Scandinavia House

DESIGN EXHIBITION SHOWCASE
2025-05-17 15:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
The Design Exhibition Showcase will highlight and explore work from Baltic and Nordic designers, focusing on upcycling, recycling and sustainability. In coordination with Spring Design Showcase events at Scandinavia House throughout the day, including the workshop “Denim Reborn | Upcycling with Reet Aus” and “Leather Bracelet Workshop with KARLOTTA” in the morning, and a Panel Discussion at 2 PM that will touch on themes relating to the international sustainable fashion industry, visitors will have the opportunity to meet and speak with Nordic and Baltic designers working with recycling, sustainability and upcycling, and purchase select items on display.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
REET AUS is a PhD-qualified Estonian fashion designer and environmental activist, a natural rebel who founded REET AUS COLLECTION®. She is a pioneer in the field of industrial upcycling for fashion, and has developed the UPMADE® certification, in order to pass on her knowledge to brands and factories.
Founded by Mare Kelpman, KELPMAN TEXTILES produces high-quality fashion and interior accessories using durable, natural materials. Known for traditional European weaving techniques, the brand offers unisex, limited-edition pieces crafted from 100% wool, silk, and linen. Mare is a professor, international exhibitor, and award-winning textile artist.
HYTI is a line of soap holders by Estonian designer Anne-Liis Leht. Using soda-lime glass, which, until now, has never been reprocessed or recycled in Estonia, the soap holders are fabricated, in both clear and colored glass, putting this material back into circulation.
SILE LUIK by Sille Luiga produces The Two Cents jewelry collection, which is made from stretched copper coins. For each earring, a cent is heated up and passed between two revolving steel cylinders – like letting a train rollover it.
Originally from Tallinn and now based in Copenhagen, KRISTEL KUSLAPUU is a bold, irony-driven knitwear designer with a master’s in fashion design. Her work challenges convention while staying rooted in slow fashion and ethical production. Pieces are made in Europe or hand-knit by Kristel using natural, responsibly sourced yarns.
One of Estonia’s top jewelry designers, ANNELI TAMMIK creates elegant, nature-inspired pieces. Her collections—such as Snow, Ice, Four Seasons, and Kameeleon—have been worn by Evelin Ilves, Queen Silvia of Sweden, and Empress Michiko of Japan.
KARLOTTA by Estonian designer Eva-Karlotta Tatar presents its collection in which old leather garments were used to create new value in things otherwise considered waste. As an outer material, old leather jackets are used, generally considered post-consumer waste, and the inner lining is a production leftover from an ECCO shoe factory.
ASTA VILHELMINA GUÓMUNDSDOTTIR is an Icelandic artist and fashion designer. Inspired by nature and natural fibers, she uses materials she finds in her environment, such as seaweed, wool, horsehair, silk, soil and plant fibers. Her artworks and clothing are inspired by the ever-changing Icelandic nature.
FRANZ RAVER’s founder and fashion designer, Susanna Peters, has been passionate about designing clothes since childhood. She completed a degree in Resource Management in clothing and textile at Tallinn University of Technology, and a Master’s Degree in fashion design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has won various fashion contests: Denim Dream’s competition in 2015, Apollo’s uniform competition in 2019, and the special prize at the Antonius Fashion Show by Hartwall in 2022. She has also participated in several sustainability-promoting clothing design workshops, among them the Global Fashion Summit in 2019, the largest sustainability-promoting fashion conference in Europe.
SANDRA LUKS is a multidisciplinary designer whose practice redefines the possibilities of denim re-use. One such example: In Sandra Luks’s practice, unraveled threads from ripped up old jeans are woven together into a delicate fabric that carries both the fortitude of workwear and the ethereal lightness of feathery lace, a true testament to the enduring power of sustainable design.
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A HAPPY DAY
2025-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
“Full of snow, love and empathy”—on May 21, see the poignant and darkly comedic film A Happy Day, directed by Hisham Zaman (A Letter to the King), in New Nordic Cinema!
Three teenage friends, stuck in a refugee camp in the frozen north of Norway, have plans to escape over the mountains to fulfill their dreams — ideally before their 18th birthdays, at which point they will be deported. But when one of theme falls in love, their plan begins to unravel… A bold and artistic film set amid the vast and snow-covered landscapes of northern Norway, A Happy Day is “truthful and empathetic, a gesture of hope and a promise that there’s light in the darkest of times” (Cineuropa).

