Exhibition statistics in Estonia, 2024
The exhibition statistics in Estonia for 2024 provide a comprehensive overview, detailing the total number of exhibitions held nationwide, visits to venues, the most popular exhibitions and venues, payment of artist fees, and the language accessibility of exhibition texts.
On data collection and methodology
The numbers collected in the statistics provide a strong overview of the total number of art exhibitions taking place in Estonia, and their geographical distribution. However, the visitor numbers are speculative to a certain extent. This is because many exhibition venues lack the capability to accurately count visitors. Consequently, data on attendance is missing from 37% of the institutions whose exhibitions were analysed. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the total visitor count reflects information from the largest and most frequently visited exhibition venues, allowing us to assert that the vast majority of the total 2024 visitor numbers are still represented in the statistics.
Art exhibitions in Estonia take place in a wide variety of formats and spaces. To make the statistical collection method more specific, we primarily focused on exhibitions that meet two core conditions: a) One of the stated core activities of the organising institution is holding exhibitions; b) The institution possesses a separate, designated space for exhibition activities. Exhibitions presented on temporary surfaces (so-called pop-up exhibitions) organised by institutions that otherwise meet the exhibition space requirement have been included in the statistics. However, several theatre galleries and exhibitions held in libraries have been excluded due to the lack of a dedicated space for displaying art. Due to this change in methodology, certain indicators – such as the total number of exhibition visits – are not directly comparable year-on-year.
The CCA has been collecting statistics to the best of its ability since 2016. This marked our first attempt to consolidate and analyse the exhibition activities of as many venues dedicated to showcasing professional art as possible. Initially, the data collection grew out of a desire to map the gender balance within the Estonian art field. In subsequent years, the statistics have gradually become more comprehensive, incorporating exhibitions with international participation and audience numbers. In the 2024 statistics, information on attendance has been collected somewhat differently compared to previous years (see details under the sub-heading “Changes in visitor numbers”). For the first time, we also requested information regarding the payment of artist fees for exhibitions.
The statistical overview of the local art field opens up a crucial cultural-political dimension, providing a robust foundation for analysing changes and developments within the Estonian art scene.
Organising art exhibitions in Estonia
In 2024, art exhibitions were organised across the whole of Estonia, taking place in a total of 22 different cities, towns, or villages. The statistics gathered information from 99 exhibition venues located in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Haapsalu, Jõhvi, Jüri, Kärdla, Kuressaare, Narva, Paide, Põltsamaa, Rakvere, Rapla, Türi, Valga, Vaskjala, Viljandi, Varnja, Võru, and Viimsi.
In 2024, a total of 883 art exhibitions took place in 96 exhibition venues across Estonia. This represents a 7% decrease compared to 2023 (950 exhibitions). Slightly over half of these took place in Tallinn (451 exhibitions, 55 venues), with Tartu in second place (145 exhibitions, 13 venues), and Pärnu in third (52 exhibitions, 4 venues). Out of the 883 exhibitions held in 2024, foreign artist(s) or curator(s) participated in at least 221 exhibitions, and 701 exhibitions (or 79.4% of the total) were free to visit.
Changes in visitor numbers
In 2024, attendance decreased compared to the previous year, reaching 1,680,827 visits. This represents a significant 32% decrease compared to 2023 (a drop of 799,322 visits). However, it must be mentioned that we specified the data collection methodology this time, which partially influences the total number of exhibition visits. Therefore, the exhibition visits are not directly comparable year-on-year.
The Kumu Art Museum experienced the largest decrease in exhibition visits, with its 2024 attendance of 590,305 visits falling short of the previous year’s 845,188 by 254,883 visits. This occurred despite the museum organising four more exhibitions (19 exhibitions in 2024, compared to 15 in 2023). However, analysing the attendance data for the Kumu Art Museum suggests that their method for counting visits has become more precise, which significantly impacts the total number of visits compared to the previous year.
Furthermore, the total number of exhibition visits in 2024 is affected by the fact that the Estonian National Museum (ERM), which typically has a high number of visitors and organises diverse exhibitions, held half the number of art exhibitions in 2024 compared to the previous year. Specifically, the ERM held 14 art exhibitions and recorded 355,868 exhibition visits in 2023, compared to just 7 art exhibitions and 128,874 exhibition visits in 2024.
