Opening Reception December 20:  “A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home”

HANCOCK, MI – An opening reception for the traveling art exhibit, “A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home,” will take place at the Finlandia University Gallery Thursday, December 20, 2007, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.  The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

At the reception, Jon Saari, Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC) board president, and several participating artists will give a brief gallery talk about the goals of UPEC and the role of artists in celebrating the Upper Peninsula’s unique beauty.

Organized by UPEC and co-curated by artists Joyce Koskenmaki and Christine Saari, “A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home” features pieces in various media from eleven artists from across the Upper Peninsula. It is on display through January 31, 2008.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Please call 906-487-7500 for more information.

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Organized by the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition

Exhibit Dates: December 20, 2007 to January 31, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 20, 2007, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

HANCOCK, MI – The Finlandia University Gallery, in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, will host the traveling art exhibition, ”A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home,” December 20, 2007, through January 31, 2008.

An opening reception for the artists will take place at the gallery Thursday, December 20, 2007, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

At the reception, Jon Saari, UPEC board president, and several participating artists will give a brief gallery talk about the goals of UPEC and the role of artists in celebrating the Upper Peninsula’s unique beauty.

Organized by the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC), and co-curated by artists Joyce Koskenmaki and Christine Saari, “A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home” features eleven artists from across the Upper Peninsula.

The exhibit includes pieces in various media from Joyce Koskenmaki of Hancock, John Lundeen of Munising; Ron Lukey, Christine Saari, Patrick St. Germain, and Vicki Allison Phillips of Marquette; Ingrid Blixt of Escanaba; Eric Munch of Calumet; Peg Sandin of Ironwood; Jan Manniko from the Keweenaw; and Rex Marsh of Sault Ste. Marie.

Co-curator Joyce Koskenmaki has a special connection to the Upper Peninsula; “My grandparents came from Finland and settled in Baraga County around the turn of the century. I was raised here, imprinted by the land and climate, and grounded in family history…. I helped curate this exhibition because I wanted to celebrate what growing up here and coming back to live here after a lifetime away has meant to me as a Finnish-American woman. It is a very special history, and this is a very special place.”

Choosing artists for the exhibit who share her love of the Upper Peninsula was an easy task for Koskenmaki. She explains, “There are many wonderful artists living in the Upper Peninsula, These artists choose to live in the relative wilderness for many reasons; chief among them is the love for place.”

“The Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition,” Koskenmaki explains, “is concerned about encroaching development, as well as the effects of climate change, forest fragmentation, and (metallic) sulfide mining. This exhibition honors the voices of artists who love the land and feel deeply connected to it, offering their work as a celebration and an act of love and concern.”

Connecting the themes of nature and home was obvious for Jon Saari of UPEC, “Home is where we want to be most, where we have chosen to root our lives and to get to know a place deeply and broadly. It sets man-made and natural places together: the house in the yard, the camp in the clearing, the canoe on the lake, the trail in the woods. At home, nature is familiar and approachable, and in small doses we are most at ease with it.”

Saari believes that artists see the world in a unique and meaningful way, “Artists see the wider world with their senses, and reflect it back to the rest of us with colors, lines, textures, frames, and surprising images. They are often the first to sense disturbances, and to hold them in the steady gaze of their art. They speak indirectly; their art seldom has the insistence of a poster or the certainty of an ideology.”

“Celebration is not just fireworks and partying”, adds Saari. “At the deeper levels, we honor what we celebrate. We honor the U.P. not because it is an easy or convenient place to live, but because it tempers us with long winters and black flies, and rewards us with quiet outings in beautiful and remote places.”

”A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula as Home” will be on display through January 31, 2008. The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday, 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., or by appointment. Please call 906-487-7500 for more information.

For photos, please contact karen.johnson@finlandia.edu or 906-487-7348.

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Free Business Counseling Tuesday, December 11

HANCOCK, MI – The Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance (KEDA) and Finlandia University invite area entrepreneurs to take advantage of free one-on-one business counseling sessions at the university’s Jutila Center for Global Design and Business (CGDB) on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

Business consultant Roger Woods of Homer Productivity, LLC, can advise on all aspects of small business development from the initial idea through growth and expansion strategies.