SOLD OUT — THE DAY ICELAND STOOD STILL | WITH PRESIDENT OF ICELAND HALLA TÓMASDÓTTIR
2025-05-22 12:30 - 14:30 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
*This event is now sold out.*
Join us for a special screening of The Day Iceland Stood Still with President of Iceland Halla Tómasdóttir! H.E. Tómasdóttir will discuss her recollections of the historical events in the film and its relevance today with award-winning journalist Pat Mitchell following the screening.
When 90 percent of the women of Iceland walked off the job and out of their homes one fall morning in 1975 refusing to work, cook, or take care of the children, they brought their country to a standstill and catapulted Iceland to the “best place in the world to be a woman.” Told for the first time by the women themselves, and laced with playful animation, The Day Iceland Stood Still is subversive and unexpectedly funny. “We loved our male chauvinist pigs,” recalls one of the activists, “We just wanted to change them a little!”
Filmed in a collaboration between U.S. director Hogan, who campaigned as a high school student in the 1970s with her activist mother to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, and Icelandic producer Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, who at the age of seven accompanied her mother to the 1975 strike, the film features appearances by celebrities such as former Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the world’s first democratically elected female head of state, as well as music by Björk. Released in the lead-up to the strike’s 50th anniversary in 2025, the film’s message about the collective power of women to transform their society inspires viewers to reimagine the impossible.
This program is presented in the Curtis L. Carlson Distinguished Lecture Series.
“A worldwide cri de coeur…the overriding mood of the film is joy” (The Globe and Mail)
“A fascinating, captivating and humorous look at this inspirational movement, that’s a necessary watch today” (Yahoo News)

BATTLING MISINFORMATION IN THE AGE OF AI | VIRTUAL PANEL
2025-05-28 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a virtual panel on May 28 exploring Finland’s groundbreaking strides in battling misinformation and disinformation in media, with speakers Mikko Salo, Aki Saariaho, Kari Kivinen, Minna Aslama Horowitz and moderator Marc Monseau.
Finland is ranked first worldwide in media literacy, outpacing other nations in spotting and identifying disinformation and misinformation. This stems from the Finland’s focus on encouraging responsible media consumption through education efforts from primary school through adult education, including through partnerships with government agencies and nonprofit organizations including Faktabaari (FactBar), a fact-checking and digital information literacy service, to ensure that Finns have the critical understanding to separate fact from fiction.
In today’s discussion, Mikko Salo (Founder, Faktabaari), Aki Saariaho (educator and Faktabaari board member), Kari Kivinen (education expert, Finland), and Minna Aslama Horowitz (instructor/researcher, University of Helsinki and Faktabaari board member) will be joined by moderator and journalist Marc Monseau, who recently explored the subject in Scandinavian Review’s “Setting the Record Straight.” The program will include a digital presentation about responsible media consumption developed by Faktabaari. This will be followed by a discussion in which they’ll discuss how Finland encourages critical thinking skills to encourage appropriate use of media — including new communication technologies (like AI) — through a holistic educational approach that provides resiliency in the face of the onslaught of misinformation & disinformation. They’ll also discuss democratic debates in the age of Big Tech and share ways that audiences can be more responsible consumers of media, in both their professional and personal lives. Finally, they’ll also share ways that audiences can support domestic efforts to drive more responsible media consumption.
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SOLD OUT — SWEDISH FOLK PAINTING WITH EGG YOLK
2025-05-31 11:00 - 14:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
*This event is now sold out.*
Learn to make your own natural paint out of egg yolks in the style of folk paints from Southern Sweden! Historically paints were mixed from many different easily accessible bases, including egg yolks. In this intro level class, students will work alongside contemporary folk artist Pieper Bloomquist to mix multiple colors of paints and use them to paint some typical flowers found in older folk paintings in Southern Sweden. Suitable for any skill level, ages 12+. This program is presented in coordination with Nordic Echoes: Tradition in Contemporary Art, the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic folk arts and cultural traditions from the Upper Midwest.

