100 years of scholarly creativity

100th Anniversary Exhibition dives into the past and present of Musicology and Folkloristics of Åbo Akademi University. The exhibition features photographs, archive material, artefacts, as well as research papers. Welcome to see how music and folklore is studied!

The exhibition is open 12.6.2026–6.1.2027.

Otto Andersson was appointed Professor of Musicology and Folk Poetry at Åbo Akademi University in 1926. As an internationally recognised scholar, Andersson devoted his research to Finland’s musical history, Jean Sibelius and the study of musical instruments. He is best known for his scholarship on folk music and folk poetry, as well as for his work promoting Finland‑Swedish folk culture. It was widely held that folk culture was in danger of disappearing and needed to be collected and cultivated to ensure its continuity. Over the subsequent decades, a broad range of activities grew around the professorship and the study, education and research of musicology and folkloristics, among them the Sibelius Museum, the student choirs Brahe Djäknar and Florakören, the Akademiska Orkestern student orchestra and the student associations Otto and Kulturisten.

From the 1970s onwards, musicology and folkloristics have been separate disciplines. A folkloristics archive was also established, and since 2011, it has been part of the Cultural Sciences Archive Cultura at Åbo Akademi University. The scholarly activities, the collections and student life have contributed to deepening our understanding of the significance of music and culture.