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If your kitchen cupboards hold more Moomin mugs than ordinary drinking glasses, this exhibition opening in Tampere in September is made for you.
The Moomin Museum’s new temporary exhibition ‘Moomin Mug Mania’ traces the journey of Moomin mugs from everyday tableware to internationally recognized design objects and highly sought-after collectors’ items.
The exhibition opens at the Moomin Museum Observatory on Saturday September 26. On display will be every 0.3-litre Moomin mug made by Moomin Arabia, along with a selection of mugs in other sizes.
There’ll be familiar favourites from coffee tables as well as rarities that might make a devoted collector’s pulse quicken. The exhibition will also feature the first Moomin mug illustrated by Tove Jansson, dating from the 1950s.
Opening day will also see the launch of a brand-new Moomin mug, the ‘Glow of the Winter Night’ art mug, created in collaboration between the Moomin Museum and Moomin Arabia. It goes on sale on the exhibition’s opening day, September 26, and will be available exclusively at the Moomin Museum for the first month.
On opening day, the mug’s illustrator Parvati Pillai will be signing mugs from 9.00-11.00.
Tove Jansson’s original drawings will be displayed alongside the mugs
The illustrations on Moomin mugs are based on Tove Jansson’s drawings and comic strips. The exhibition pairs the mugs with Jansson’s original images, which Arabia’s illustrators used to create the compositions seen on the mugs.
Most of the original works belong to the Moomin Museum’s own collections. Seen side by side, the drawings and finished mugs reveal how individual characters and elements taken from different works have been brought together to create entirely new compositions.
Moomins first appeared on Arabia tableware during the first Moomin boom in the 1950s. Jansson designed the decorations for the earliest pieces herself.
Production of Moomin mugs as we know them today began in the 1990s. The mugs are based on Arabia’s Teema mug, designed by Kaj Franck. Around the same time, the Japanese-Finnish-Dutch animated series ‘Moominvalley’ began airing around the world, boosting the international profile of the Moomin characters.
The exhibition also explores how the mugs are made, introduces Arabia’s illustrators and takes a look at the different backstamps found on the bases of the mugs. For an experienced collector, a backstamp can reveal almost as much about a mug as its illustration.
The exhibition also looks at why Moomin mugs in particular have become so popular – and why people are willing to pay substantial sums for certain designs.
The exhibition has been created in collaboration with Moomin Arabia, Moomin Characters and collector and author Joni Pyysalo.
Moomin Mug Mania
Moomin Museum Observatory, Tampere Hall
Yliopistonkatu 55, Tampere
September 26 2026-January 5 2028