Presented as part of The Scandinavian Library’s Nordic Film Series, The Bothersome Man shares the story of Andreas arriving in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job and an apartment, but before long, he notices that something is wrong. The people around him seem cut off from any real emotion and communicate only in superficialities. He makes an attempt to escape from the city, but he discovers there is no way out. Andreas meets a man who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack, but from where? Directed by Jens Lien. 90 minutes. In Norwegian with English subtitles. 2007
Free; donations accepted.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
You’ve heard about CSAs – Community Supported Agriculture. What about “community supported culture“? Join us as a shareholder and collect your bounty in the form of cultural programs and events. As an SCC shareholder, you are entitled to many benefits, including the knowledge that you are supporting:
the sharing of Nordic culture;
engaging programming which enriches the lives of those who participate; and,
a unique model which promotes sustainability and a shared celebration of culture by showcasing events and programs inside a residential community
Aside from being a leading investor in the growth of the SCC, benefits include:
Free admission to select SCC events
Preferred seating
An invitation to an annual Shareholder Forum where you can contribute your ideas and feedback about programming and the future of the SCC
Sign up as a “Shareholder” for $75.
Or as a “Shareholder Plus” for $125 (all of the above benefits plus the ability to bring a guest to every event!). DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT: Thanks to a longtime supporter of SCC parent organization, The Scandinavian Charitable Society of Greater Boston, all contributions made to the SCC through the end of the year will be matched, dollar for dollar. This includes contributions gleaned from membership dues!
What is a “Fika”? Fika is a social institution in Sweden; it means having a break, most often a coffee break, with one’s colleagues, friends, date or family. The word “fika” can serve as both a verb and a noun. Swedes, like most Scandinavians, consider coffee an important part of their culture.
Rachel Panitch and David Kaynor’s Fiddling Duo brings together the sweet sounds of fiddle harmonies from many regions of Sweden and New England. Hear the stories behind the tunes as they perform polskas, schottisches, waltzes and walking tunes. David Kaynor is a Western Massachusetts-based fiddler, caller, dance composer, and organizer. He is an ambassador for New England fiddle music on his travels in Sweden, and an ambassador for Swedish music whenever he returns home. Rachel Panitch is is a fiddler, violinist, teacher and improviser living in the Boston area, and originally learned many of her favorite fiddle tunes from David. A mutual musical admiration brings them together for this special duo performance.
David Kaynor is a fiddler, caller, dance composer, and organizer of a well-known Greenfield contra dance series in western Massachusetts, a training ground for many of today’s most talented dance musicians. He has made influential recordings with The Fourgone Conclusions, Three Good Reasons, the Greenfield Dance Band, and fiddler/teacher Betsy Branch of Portland, Oregon. David has served on the staffs of Ashokan, Fiddle Tunes, Northeast Heritage Music Camp, the Lady of the Lake, and many other dance camps and weekends. He is an ambassador for New England fiddle music on his travels in Sweden, and an ambassador for Swedish music whenever he returns home.
Rachel Panitch is a fiddler, teacher and improviser living in the Boston area. Rachel is a contra dance fiddler with bands French Roast and Pizzazz, she performs with Classical music with the Cardamom Quartet, and tells stories with Thread Ensemble: an improvisatory trio of violins, voices and vibraphone. Rachel’s fiddling was part of the Emmy-nominated soundtrack for the 2009 PBS documentary “The Mosque in Morgantown.” She has been an artist-in-residence in neighborhoods, in schools, and most recently, in Zion National Park. Rachel received her Masters of Music in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory in 2013.
Presented with support from the Barbro Oscher Pro Suecia Foundation
Presented as part of The Scandinavian Library’s Nordic Film Series, a trio of Danish comedians, who call themselves The Red Chapel pretend to be Korean regime sympathizers and stage a ridiculous variety show in Pyongyang. “Shocking, funny and wildly outrageous,” says the New York Times. Winner of World Cinema Jury Prize Documentary at Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Mads Brugger. 88 minutes. In Danish with English subtitles. Free; donations accepted.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
By special arrangement with The Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC, The SCC proudly hosts “Von Echstedtska Gården.” The photo series is one of three exhibitions included in Värmland: Stories to be Told, The Embassy’s 2014 collaboration with Sweden’s Värmland Museum to share the uniqueness of the historical province. The photographs capture the beauty of an 18th century manor.
Rustic elegance, symmetry, and simplicity plus biblical scenes and solemn austerity unite with floral paintings and curvy baroque legs during the 1700s in Sweden. The garden gives forth magical herbs and apples from Värmland. Step into Värmland’s enchanted Rococo dream captured by Lars Sjöqvist, photographer at Värmlands Museum. When Bengt von Echstedt and his wife Christina Catharina built the manor in 1762-64, they were certainly not the first people to settle there, but it is their interesting buildings that remain. Today the manor is considered to be one of Sweden’s best preserved Carolinian estates.
