Scandinavia House

SWEDISH BEGINNER 1
2023-10-16 19:20 - 20:20 (America/New_York) | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered at Scandinavia House! In this course held both in-person and as remote learning for those completely new to Swedish, students will learn the very basics of Swedish structure and pronunciation while also discussing cultural aspects of Swedish life. This class will take place as hybrid learning, with Monday sessions both online and in-person at Scandinavia House and Wednesday sessions online via Zoom.
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SWEDISH BEGINNER 2 — HYBRID LANGUAGE CLASSES
2023-10-16 18:10 - 19:10 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered this winter at Scandinavia House! This course is for those who are still new to Swedish but perhaps have studied some on their own using apps or through other means. Students will have a basic knowledge of sentence structure, greetings, know their numbers, how to tell time and already possess a small but basic vocabulary. This semester the students will move beyond themselves and explore how to buy and order things, talk about what they do in their spare time, and read about an historical figure. Grammatically they will expand into other tenses and learn how adjectives and nouns inform each other. Various facets of Swedish life may be discussed during the course. This class will take place as hybrid learning on Mondays with classes offered at Scandinavia House and online via Zoom, and online-only on Wednesdays.
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TILLIE THE TERRIBLE SWEDE A FAMILY PUPPET SHOW
2023-10-14 13:00 - 13:45, 2023-10-14 10:00 - 10:45 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
On October 14, join us for Tillie the Terrible Swede, a show for the whole family featuring marionette puppets, live performers and most importantly — a bicycle!
Based on the true story of pioneering sportswoman Matilda Anderson, the play shows us how Tillie emigrated from Sweden to Chicago in 1891, working as a seamstress to save money to buy herself a bicycle. And once she was riding, she became good — like, best female bicyclist in the world kind of good!
Not everyone liked what she was doing, including friends and family — she was even ridiculed in some newspapers. But that didn’t stop Tillie from competing. And by the time she was 20 years old, the League of American Wheelmen recognized her as the best woman cyclist in the world.
Written and directed by Cinna Vesterberg and puppets and set design by Kevin White, Tillie the Terrible Swede takes family audiences across a journey of working hard to follow your dreams, and never giving up.
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SWEDISH INTERMEDIATE 1
2023-10-12 19:20 - 21:00, 2023-10-05 19:20 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered at Scandinavia House! In this course held online only, the focus will be primarily on conversation. Students will discuss various subjects brought up in each chapter via the informative texts, with topics spanning subjects such as Swedish cultural and social life, wild animals, historical figures, politics, and others. The grammar is overall a comprehensive repetition of the beginner levels, while also introducing a few new things like reflexive pronouns, the present participle and the conditional. Students will be required to read assigned books over the course of the semester. Intermediate 1 runs over three semesters and can be taken in any order.
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SWEDISH ADVANCED BEGINNER 1
2023-10-12 18:10 - 19:10 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered this winter at Scandinavia House! In this course held in-person at Scandinavia House and offered remotely via Zoom, students will continue to perfect their previous learned skills and pronunciation, while also expanding into more complex sentence structure. Furthermore, the students will be asked to express their opinions or beliefs in simple discussions related to Swedish life within the themes studied. The students will be required to read a literary book over the course of the semester.
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NORWEGIAN 4 — HYBRID LANGUAGE CLASSES
2023-10-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-10-04 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-09-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered this spring at Scandinavia House! Designed for intermediate learners who have taken Norwegian 3 or equivalent, this course continues to expand and refine your speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, enabling grammatically correct conversations, and language structure. A stronger focus will be given to pronunciation, Norwegian structure, tone, and flow.
You will get the opportunity to hone in your knowledge of grammatical structures, thus engaging more confidently in conversations and discussions in class, expanding your vocabulary, and fine-tuning your listening skills. Students are actively encouraged to talk more in-depth about their own experiences in Norwegian.
There will also be weekly at-home assignments, and more, focusing on reading, writing, and grammar, as well as a strongly recommend end-of-semester presentation. Students are strongly encouraged to watch and read Norwegian news, and articles, watch Norwegian shows and movies, and listen to podcasts and audio books, as often as possible, on a weekly basis at a minimum. These classes are conducted in Norwegian, with the occasional English word/sentence.
Please note that in order to take this course, you should be comfortable using the simple past tense and present perfect, and have knowledge of regular and irregular verbs, as well as their irregularities and rules. You should also be able to use indefinite, definite, and plural forms of masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns; conjugate adjectives; and apply intermediate Norwegian sentence structure, including “inversion.”