TOP 10 most visited exhibitions
The 10 most visited exhibitions all belong to the exhibitions organised by the Art Museum of Estonia. Enduringly, the first and second positions are held by the Kumu Art Museum’s permanent exhibitions: “Landscapes of Identity: Estonian Art 1700–1945” (103,695 visits) and “Conflicts and Adaptations: Estonian Art of the Soviet Era” (88,936 visits). In third place is the Niguliste Museum’s permanent exhibition (86,789 visits). Fourth place goes to the Kadriorg Art Museum’s permanent exhibition, “Dutch, Russian, Italian and German Art” (75,751 visits). Among the permanent exhibitions, the fifth position is held by the Kumu Art Museum’s “The Future is in One Hour: Estonian Art in the 1990s” (62,904 visits), while the eighth position is held by the Kadriorg Art Museum’s open sculpture collection (45,450 visits). The highest-ranking temporary exhibitions are the Kumu Art Museum’s “Jevgeni Zolotko: The Secret of Adam” in sixth place (53,145 visits) and the Kadriorg Art Museum’s “España Blanca y Negra: Vision of Spain, from Fortuny to Picasso” in seventh place (46,107 visits). Finally, in ninth and tenth place are the Kumu Art Museum’s temporary exhibitions, “Elisarion: Elisàr von Kupffer and Jaanus Samma” (37,515 visits) and “Decoding the Landscape: Jaan Toomik” (36,278 visits), respectively.
Out of the 883 exhibitions, the 10 most visited exhibitions accounted for 39.7% of all exhibition visits in 2024. Among exhibitions not belonging to the Art Museum of Estonia’s venues, the Estonian National Museum’s (ERM) exhibition, “Surrealism 100. Prague, Tartu, and other stories…”, holds the 12th position overall (31,980 visits).
TOP 10 exhibition venues
This time, we collected the data on exhibition venue attendance differently. Previously, we analysed venue attendance based on exhibition visits. However, this year, we separately asked the venues for the total number of people who visited the venue. The difference between the two methods is significant: venues with multiple exhibitions open simultaneously received a higher attendance number with the previous method than venues with only one exhibition open at a time, because attendance was counted separately for each exhibition.
According to the new methodology, the TOP 10 list of exhibition venues only includes exhibition institutions where it is possible to accurately assess the number of visitors to the venue (whether based on ticket sales or when only one exhibition is open in the institution at a time). Furthermore, any exhibition institutions that organise other types of exhibitions in addition to art exhibitions have been excluded from the TOP 10 list of exhibition venues.
The Kumu Art Museum is in the first place with the largest number of exhibition venue visitors (115,554 visitors), followed by Fotografiska in second place (101,982 visitors). The Niguliste Museum takes third place (87,461 visitors), and the Kadriorg Art Museum is fourth (76,725 visitors). Rounding out the top ten are: PoCo in fifth place (54,996 visitors), the Tartu Art Museum in sixth place (17,253 visitors), the Gallery of the Estonian Academy of Arts in seventh place (16,456 visitors), the Museum of New Art in eighth place (15,408 visitors), the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in ninth place (14,024 visitors), and the Mikkel Museum in 10th place (12,444 visitors).
Payment of artist fees for exhibitions
This time, we specifically requested information regarding the payment of artist fees for exhibitions. The data was requested primarily to raise awareness of this crucial topic and to gather internal background information for the sector. For analytical purposes, the data is presented here in a generalised form. We asked for information about artist fee payments without requesting specific amounts, utilising a simple yes/no question format.
A total of 871 exhibitions were analysed for this section, with permanent exhibitions excluded from this count. Artist fees were paid for 185 out of 871 exhibitions (21.2%), and artist fees were not paid for 479 exhibitions (55%). Information on the payment of artist fees is missing for 207 out of 871 exhibitions (23.8%).
Language accessibility
Our analysis included 668 exhibitions from 2024 for which linguistic data on the exhibition texts was available. Of these, 31.4% were available only in Estonian, and the remaining 68.6% were available in at least Estonian and English. The exhibitions with the highest language accessibility are still at Fotografiska, where the texts for all exhibitions are available in Finnish and Russian, in addition to Estonian and English. Among the most linguistically accessible exhibition venues are also Tallinn Art Hall, Narva Museum Art Gallery, and Narva Art Residency, where almost all exhibitions are available in Estonian, English, and Russian. Furthermore, all exhibitions at the Tampere House Gallery are available in Estonian, English, and Finnish.