The city of Seinäjoki owns an Aino and Alvar Aalto glassware collection of over 200 pieces. It primarily contains famous works created for glassware competitions in the 1930s.
The Aalto Glassware Collection was formed as the result of determined collection by the previous city architect Touko Saari.
Touko Saari was selected as Seinäjoki’s city architect in November 1958. The maestro Alvar Aalto, who was in his 60s, and the 30-year-old architect Touko Saari became well acquainted during the various construction phases of Aalto’s administrative and cultural centre in Seinäjoki in the 1960s.
The city of Seinäjoki purchased Touko Saari’s glassware collection in 1997 in several controversial and widely talked-about phases. The then city architect Juhani Lahti has drawn and listed the attached glassware collection in collaboration with Touko Saari. The exhibition of the glassware collection was officially opened in 1998, the 100th anniversary of Aalto’s birth.
In connection with the opening, Touko Saari gave to the city of Seinäjoki a bronze bust made by Wäinö Aaltonen (Alvar Aalto 50 years old). In the same connection, the yield of the public fund-raising effort conducted to acquire the Aalto glassware, which amounted to 15,000 Finnish marks, was publicised. At first the glassware collection was on display in the upper foyer of the Seinäjoki City Theatre. Now the collection can be seen at the Aalto Library.