DANISH CONSTITUTION DAY PRIX FIXE | BJÖRK CAFE & BISTRO
2025-06-05 11:00 - 20:00 | Björk Cafe & Bistro at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Glædelig Grundlovsdag, Danmark! Celebrate Denmark’s Constitution Day this June 5 with a special prix-fixe at Björk Cafe & Bistro.
$55/pp
RESERVATIONS

Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

SWEDISH NATIONAL DAY PRIX FIXE | BJÖRK CAFE & BISTRO
2025-06-06 11:00 - 20:00 | Björk Cafe & Bistro at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Glad Nationaldag!! Celebrate Sweden’s National Day on June 6 with a special prix-fixe at Björk Cafe & Bistro.
$55/pp
RESERVATIONS

Photo by Linus Mimietz on Unsplash

A WOMAN LOOKS OVER HER SHOULDER | NORDIC BOOK CLUB
2025-06-10 18:00 - 19:00
Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On June 10, we’ll be discussing A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, a collection by contemporary Icelandic poet Brynja Hjálmsdóttir that has been hailed as “peculiar and unforgettable,” “strange and compelling,” and “deeply weird,” and whose translation by Rachel Britton was the recipient of ASF’s 2023 Leif and Inger Sjöberg Prize.
In A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, one woman lives in a glass ball that is being shaken by someone else. This book of poems, however, is always shaking itself up, leaping between the extreme and the daily, the gross and the delicious, between being scared and being scary. These surreal, visceral, and somehow polite poems explore what it can be like to be a woman and to slither through and away from threat to find voice and form and power, no matter how strange. The apocalyptic utopia we arrive at in this book—The Whore’s City—is a perfect model to move to in one’s head: feminist, funny, odd, and a little disgusting, all towards transformation.
A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder is available in paperback from Circumference Books, from Asterism Books, and from Amazon.
Nordic Book Club Online meets virtually via Zoom.
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THE SWEDISH TORPEDO
2025-06-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
“[A] buoyant, self-willed, defiant biopic” — on June 11, see the heroic story of long-distance champion swimmer Sally Bauer in New Nordic Cinema!
In 1939, World War II is around the corner—but the only thing Sally Bauer (Josefin Neldén) can think of is the ocean. Obsessed with swimming since childhood, her father’s attempts to curb the habit have been unsuccessful, until an unwanted pregnancy forces her to abandon her dream. As an unwed single mother, she has no room for ambition. But when her sister Carla gives her renewed purpose, the two set out to dismantle the conventions working against them to realize Sally’s ultimate goal: swimming across the English Channel.
Facing sexism, raising a seven-year-old, and raising money to train and prepare abroad are daunting enough, and as war spreads across Europe, the Channel soon becomes a frontier between Allies and Axis powers. But as Sally steps onto the shores of Dover to take her first steps into the open and icy sea, her journey has only just begun. A complex and heroic film, The Swedish Torpedo (Den svenska torpeden, dir. Frida Kempff, Sweden 2024) features a riveting performance by Josefin Neldén as an ultimate trailblazer.
“Exhilarating and heartfelt… Josefin Neldén is utterly mesmerizing” (Reel News Daily)
This program has been supported by the Swedish Film Institute and the Swedish Institute.

KAISA'S MACHINE
2025-06-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join us on June 12 for a performance by jazz quartet Kaisa’s Machine, featuring acclaimed Finnish bass player and ASF Fellow Kaisa Mäensivu with Max Light (guitar), Eden Ladin (piano), and Joe Peri (drums)!
With compositions ranging from bouncy to groovy, to celebratory to existential, Kaisa’s Machine was formed by Mäensivu in 2015, and released the debut album In the Key of K in 2017. Now based in NYC, the group has brought new players into its orbit, and released the follow-up album Taking Shape with Greenleaf Music in 2023. With richly emotive and demanding writing, Mäensivu’s music features a sense of story, a sonic richness and surprise. As Mäensivu says, “The music captures the magic of New York, where the atmosphere is open to new things.”
“Strong, highly musical bass presence” — London Jazz News
“A band of young aces” — NYTimes
Photo—Anna-Maria Vikstrom

