One of Finland’s most celebrated women artists finally gets her own statue in Helsinki

A statue of Tove Jansson will be erected in her honour in the Katajanokka park in Helsinki. There will also be a statue of Moomin.

The Helsinki City Environment Committee decided on the matter at its meeting yesterday, Tuesday. It had already been decided earlier that the park would have a statue of Moomin in connection with the renovation.

According to the city, the Moomin statue, which rises to Katajanokka, becomes \ — The Moomin statue to be erected on Katajanokka in Helsinki will be “huggable in size”, according to the city.

In addition to the Moomin character, the committee believes that the park should have its own statue in honour of Tove Jansson, who lived in Katajanokka for a long time.

The decision was also motivated by the fact that women artists are underrepresented on statues and street names in the street space of Helsinki.

Townspeople: remembering a female artist is a good thing

The Helsinki residents who walked to Tove Jansson Park on Wednesday were delighted with the plans.

He works near the park and rushes through it to the lunch restaurant.

– Tove Jansson has lived right next door, and there is a good space here, Kuisma says.

– Remembering a female artist is a good thing, says Ryyppö.

In the hope of more child mindedness

The aim of the Helsinki urban environment is to open the renewed park in honor of Tove Jansson’s Moomin characters in the spring of 2026.

The Helsinki residents interviewed by YLE suggest that there could be more Moomin characters in the park.

– This could be a storytelling place where you could hug more Moomins. Could something more childish could be developed around it? Ryyppö ponders.

80th anniversary of the birth of Moomintroll

In addition to the statues, six Moomin-themed drawings are planned for the park to decorate the fence of the playground.

The plans have been made in collaboration with Jansson’s relatives and Moomin Characters, who manages his art.

The children's playground canopy with a shallow side wall with Moomin pictures and bumps. — Tove Jansson Park now has a small playground.

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was both a writer and an artist known internationally as the creator of the Moomin characters.

He lived on his childhood and adolescence in Katajanokka’s Luotsikatu in Helsinki.

This year, 80 years have passed since Jansson first drew a Moomintroll.