Appointments are recommended and can be made by phone (906-487-7450) or e-mail (cgdb@finlandia.edu).

The CGDB is located at the Finlandia University Portage Campus (formerly Portage Hospital), at 200 Michigan St., Hancock.

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Finlandia Student Gallery Exhibit Opens December 6

HANCOCK, MI – The student-run Reflection Gallery at Finlandia University’s Portage Campus will open a Diploma Works exhibit by studio arts senior Christine Sommerfeldt Thursday, December 6, 2007. A reception and artist’s talk, will begin at 4:00 p.m.

The work of Christine Sommerfeldt will be exhibited through December 21, 2007. Her show, “Sun Over Revolving Cycles,” is a series of four large oil paintings each titled for one of the four seasons.

Sommerfeldt says that the paintings express her personal thoughts about the cycles of human life and death, and associate these cycles with nature. Each painting represents a different season and offers the artist’s personal vision of how all humans are connected.

Born and raised in the Upper Peninsula, Sommerfeldt graduated from Houghton High School in 2003 and for two semesters attended Northern Michigan University. She completes a bachelor of fine arts at Finlandia this semester. Sommerfeldt says she plans to pursue a master of fine arts so she will have the opportunity to teach at the college level.

The Reflection Gallery is on the second level of Finlandia’s Portage Campus, Hancock. For additional information, please contact Yueh-mei Cheng, associate professor of studio arts, at 906-487-7375 or yuehmei.cheng@finlandia.edu.

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Reception for Art Club Silent Auction December 6

HANCOCK, MI – The student-run Reflection Gallery at Finlandia University’s Portage Campus will host a reception for the Bohemian Artist Coalition’s pre-holiday silent auction Thursday, December 6, 2007, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

The featured student art work is on display, and bids will be accepted, from December 2 until December 14. More than half the sales price will be donated to the Bohemian Artists’ Coalition. With the funds, the student club plans to either take a trip re-invest in Portage Campus facilities.

Also at the reception, student ceramic works will be available for purchase, and a ceramics demonstration will take place.

The Reflection Gallery is on the second level of Finlandia’s Portage Campus, Hancock. For additional information, please contact Yueh-mei Cheng, Finlandia associate professor of studio arts, at 906-487-7375 or yuehmei.cheng@finlandia.edu.

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Finnish Independence Day Celebration December 6

HANCOCK, MI – The 90th anniversary of Finland’s independence will be celebrated Thursday, December 6, 2007, at 6:00 p.m., at the Finlandia University Finnish American Heritage Center

The keynote speaker is Finlandia President Philip Johnson. President Johnson joins the celebration for the first time as president of the university.

A selection of Finnish music will be performed by local musicians Pasi Lautala, Oren Tikkanen, and David Bezotte, and a two-act play, “The Boarding House,” will be presented.

“The Boarding House” is a drama written in the 1920s for the Finnish American cooperative and labor movement. It depicts an afternoon in the life of three miners as they cope with naturalization problems and try to find the perfect woman. The play will be performed in Finnish.

The play was translated to English by German-Finnish national Tanja Aho. Aho, whose research interests are in Finnish American literature, recently completed an internship with the Finlandia archives. She attends the Ernst-Mortiz-Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany.

Now a member of the European Union, Finland was part of the Swedish realm for some 600 years until 1809 when it became attached to the Russian empire. In 1906 Finland acquired its own national parliament, and on December 6, 1917, a Russian revolution prompted Finland to declare herself independent. Russia’s Bolshevik government recognized Finnish independence on December 31, 1917.

Traditionally, Finnish Independence Day is a solemn observance of those that made freedom possible for Finland. In recent decades, however, celebrations often include fireworks, parades and celebratory cakes decorated with the blue and white Finnish flag.

For more information about this year’s program, please contact James Kurtti, director of the Finnish American Heritage Center, at 906-487-7302.

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