ROCKING RÖLAKAN COASTERS
2025-06-14 11:00 - 14:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Spend a summer morning weaving your own vibrant and contemporary coaster in the rölakan flat weave style with textile artist, Chrtistine Novotny. Students will each create their own unique tapestry while touching on elements of color blending and design. Each student will leave with knowledge of the rölakan technique and a new coaster tailored to their aesthetic preferences!

CHAT WITH THE CURATOR | NORDIC ECHOES
2025-06-14 14:15 - 14:50, 2025-06-17 18:15 - 18:50, 2025-06-18 18:15 - 18:50, 2025-06-19 18:15 - 18:50 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
On view through August 2, 2025 at Scandinavia House, Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art is the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic folk arts and cultural traditions from the Upper Midwest. Featuring 55 works by 24 contemporary artists whose practices are grounded in Nordic traditional skills, the exhibition will showcase the persistence and creativity of these traditions in the U.S. Looking at painting and textile traditions as well as works in wood and metal, Nordic Echoes highlights how variations on traditional themes and innovations have led to the emergence of living, evolving forms, exploring themes of identity and belonging as well as how traditions have been shaped by their U.S.-based environments. The exhibition is accompanied by a range of programming, including artist panels, artist-led workshops, folk concerts, and film screenings.
Prior to select events throughout the exhibition’s run, curator Sally Yerkovich will introduce the exhibition with comments on the artists and their practices, and will be present to chat about the exhibition during self-guided tours of the show. This includes all events during a special “Midsummer Week” from June 14 to 19, in celebration with the holiday’s storied background in Nordic traditions. Curator Chats meet in the Gallery elevator lobby.

WORKING WITH TEXTILES | NORDIC ECHOES PANEL
2025-06-14 15:00 - 16:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Held alongside our exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art, the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic artist traditions from the Upper Midwest, join us for a panel discussion with four artists featured in the show: Amber M. Jensen, Christine Novotny, and Lisa Wiitala. With exhibition curator Sally Yerkovich, they’ll discuss their works in the show and their respective practices as well as Nordic textile traditions.

KRISTIAN BUGGE AND RUTHIE DORNFELD
2025-06-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join fiddlers Kristian Bugge and Ruthie Dornfeld for an evening of traditional Danish folk music! Held alongside our ongoing exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art, this program takes place during a week-long series of special folk events in honor of Midsummer.

DWIGHT IN DENMARK
2025-06-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
See Dwight in Denmark, the marvelous story of Dwight Lamb, an old time Missouri Valley style fiddler who repatriated tunes learned from his father and grandfather that had gone extinct in Denmark, on Wednesday, June 18 at Scandinavia House! The screening will be followed by a film talk with Danish folk musician Kristian Bugge, a personal friend of Dwight’s. Held alongside our ongoing exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art, this program takes place during a week-long series of special folk events in honor of Midsummer.

SWEDISH MIDSUMMER CONCERT
2025-06-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join us for a Musical Midsummer Performance Concert with traditional music by Reprise, a group featuring Paul Dahlin and fiddlers from the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis! Held alongside our ongoing exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art, this program takes place during a week-long series of special folk events in honor of Midsummer.
Featuring: Paul Dahlin; Daniel Dahlin; Kristin Niehaus; Jennifer Olson; Ingela Haaland; Ruth Lemire; Frances Olson; Raine Nyembwe; Linnea Peters; Ross Sutter; Marikay Dahlin.

