Preserving memories of Seminaarinmäki: How a campus became a shared digital archive
The Seminaarinmäki Campus collaborative platform for cultural environment is a participatory initiative led by the Jyväskylä University Museum, in collaboration with the Open Science Centre and the Museology discipline of the University of Jyväskylä. The project aims to develop an online collaborative platform that brings together spatial data, architecture, botanical heritage, historical facts, and personal stories linked to the Seminaarinmäki Campus.
Designed for visitors, the university community, and anyone interested in the campus, the platform explores Seminaarinmäki as a living cultural environment shaped by education, everyday life, nature, and social encounters. In autumn 2025, the University Museum and the Museology discipline organised a course where students researched, collected, and analysed spatial data around four key themes: the campus as a meeting place and social hub; a space of festivities and everyday life; the historical development of the Botanical Garden; and the campus as a place of equality, sustainability, and lifelong encounters.
The course combined lectures, group work, and a series of public “Science for All” participatory events, held every Tuesday evening in November 2025, both on site and online. Each event brought together expert inputs and hands-on workshops, where students collected oral histories linked to spatial data using photographs, maps, and guiding questions. Particular attention was given to the idea that Seminaarinmäki is not only meaningful for people, but also a habitat for plants and animals, including iconic campus species such as the flying squirrel—featured in educational material developed especially for children.
Alongside these events, the University Museum and the University Cultural Group launched an open online writing campaign, inviting anyone to share memories of campus buildings and outdoor areas being vacated between 2025 and 2026. Open from summer to the end of 2025, the campaign gathered 47 personal testimonies from participants of all ages—many beyond the current university community. These memories, now preserved in the Museum’s collections, help individuals situate their own experiences within the longer history of campus change and continuity.
Together, these participatory methods foster a strong sense of belonging, highlighting Seminaarinmäki as a place of beauty, identity, and shared heritage—described by one participant as “the most beautiful campus area in the world.” The collected material will now form the foundation of the online collaborative platform, currently under development by the University of Jyväskylä Open Science Centre, ensuring that Seminaarinmäki’scultural environment remains open, accessible, and co-created.
