Wikiprojekti:Public artworks and memorials in Finland into Wikipedia

This is a project page for Public artworks and memorials in Finland into Wikipedia. The project was initiated in June 2016. The task of the project is to list all public artworks in Finland into Finnish (suomi) language Wikipedia. Link to the project page (Finnish).

[ In Finnish ]

Clockwise from upper left corner: Ville Vallgren,Topelius and children (detail, 1932) – Carl Ludvig Engel & Magnus von Wright: The stone of the Empress (detail, 1909) – Into Saxelin: Statues on Maalaisten talo facade (detail, 1921) – Walter Runeberg: Alexander II (detail, 1894) – Emil Wikström: Bear (in front of National Museum of Finland (1910) – Emil Wikström: Elias Lönnrot (detail, 1902 – Karl Magnus Mellgren: Facade reliefs on National Library of Finland (library 1840) – Robert Stigell: The Shipwrecked (detail, 1898)

Public art that is accepted into the lists is all artworks and memorials that are located in public spaces. A public space in this project is something that is accessible all the time to everybody. There are some slight exceptions and all borderline cases are discussed and resolved in the discussion page of the list.

History

Photos of individual public artworks in articles of Finnish language Wikipedia have been published since 2005. There have been spontaneous and occasional listings of public artworks in major cities. The first lists of public artworks in some cities in Finland were created in 2008. In 2013 Wikimedia Finland organized Wiki Loves Public Art competition with Wikimedia Sweden.

Sample of beginning of one list.

By 2016 these lists were harmonized, so that the basic filing format was unified. These are following:

• name of the object,
• location,
• area,
• coordinates
• author
• year unveiled
• photo,
• Wikidata, if available

This data is sourced.

Important steps

The first photohunts (or photosafaris) started in summer 2017. The number of participants in them was not more than 30. After these events the project has been contributed steadily after fall of 2017.

In the beginning of 2018 listings of all 311 municipalities in Finland had been started. By the end of 2018, only four small municipalities had no data.

Other important steps were:

• Evaluation form of the lists was published in December 2017, where the list qualities are evaluated.
• Statistic page was published in August 2018 where the metrics of lists are published.

These are of much help to administer the vast project data. Most active participants to the project update these lists. The 311 lists of municipalities of various sizes, and each item (public artwork or memorial) includes 7 units of information.

By January 1, 2019 there were 6 826 items listed and 4 391 photographed. In 2018 year’s target of 400 photographs of public art was exceeded already in the first half of the year by 650 photographs.

Targets and realization

Number of added photos per year (red), growth of the lists in bytes per year (orange) and number of photographers per year (blue) 2005-2018.

Screen capture of zoomable OSM map with photographed (green) and not photographed (red) public artworks in Hämeenlinna Finland.

We planned to organize 10 photohunts in 2018, but only three were realized. Additional four photohunts were planned but the cities had been photographed before we got there. We noticed that all participants don’t necessarily need organised photohunts, which can be seen in the results too.

The project is organized largely by Wikipedia activists. There has been discussion of several subjects such as:

• what are the validity criteria for objects, public space and bordeline cases,
• improvement of specific individual lists,
• organization of photohunts and preparing photohunts.

Wikimedia Suomi has provided support, such as financial (travel and food to photohunts) and technical (creating and updating statistics; improving maps) aid.

The project has produced many offspring lists. These are:

• List of White guard public artworks and memorials in Finland
• List of Red guard public artworks and memorials in Finland
• List of V.I. Lenin's statues and memorials in Finland
• List of monuments in Finland
• List of statues and memorials to Alexander II in the world
• List of Helsinki Metro artworks
• List of Pauper statues in Finland

The statistics of these lists are not included in the project metrics.

Assesment of future (as of January 2019)

During the year 2018 only 240 objects were brought into Wikidata. The reason for this is perhaps that preparing lists (such as finding sources on information, location, coordinating) is already quite a lot of work, in addition to photographing the objects. The activists contributing this project have not yet seen the prospects of Wikidata. In the future, education of creating Wikidata entries will be needed.

The project will continue, as more filing and photos are added. By now we can see that total number of objects in Finland does not exceed 8.000. Out of these a little more than half has been photographed now.

The remaining objects and lists are mostly in ”remote”, medium or small and sparsely populated municipalities. The project has to introduce a different kind of strategy in order to cover the photography of these lists. The activists in the project are the best persons to solve this guestion.

If the project will gain sufficient coverage, the lists will have great value. They will be have importance from researchers to anybody who wants to know about public art and memorials in Finland. Municipalities will receive and be able to share valid information from them. Search, study, orientating and further use of this information requires that it will be brought into Wikidata.