MIDSUMMER PRIX FIXE AT BJÖRK CAFE & BISTRO
2025-06-20 11:00 - 20:00 | Björk Cafe & Bistro at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Celebrate the longest day of the year with us Scandinavian-style! Björk Cafe & Bistro will be offering a special prix-fixe menu at the restaurant on June 20. It will also have boxes available for pre-order and pickup at this year’s Midsummer Festival on Friday, June 20 in Rockefeller Park.
MIDSUMMER PRIX FIXE
Friday, June 20; $65 pp
A special menu will include an appetizer with gravlax, herring, Jansson’s temptation, beet salad and more, entrees including Baked Arctic char, Matjes herring, and Havredals 50/50 Meatloaf, various dessert options and sparkling Nordic mimosas. Make a reservation.
MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL — ROCKEFELLER PARK
Friday, June 20
Björk Cafe & Bistro will be offering boxes for pre-order and pickup at this year’s Swedish Midsummer Festival in Rockefeller Park. Packages include a Midsummer Box for 4 ($125) a Herring Box for 2 ($30); a Meatball Platter ($15); and Peel & Eat Shrimp ($25). Order online by June 17 to pick up at Rockefeller Park on Friday, June 20 beginning at 4 PM. Order online.

HAPPY MIDSUMMER! A FAMILY ART WORKSHOP
2025-06-21 14:30 - 16:00
Attention, NYC families! Please join us for the family art workshop, Happy Midsummer, on June 21. Midsummer is an important and happy time in Scandinavia. To celebrate the occasion, NYC children and their families/caretakers are invited to an art workshop here at Scandinavia House. Families will make art; coloring and drawing, making a summer-themed collage, and making flower crowns from real flowers!
This workshop is intended for children from ages one to ten. Every participant—adults and children alike—must buy their own ticket to attend. Reservations are strongly encouraged.

MEMORIAL BY ALEJANDRO LEIVA WENGER | SATC READING
2025-06-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
See a staged reading from the Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC) of playwright Alejandro Leiva Wenger’s Memorial!
When Sackarias passes away suddenly, Jon accepts an invitation to attend his memorial service, grateful to be considered one of his closest high-school friends. There is only one problem: Jon has no memory of Sackarias, or their friendship…
Jon, guilt-ridden and eager to please, attends the memorial. What follows is a high-stakes improvisation game, as Jon hopes every piece of information he finds out about Sackarias will provide comfort and meaning to his loved ones – and trigger his memory of an important friendship.
Equal parts thriller and comedy, Memorial explores loss, the malleability of memory, language and its loopholes, and the narratives we tell ourselves about those we love, while elegantly interweaving existential questions with a wry and sometimes absurd humor.
The play has been translated by May-Brit Akerholt.

WINE & OIL EXPERIENCE | BJÖRK CAFÉ NYC & SOMM IN THE GROVE
2025-07-01 18:30 - 21:00 | Björk Cafe & Bistro at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Join us for an unforgettable evening of Nordic elegance and flavor at Björk Café at Scandinavia House! In this exclusive collaboration between Somm In The Grove and Chef Ulrika (founder and chef of Björk), a five-course dinner will take you on a culinary journey through Scandinavia — where modern Nordic cuisine meets carefully selected wines and handcrafted olive oils from Spain and Italy. Each dish is rooted in Scandinavian tradition, and finished with hand-harvested and sustainably sourced olive oils, highlighting purity, depth, and seasonal ingredients. Guided by Certified Wine & Olive Oil Sommelier Sara Jimenez of Somm In The City, the evening will showcase the art of pairing wine with olive oil-forward dishes in a warm, intimate setting.
Seating is limited—reserve now to enjoy an inspired evening of flavor, culture, and craftsmanship!
$105 pp
Reservations

PASTEL CHALK ON PAPER
2025-07-05 12:00 - 15:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
This series offers a gentle introduction to the tactile qualities of materials such as paper, pastel, paint, graphite pencil, and ink. Participants will explore the unique characteristics of various tools and surfaces, learning simple techniques to get started and discover inspiration—whether drawn from the inner world or the world around us. The focus is on the process of making: approaching art as a meditative, exploratory practice. Together, we’ll experiment, play, and pay close attention to what unfolds on the page, moment by moment. There are no expectations for finished pieces or specific outcomes —the class itself is the experience and the goal. Each session will close with a supportive group reflection, where we’ll share and appreciate each other’s progress, process, and discoveries.
In this course, students will explore and experiment with using various pastel chalks on paper.
The series can be experienced as a complete progression or as individual, standalone classes. Participants are welcome to sign up for the full series or choose single sessions—there is no requirement to attend every class.

