The Secretary of the Finnish Art Society, J.J. Tikkanen, founded the archive in 1897, adopting what was already established practice in the other Nordic countries. The scope of collected material has varied at different periods in history. Today the focus is on art reviews published by Finland’s 15 leading newspapers and journals.

The oldest articles in the archive, from 1897–1980, are glued in scrapbooks and have been microfilmed for the use of researchers. To aid research, they are indexed by artist (for 1897–1980) and by reviewer and subject (for 1897–1971). Events dating from 1891–96 are also indexed.

Articles from 1981 to the present are filed by artist, by group exhibition and by subject in Kardex file folders, for which there is a computerised index. Most of the press cuttings on individual artists up to 1999 have been microfilmed.

The Press Cutting Archive contains material donated by artists and their heirs, art historians and art enthusiasts.