The Museum of Kymenlaakso serves both as the city museum of Kotka and the Provincial museum of Kymenlaakso. The mission statement of the museum is to study, record and exhibit the cultural heritage in Kotka and Kymenlaakso. The museum maintains local identity and supports the local residents’ understanding of their own roots. The vision of the museum is to be an international museum. The exhibitions of the Museum of Kymenlaakso are located in Maritime Centre Vellamo. The main exhibition was opened 2008, and now plans have been made to renew the exhibition and to find partners for international exhibition exchange. The collection facilities of the Museum of Kymenlaakso are located in a renovated old waterworks building where the technical standards and conditions do not fully meet the norms in the field. The collection facilities should be brought up-to-date considering the whole province. New ideas and expertise are sought through the project ”Grow roots in Kymenlaakso, grow into Europe!” (”Juurru Kymenlaaksoon, kasva Eurooppaan!”) in order to maintain the high quality of the museum’s exhibitions. One of the prerequisites for maintaining the high quality is the modernization of the collection facilities. The knowledge gained through the project will be distributed to be used by the whole province. With the project the Museum of Kymenlaakso aims to strengthen the expertise of the staff and to increase the know-how of different solutions in the museum field. The main areas of focus are collections and exhibitions. Through the project, the museum hopes to gain ideas for future exhibitions, in order to maintain the museum’s position as one of the key tourist attractions in the area. The museum is known nationally and has started networking internationally and hopes that this project will strengthen the European dimension. The museum is coordinating a shared collection centre for the museums in its region, in order to preserve material cultural heritage. During the project, similar collection centres in Europe will be visited to enhance the expertise in collection management. Of the museum staff, the experts in the specific fields in question will take part in the various part projects. Staff will participate in international seminars and fairs in the museum field in Europe. New ideas for coordinating collections and international exhibition exchange are gathered by job shadowing, that is, by visits to various collection centres and museums. New methods of managing collections are sought by looking into different European collection centre projects that have taken advantage of new technology and high-quality collection management practices. These ideas and good practices will be taken into use in the joint collection centre project of the region of Kymenlaakso. For the renewal of the main exhibition, innovations are sought in seminars and by visits to cooperating partners. With the help of the project, the museum hopes to find new partnerships as well as ideas for bold and creative exhibition solutions. Through the project the different experts and researchers in the museum can develop their own expertise in various international seminars and share the benefits with all who work within the organisation and in the field of cultural heritage in the region.