MY FRIENDS | NORDIC BOOK CLUB ONLINE
2025-07-08 18:00 - 19:00
Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On July 8, we’ll be discussing My Friends by acclaimed Swedish author Fredrik Backman, a funny and deeply moving tale about a transformative bond between four teenagers, acclaimed as a “tribute to the forces that make an ordinary life extraordinary (BookPage).”
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find… A testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
My Friends is available in hardcover, eBook, and audio download from Simon & Schuster and other retailers.
Register

SOLD OUT — WATER-BASED PAINTING
2025-07-12 12:00 - 15:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
This event is now sold out.
This series offers a gentle introduction to the tactile qualities of materials such as paper, pastel, paint, graphite pencil, and ink. Participants will explore the unique characteristics of various tools and surfaces, learning simple techniques to get started and discover inspiration—whether drawn from the inner world or the world around us. The focus is on the process of making: approaching art as a meditative, exploratory practice. Together, we’ll experiment, play, and pay close attention to what unfolds on the page, moment by moment. There are no expectations for finished pieces or specific outcomes —the class itself is the experience and the goal. Each session will close with a supportive group reflection, where we’ll share and appreciate each other’s progress, process, and discoveries.
In this course, students will explore and experiment with water-based colored paint and water using brushes on paper.
The series can be experienced as a complete progression or as individual, standalone classes. Participants are welcome to sign up for the full series or choose single sessions—there is no requirement to attend every class.

AND WHEN THE LIGHT COMES IT WILL BE SO FANTASTIC | VIRTUAL BOOK TALK
2025-07-15 12:00 - 13:00
Join us for a virtual book talk with Norwegian poet Kristin Berget on when the light comes it will be so fantastic, with translator and poet Kathleen Maris Paltrineri. They’ll discuss the 2017 Brage Prize-nominated poetry collection, now out in translation from Northwestern University Press, with moderator Marisa Siegel (Fixed Stars, 2022).
and when the light comes it will be so fantastic weaves together themes of ecological and linguistic loss, memory and deep time, and motherhood and grief. Berget’s poetics point to landscapes used as sites of extraction, where exhausted phosphorus, starving clay layers, and forest machines are encountered. The poems in this collection traverse forests, deserts, and seas—their poetic matter separated by fields of caesuras, visual absences suggestive of Earth’s ongoing extinctions. As jurors of the Brage Prize commented, within these pages is a universe where humans can seldom be separated from one another or from the nature they live in and among. Berget’s first book translated into English is an innovative exploration of the climate crises we are living with today and the complex emotions that ebb and flow along with it.
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FOLKTALES | SCREENING & DIRECTOR TALK
2025-07-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
On July 16, see the acclaimed new documentary Folktales followed by a film talk by Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady! In this life-affirming masterpiece, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions. The film will be opening theatrically at IFC on July 25.
In Norse mythology, the three “Norns” are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans’ futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. Folktales tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional “gap year” learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.

SOLD OUT — CARVE A COOK SPOON!
2025-07-19 11:00 - 14:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Learn how to carve a spoon from a fresh cut tree using traditional Nordic carving techniques. We cover tree anatomy, axing out a blank (roughed out spoon shape), knife holds for the hook & sloyd knife, drying, and finishing. This class is great for the beginner or the person wanting to learn “Sloyd style” carving. The class fee includes tool rental, materials, a finishing kit, and safety gloves. Please wear pants and close-toed-shoes, as we are going to make some wood chips.
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METAL & WOOD WORK | NORDIC ECHOES PANEL
2025-07-19 15:00 - 16:00 | Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, United States
Held alongside our exhibition Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art, the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic artist traditions from the Upper Midwest, join us for a panel discussion with three featured in the show: Talon Cavender-Wilson, Elizabeth Belz and Jess Hirsch. With exhibition curator Sally Yerkovich, they’ll discuss their works in the show and their respective metalworking and woodworking practices.