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MISS VIBORG
2023-10-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
This fall at Scandinavia House, experience Nordic comedy at its darkest with “Svart Humor”! “If there’s a dead body in Denmark, someone is going to make a joke about it,” director Anders Jensen once said; Nordic comedies are as known for their deadpan, dry wit as for their occasionally noir subject matter, celebrating the “svart/sort” (dark) side of life’s hilarities.
On October 11, see Marianne Blicher’s Miss Viborg (Denmark, 2022). Former beauty queen and senior citizen Solvej (Ragnhild Kaasgaard) lives alone with her dog in a social housing area on the outskirts of Danish provincial town Viborg. Each day, she performs the same old routines — roaming around on her scooter dealing her prescription drugs, dreaming of a world outside Viborg and reminiscing over old love letters from her past.
When unforeseen circumstances bring her neighbor’s daughter, rebellious 17-year-old Kate (Isabella Møller Hansen) into her life, an unlikely friendship forms, bringing new hope for the future.
Winner of awards including Best Picture and Vision Award from IndiePix; Best Feature, Best Written Film, Audience Award at Mag Film Fest; and Special Jury Award at Monte-Carlo Film Festival, Miss Viborg is an ode to eccentricity, and a celebration of community found in unexpected places.
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NORWEGIAN 1 — HYBRID LANGUAGE CLASSES
2023-10-11 17:45 - 18:45, 2023-10-10 17:45 - 18:45, 2023-10-04 17:45 - 18:45, 2023-10-03 17:45 - 18:45, 2023-09-27 17:45 - 18:45, 2023-09-26 17:45 - 18:45 | NY
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered this fall at Scandinavia House! In this beginner’s course, you will build your Norwegian vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar skills, while also learning about Norwegian culture and life. By the course’s end, you should be able to conduct simple conversations in Norwegian.
You will get to practice conversations and reading in class, and there will be a focus on pronunciation, and Norwegian vowels and sounds, which may be new to your ear. Students are welcome to bring personal experiences, anecdotes, and facts about Norway into class discussions. There will also be at-home assignments focusing on reading, writing, and grammar, as well as an optional end-of-semester presentation.
Outside of class, students are encouraged to watch Norwegian shows, and movies, read simple text, and have Norwegian podcasts on in the background.
The required text will be provided via pdf, before the first class.
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NORWEGIAN 3 — HYBRID LANGUAGE CLASSES
2023-10-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-10-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-09-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered this spring at Scandinavia House! In this intermediate-level course building upon Norwegian 2 (or its equivalent), all four core skill areas (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are covered, with an emphasis on conversational Norwegian. Continue to expand your vocabulary and master grammatical structures, while enhancing your conversational abilities, and deepening your cultural knowledge of all things Norwegian, through study of themes related to daily life.
You will get to practice more in-depth conversations in class which will put your grammatical structures to the test, all the while building on your listening, and speaking skills. Focus will be given to pronunciation, Norwegian structure, tone, and flow. Students will have the opportunity to engage in discussion by bringing topics that interest them about Norway into class, including anecdotes, and personal experiences. There will also be weekly at-home assignments, and more, focusing on reading, writing, and grammar, as well as a recommend end-of-semester presentation.
Outside of class, students are encouraged to read Norwegian articles, listen to podcasts and/or audio books, and watch Norwegian shows and movies, weekly.
The required text will be provided via pdf, before the first class.
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SWEDISH ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE — HYBRID LANGUAGE CLASSES
2023-10-10 18:10 - 19:50, 2023-10-03 18:10 - 19:50 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn the Nordic languages in classes offered at Scandinavia House! This course held both online and in-person at Scandinavia House is aimed for students who are slightly more advanced in Swedish, and are able to speak the language without too much effort, as well as easily read novels. Students will engage in conversation and discussions, and themes will be of a more philosophical nature, involving global questions and fiction. Grammatically, various structures and conjugations will be reviewed so students can refine their speech and writing. Students will be assigned a book to read during the semester.
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THE RED BOOK OF FAREWELLS BY PIRKKO SAISIO
2023-10-10 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On October 10, translator Mia Spangenberg joins us for a special talk on The Red Book of Farewells by Finnish author Pirkko Saisio, out now from Two Lines Press.
Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel, in Mia Spangenberg’s tender translation, is a mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening in a series of farewells — to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers, and finally to her grown daughter. The novel embeds readers in a delirious Finland, where art and communist politics are hopelessly intertwined, and where queer love (still criminalized before 1971) thrives in underground bars. But then one morning in 2002, on a remote island off the coast of Finland, the narrator Pirkko Saisio informs her publisher that she’s accidentally deleted her latest manuscript, The Red Book of Farewells.
Playful and mysterious, and winner of the Finlandia Prize and Aleksis Kivi Prize, The Red Book of Farewells is a work that stoically embraces the small revolutions of moving on.
The event will be attended by special guest and translator Mia Spangenberg.
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HOLIDAY BUILDING CLOSURE
2023-10-09 08:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Scandinavia House will be closed for the holiday on Monday, October 9, 2023. This includes all spaces in the building, including Björk Cafe & Bistro.
See you after the holiday!

EDVARD MUNCH: TRANSFORMING NATURE
2023-10-07 14:30 - 16:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
On October 7, join us for the discussion Edvard Munch: Transforming Nature. Jay A. Clarke, who received a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation to conduct research for the current exhibition and publication Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth on view now at the Clark Art Institution through October 15, is Rothman Family Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. In today’s discussion, Clarke will examine how Munch animated nature to bring meaning to his work. Known primarily as a figure painter, Munch’s best-known images are connected to themes of love, anxiety, longing, and death; yet a large portion of his works feature landscape.
This talk will consider his iconic images from a new perspective, one that resonates with current anxieties around climate instability. His depictions of the natural world celebrate the fecundity of the earth in farming practice and garden cultivation, question the mysteries of the forest, and address psychological states. The lecture will also explore how Munch developed his own pantheistic and philosophical views of nature and used them to transform his surroundings.
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DRIVING MUM
2023-10-04 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
This fall at Scandinavia House, experience Nordic comedy at its darkest with “Svart Humor”! “If there’s a dead body in Denmark, someone is going to make a joke about it,” director Anders Jensen once said; Nordic comedies are as known for their deadpan, dry wit as for their occasionally noir subject matter, celebrating the “svart/sort” (dark) side of life’s hilarities.
On October 4, see Hilmar Oddsson’s “enjoyably dark and dour comedy road movie” (Screen Review), Driving Mum (Iceland, 2022)! When Jon’s (Prostur Leo Gunnarsson) mother passes away in 1980s Iceland, he loses his anchor and the single most dominant person in his life.
Compelled to honor her last wish to be buried in her home village of Eyrarbakki, he sets out on a road trip to take her there — by propping her up in the back seat of his car. Accompanied by the family dog Bresnef (and an imaginary Greek chorus in the background), he soon finds himself on a journey of discovery, meeting a world and its many inhabitants he has never otherwise encountered.
Winner of the Grand Prix at PÖFF – Tallinn Black Nights 2022 and Best Actor at Bifest 2023, Driving Mum is a belated coming-of-age comedy and touching tale of self-discovery, albeit one with a corpse in the backseat.
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KEYBOARD CONVERSATIONS® WITH JEFFREY SIEGEL: MOZART AND FRIENDS
2023-10-03 19:30 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
The cross-pollination of three musical geniuses produced masterpieces that continue to enthrall after more than two centuries. This upbeat evening features Haydn’s Gypsy Rondo, Beethoven’s God Save the King, and Mozart’s dazzling, infinitely inventive Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star—to name a few!

Hailed by the New York Times for “an achievement of a sort seldom heard,” internationally acclaimed pianist Jeffrey Siegel returns to Scandinavia House for his ever-popular series of Keyboard Conversations® —a brilliantly polished concert-with-commentary in which captivating remarks precede world-class performances of piano masterpieces. The concert concludes with a brisk Q & A – all questions welcome!

Keyboard Conversations® make friends for classical music for the newcomer and enrich the listening experience for the avid music lover as well.
The 2023/24 series will continue with “A French Musical Feast” on February 13; “Chopin and Liszt” on March 19; and “Three Great Romantics” on April 30, 2024.
Thanks to a generous loan by Victor Borge’s grandson Finn, concerts will be performed on Victor Borge’s personal Steinway piano.
