Finnish Theatre Information Centre wishes You a Happy New Year 2010!   

Finnish Theatre Information Centre will have a new director while prevailing director Riitta Seppälä will retire during August 2010. New director is Master of Arts Hanna-Leena Helavuori. Helavuori has been director of Theatre Museum for over 20 years and she has also been director in Finnagora - Finnish centre for culture during 2005-2007.

Finnish Theatre Information Centre’s Communication Officer Anneli Kurki was retired 31st December 2009. She worked for 40 years with theatre. In Finnish Theatre Information Centre she worked since 1982.

Finnish Theatre Information Centre is leader for a project called Seeds of Imagination. With the project partners will build bridges between Russia and the EU, particularly Finland, by means of theatre and the performing arts. It targets performing arts professionals including actors, directors, writers, designers, producers, critics, students, translators etc.

Finnish Theatre Information Centre is coordinating together with other Finnish national information centres a project called TAIVEX that aims to enhance the internationalization of the Finnish arts field. Project started 1st of April 2009 and it lasts until 31st of December 2011.

The aim of the project is also to work towards better networking within the culture sector and wider knowledge of the international arts market. Within TAIVEX two training and mentoring periods are organized for the mediators, in which also the producers, gallerists, curators and other Finnish fine arts professionals are attending.

Senior manager training programme received over 100 applications. In November 2009 started first group of 35 people with the focus in performing arts. A second group will start in February 2010 focusing in visual arts management. 

TAIVEX is coordinated by Finnish national information centres of culture: Finnish Theatre Information Centre, Finnish Dance Information Centre, Finnish Literature Exchange Centre FILI, Finnish Fund for Art Exchange FRAME and Finnish Circus Information Centre. Also three cities Helsinki, Turku and Tampere are partners in the project.

PRACTICS is a 3-year project coordinated by the Finnish Theatre Information Centre which joined forces with ten other cultural organisations from six EU-countries with the aim to facilitate the provision of information about EU cross-border mobility in the cultural sector.

The project will develop so-called PRACTICS Infopoints which are conceived as “EU Cultural Mobility Contact Points” and piloted in four EU-countries: Belgium, Spain, Wales and the Netherlands. Their task will be to offer relevant and user-friendly information to foreign cultural workers who want to work in the countries in which the PRACTICS Infopoints are based and to national cultural workers who want to work in another EU-country.

Share your experience!

PRACTICS is looking for mobile experiences and stories of mobility. Your mobility stories are interesting for the project and to other artists and cultural professionals wanting to be mobile in the EU. PRACTICS is collecting mobility stories from mobile artists and cultural workers. Comments will be moderated and selected stories and tips published on PRACTICS web pages. Be part of PRACTICS and tell how you experience mobility - make your voice hear! Link to questions: www.practics.org/50_Be_part_of_PRACTICS!

Festivals in Finland in January, February and March 2010

Amateur Theatre Festival in Mikkeli
Mikkeli, 29.-31. January 2010
Savilahdenkatu 11, 50100 Mikkeli
+358-15-4110 434, fax 4110 435
tnp(at)mikkelinteatteri.fi
www.tnp.fi

Oulu Children's Theatre Festival
Oulu, 22.-28. February 2010
Oulun kaupunginteatteri, PL 5, 90015 Oulun kaupunki
+358-8-5584 7000, fax 5584 7099
teatteri(at)ouka.fi
http://teatteri.ouka.fi/festival/en/home

Bravo - International Children´s Theatre Festival
Helsinki, 14.-21. March 2010
Finnish Assitej Centre, Meritullinkatu 33, 00170 Helsinki
+358-44-0866 355
info(at)assitejfi.org
www.assitejfi.org

Up

Mika Myllyaho's Panic – Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown had a premiere in Riga, Latvia on 5th November 2009 in the The Daile Theatre. The play is directed by Gundars Cauka.

Are there Tigers in Congo? by Bengt Ahlfors and Johan Bargum will be on stage in Théâtre de la Balsamine in Brussels, Belgium on 2.-13. February 2010.

Y a-t-il des tigres au Congo? is played by French and it is directed by Isabelle Paternotte and the actors are Olivier Darimont and Jan Hammenecker. Play will be performed later also in Liège.

Douglas Pashley’s Spin – the musical has its premiere in 7th of May 2010 in Shanghai, China. The musical is produced in cooperation with the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki’s Ace Production and Shanghai Dramatic Art Centre. It is directed by Georg Malvius, choreography is by Igor Barberic and set design by Ellen Caerns.

Ace Production produces also the first Chinese adaptation of Tove Jansson’s moomins together with East Children´s Art Group. Moomin Pappa at Sea has its premiere in 15th of May 2010 in Shanghai Grand Theatre. Director and dramaturg is Anneli Mäkelä.

The Finnish National Theatre will have a new director when Maria-Liisa Nevala, who has been director in The Finnish National Theatre since 1992, will be retired. New director is director-playwright Mika Myllyaho.
The Finnish National Theatre www.kansallisteatteri.fi

Tampere Theatre www.tampereenteatteri.fi

Joensuu City Theatre http://kaupunginteatteri.jns.fi

Rovaniemi Theatre – the Regional Theatre of Lapland will have two new directors. Atro Kahiluoto and Masi Eskolin will take the lead from Rovaniemi Theatre after Tytti Oittinen.
Rovaniemi Theatre www.rovaniementeatteri.fi

Living Room 306.4 km² is a city art festival on site-specific art. Living Room invites artists or artist groups to create an art work, installation or performance.
 
City art festival Living Room 306.4 km²
- is an annual festival organized by the Living Room Art Society (Olohuone in Finnish)
- takes place from the 2nd to the 5th of June in Turku, a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland
- aspires to get people to participate and see everyday surroundings from a new point of view
- got its name from Turku’s physical size. The total area of the city is 306.4 km²
- transforms the city into one big living room for four days
- has no entrance fees
 
Shadow is the theme for the proposals 2010
How do shadows move, change and disappear in the city? What kinds of shapes have the shadows of thoughts? What kinds of colours can be seen in the shadows?
 
Proposals must include a filled application form and the applicant’s CV.
Deadline for of the proposals is the 24th of January, 2010.
 
Please submit your proposal by mail to:
Olohuone ry, Linnankatu 24, 20100 Turku, Finland
 
Selection process
All the proposals will be reviewed by the executive committee of the Living Room Art Society along with two invited experts. The society will contact all the artists after the selection at the latest by the end of February, 2010. The society will pay a stipend of 200 € for the selected artists and cover the expenses of approximately 200-700 € including materials for the art work and travel expenses. The amount of selected art works has varied from 7 to 14 depending on the year.
 
The Living Room Art Society is responsible for the festival’s organization, communication and marketing.