the traditions of good Finnish democratic decision-making”.
      Minister of Culture Paavo Arhinmäki (Left Alliance) said on Thursday that a brief drafted at the Ministry of Education and Culture concluded that the value of the Guggenheim brand remains uncertain.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Launch of Guggenheim project would cost nearly 5 million (18.1.2012)
  Opponents of Guggenheim gather forces (17.1.2012)
  Prime Minister sees Guggenheim museum as an investment for 100 years (13.1.2012)
  Report says Guggenheim museum could bring millions in tax revenues (12.1.2012)
  Working group favours construction of Guggenheim museum in Helsinki (11.1.2012)

Helsingin Sanomat