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ULF LINDE: ESSAYS FROM A LIFETIME IN THE ARTS
2023-09-30 14:30 - 16:00 | NY
Join us September 30 for a discussion on the first English-language anthology of writings by Swedish art critic and museum director Ulf Linde: Essays from a Lifetime in the Arts. Curator, critic, and artist Robert Storr will discuss Linde’s career with Kersten Lind Bonnier and Peter Galassi, who edited and translated the book, which will be out on October 3 from Artbook/D.A.P.
Ulf Linde (1929-2013) played a key role in the early years of Moderna Museet, where in 1961, he produced the first replica of Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass, approved and signed by the artist. While Linde was a major voice in Sweden for over six decades, he is little known outside of Scandinavia.
This anthology rectifies that oversight, making available Linde’s most rigorous and illuminating essays: studies of Swedish painters and other modern masters such as Picasso. Matisse. Picabia and Giacometti, as well as a bevy of theoretical texts including his ambitious final essay on the art of drawing.
The volume is generously illustrated and features an introduction by Olle Granath, former director of Moderna Museet and Sweden’s Nationalmuseum.
The talk will take place at Scandinavia House. Registration recommended; sign up at the link above.
“This fascinating selection of beautifully translated texts demonstrates [Linde] was in fact one of the most powerful critics of the era”—Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director of Acute Art & former Director of Moderna Museet
“A vital contributor to both Moderna Museet and the Centre Pompidou in their early years, Ulf Linde was a leading critical voice in Sweden for half a century… Now readers of English can enjoy the breadth of his adventurous, exacting, versatile, and eloquent writings”—Laurent Le Bon, President of Centre Pompidou
“Ulf Linde’s wonderful essays bust out in unexpected directions, bringing a spirit by turns playful, celebratory, scholarly, and daringly idiosyncratic to subjects as diverse as Duchamp, Matisse, Giacometti, Duke Ellington, Wallace Stevens, and Early Christian illuminated manuscripts. Linde, who began life as a jazz musician, has a gift for intellectual improvisation. He lets his ideas fly. His great subject is the enchantment of modern art. Open this beautifully produced book and you’ll find yourself getting to know a writer of head-spinning range and originality.” — Jed Perl, author of Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts
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THE GRUMP: IN SEARCH OF AN ESCORT
2023-09-27 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
This fall at Scandinavia House, experience Nordic comedy at its darkest with “Svart Humor”! “If there’s a dead body in Denmark, someone is going to make a joke about it,” director Anders Jensen once said; Nordic comedies are as known for their deadpan, dry wit as for their occasionally noir subject matter, celebrating the “svart/sort” (dark) side of life’s hilarities.
On September 27, see The Grump: In Search of an Escort (dir. Mika Kaurismäki, Finland, 2022)! The Grump’s (Heikki Kinnunen) everyday life working on his farm in rural Finland has been rolling along, albeit troubled lately by memories of his big brother Tarmo, who moved to Germany years ago.
When one day The Grump crashes his beloved 1972 Ford Escort, the car is hauled off to the junkyard; no other car will do, so he sets off in search of the nearest model — which happens to be in Germany.
After a robbery and an injury, the Grump finds himself reunited with his estranged sibling. As the two continue the hunt for the vehicle amid numerous disagreements, they also begin to understand their shared history of loss, leading them on a touching (if cantankerous) journey of reconciliation and forgiveness.
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THE ART OF MAKING PICTURE BOOKS
2023-09-26 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Join us September 26 for a discussion with award-winning author and artist Marika Mijala, translator Mia Spangbenberg, and Etana Editions children’s book publisher Jenni Erkintalo, in celebration of the release of Rosie Runs! They’ll discuss their work across artmaking, translation, and children’s book-making, while sharing visuals from Rosie Runs, which is out August 15 in translation from Elsewhere Editions.
An illustrator of children’s books for all of the major publishers of Finland as well as worldwide, Marika Maijala has received awards including the 2020 State Award for Illustration Art, and was chosen in 2021 as one of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards candidates of Finland. Rosie Runs (Ruusun Matka), which was made using her distinctive oil-pastel artmaking technique, follows a very special trip made one day by Rosie the race dog, and was released in the Finnish language in October 2018 by Etana Editions. Illustrations from Rosie’s Journey were selected in The Bologna Illustrators Exhibition 2019, and the book was also nominated for The Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2019.

In today’s event, the three speakers will discuss topics including how Nordic children’s picture books are made; how authors and illustrators work together, as well as the role of the editor and publisher; the importance of images as well as pre-production work; the meaning and the work of translators; and trends and challenges in the Nordic children’s picture book world.
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