The former Director General of the National Gallery of Finland thinks it’s fine to take your spouse on business trips as long as the expenses are out of your own pocket.
– It seems that the whole debate on receipts fails to understand and recognise the nature and function of the art museum.
After Leevi Haapala’s travel bill scandal, it was written into the National Gallery’s travel rules that the spouse must not incur expenses for the National Gallery.
Receipts under scrutiny
Risto Ruohonen does not want to comment on the details of the case because he does not know them well. He says, however, that the National Gallery has “always kept accurate and precise track of all expenses, including travel bills”.
– Of course, there must be receipts for everything and travel invoices must be done properly.
What surprises Ruoho the most is that it is not understood how important traveling and international activities are to the work of museum directors.
– This is the only way Finnish Fine Art can become international, be seen in the world and get the appreciation it deserves.
In addition to Kiasma, the National Gallery includes the Ateneum and Sinebrychoff art museums.
– Their leaders are the leaders of their work community and the artistic directors of the art department. Exhibition activities are the responsibility of the artistic director, and it is then important that he is internationally networked.
Spouses on the trip
Ruohonen started as the general director of the National Gallery in 2006. Until 2014, the National Gallery was known as the State Art Museum.
During his tenure as CEO, he says he encouraged his employees to be international.
– I would encourage you to participate, see and meet artists and visual arts influencers.
In Risto Ruohonen’s opinion, spouses can participate in museum managers’ business trips. For Ruoho, it is even profitable, provided that they pay all the costs themselves.
He states that in other countries it is significantly more common than in Finland: Finnish art museum directors rarely take their spouses with them on business trips.
– If the manager’s spouse is on the trip in his own free time and at his own expense, I consider it more positive than negative. If sometimes you can combine civilian life and work like this, that’s only good.
Tanninen-Mattila: “Trust comes from encounters”
Tanninen-Mattila does not want to comment on the receipt discussion.
He agrees with Risto Ruohonen about traveling: it is an essential part of the art museum director’s job.
– You cannot get major international art exhibitions to Finland without personal relationships.
Tanninen-Mattila states that the director must see what kind of art is on display in the world.
– The prerequisite for borrowing works is always trust. It only arises when people meet and know each other better than based on an email conversation.