Estonian art exhibitions drew over 2.2 million visits in 2025
Visits to art exhibitions in Estonia rose 35.7% in 2025 compared to the previous year, reaching more than 2.2 million, with the Kumu Art Museum attracting the most visitors.
According to statistics compiled by the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (KKEK), visits to art exhibitions in Estonia reached 2,281,198 in 2025 — an increase of 600,271 visits, or 35.7%, over the previous year. The number of exhibitions itself grew by 4%.
The data covers 97 exhibition institutions across 22 towns and villages in Estonia, which together hosted 918 exhibitions, up from 883 a year earlier. More than half of all exhibitions took place in Tallinn, where 54 institutions organized 501 exhibitions. Tartu ranked second with 138 exhibitions, followed by Pärnu with 51.
At least 223 of the 918 exhibitions featured foreign artists or curators, and 771 exhibitions — 84% of the total — were free to visit. KKEK notes that the overall visitor count is incomplete, since not all institutions can track attendance; data was missing for 28.3% of exhibitions in 2025.
Kumu, Niguliste and the Museum of Architecture see biggest gains
The largest increase in visits was recorded at the Kumu Art Museum, where attendance rose by 100,142 to reach 690,447, even though the number of exhibitions there fell from 19 to 16. At the Niguliste Museum, visits grew by 79,377 to 193,438, while the Estonian Museum of Architecture saw an increase of 30,445, reaching 62,103.
Since 2024, KKEK has used a new methodology that counts total visitors to each venue separately rather than summing visits to individual exhibitions, meaning the figures are not directly comparable to those from earlier years.
Under the new methodology, Kumu had the most visitors among exhibition venues in 2025 with 149,052, followed by Fotografiska with 106,909 and the Niguliste Museum with 106,432. The Kadriorg Art Museum ranked fourth with 105,651, and Poco fifth with 35,000.
Most popular exhibitions
The most-visited displays were Kumu's permanent exhibitions, drawing 162,756 and 126,482 visits respectively. Among temporary exhibitions, the Estonian National Museum's show on artist Olev Subbi was the most popular with 57,549 visits, followed by an exhibition at the Kadriorg Art Museum with 51,054 visits. The ten most-visited exhibitions accounted for about 1% of all exhibitions held but drew 35% of total visits.
KKEK has been collecting statistics on Estonia's art sector since 2016.