Join us on a journey through the darker, but fictional sides of Sweden – as seen and described by the numerous Swedish crime authors delighting fans of murder and mystery worldwide.
The exhibition Swedish Crime Scenes will take us from Ystad in the south to Kiruna in the north. A few years ago there were three Swedish crime fiction authors on the top ten list of most sold novels in Europe. Considering Sweden’s population of nine million, compared with over 800 million for Europe as a whole, it is something of a phenomenon. Sweden is not seen as a crime-ridden country but through authors like Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser, and many others, it has become known for fictional crimes.
Directed by Fridrik por Fridriksson. This is a story of a film director’s personal experience with Alzheimer’s disease as his mother slips into this descent. While he is having difficulty with his mother and her illness, he is also having financial problems because his film Children of Nature is not doing well in the Icelandic film marketplace. 90 minutes. In Icelandic with English subtitles. 2010.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
Presented as an official event of Newton’s Festival of the Arts and ArtWeek Boston, artist Anna Kristina Goransson and musician Maria Finkelmeier collaborate to create an interactive multimedia installation inspired by the sights and sounds of summer in Sweden. Goransson’s organic felted wool sculptures combine with Finkelmeier’s percussion-based soundscapes to immerse the spectator in the solace of Swedish summers. Read a blog post about their process here and here.
Reception: Thursday, May 7th 5:30-7:30pm (Artist Talk/Performance at 6:30pm)
Nordic Hall
Refreshments will be served.
About Kristina
Kristina spent her childhood in northern Sweden before moving to the United States in 1985. Art has always been a significant part of her life, helping her through not knowing English when she arrived in Atlanta, GA. Kristina entered more structured art making as an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design in 1994 where she received her BFA in Furniture. After graduating she spent two seasons at Anderson Ranch Arts Center assisting classes in the wood program before moving back to the East Coast.
Feeling ready for change, Kristina eventually went back to school for Fiber Arts at the University of Massachusetts and received her MFA in 2008. During graduate school, Kristina spent the first year exploring the different textile techniques until she found felt. Discovering the possibilities that felting had to offer, she spent the rest of her time in graduate school creating felted sculpture.
She continued her felted work as an artist-in-residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2009. Kristina maintains her love for felting and continues to explore wool’s possibilities, finding new ways to push the limits of the material. She teaches workshops to educate others about the incredible versatility of wool along with other fibers processes. Kristina continues her work as a maker, creating art influenced by the beauty of form and pattern in nature.
About Maria
Described by the Boston Globe as “unfailingly energetic,” Maria Finkelmeier is a performer, educator, and active arts entrepreneur based in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to rooting in New England, she spent three years in Northern Sweden at the Piteå Institution for Music and Media as an artist in residence. She is co-founder of the international percussion group, Ensemble Evolution, with whom she has given performances and masterclasses throughout Europe, Australia, and the US. In 2013, Ensemble Evolution presented a showcase concert at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, performing their self-composed and released album “Sounds from the Treetops.” Maria’s clarinet and percussion duo, Clone Duo, has also performed internationally and recently merged with Sweden duo En Vokalist & En Cellist to create Quartet Kalos. Maria currently serves as Program Manager of the Entrepreneurial Musicianship Department at the New England Conservatory, helping to equip young artists with the skills they need to build fulfilling musical lives, directs the free outdoor music event Make Music Boston and is the Percussive Arts Society Massachusetts State Chapter President.
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen) crossed the Pacific Ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settle on Polynesian islands. After gathering financing for the trip with loans and donations, they set off on an epic 101 day-long journey across 8,000 kilometers, all while the world was watching. KON-TIKI tells about the origin of Heyerdahl’s idea and the events surrounding the group’s voyage. 118 minutes. In Norwegian with English subtitles. Presented as part of The Scandinavian Library’s Nordic Film Series.
Free; donations accepted.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open 11am to 3pm every Saturday.
After their public showing movies in our film series become part of the Scandinavian Library’s collection of DVDs available for borrowing by Library members.
Actress Kristín G. Magnus will tell you about historical events, mysterious folkstories such as the Hidden People, the Seal who turned into a Human Being, and a spine-tingling ghost story, complete with Icelandic music and chanting of old rhymes.
Geared for adults and children age 7 & up.
This is a charity performance to support “Vildarbörn” Icelandair’s Special Children Travel Fund.
About Kristín G. Magnús
Director, Producer, Actress, Playwright, Lecturer and Teacher of Dramatic Art and Improvisation, Magnús studied ballet at the National School of Ballet, Iceland and at the Ballet Rambert, London and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London. She was awarded the Gerald Lawrence Shakespeare Scholarship at RADA.
Magnús played various parts in television drama productions on the BBC and ITV in England. On stage in England, she participated in Charles Marowitz’s Workshop and played two roles in a touring production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, directed by James Roose-Evans.
