KUMU is the Art Museum of Estonia and the largest exhibition venue of Estonia. The museum opened in 2006 and in 2008 it received the European Museum of the Year Award. Kumu is hosted by an impressive modern-architecture building and it has a varied, extremely interesting cultural activity, focusing mainly on modern and contemporary art. As it states on its website, KUMU “is not just dedicated to collection, conservation and exposition, but is a multifunctional space for active mental activity, from educational programmes for small children to discussions about the nature and meaning of art in the modern world.”
Besides it permanent collections, the museum has fascinating temporary exhibitions, like the current “A Moveable Feast. Art Deco Fashion Design from Alexandre Vassiliev’s Collection” (Oct 11th 2014 – Jan. 18th 2015). This exhibition is based on Alexandre Vassiliev’s collection (1958). He was a fashion historian, interior designer and scenographer well-known in Europe. This exhibition focuses on the decade of spiritual and corporal liberation that followed World War I, presenting 80 costumes and over 200 accessories, photos and paintings which show the development of European fashion in the inter-war period (1918–1939), during the Art Deco period.