The Scandinavian Library and Scandinavian Children’s Library will be open for self-checkout this summer! Self-checkout is limited to library members, so make sure to sign up for your free library membership before visiting.
Coffee will be available in the library and coloring pages and drawing supplies in the children’s library downstairs. A staff member will be on site and can help with basic questions, but librarians will not be available. If you have a question for a librarian, we recommend you get in touch by contacting chip@scandicenter.org via email.
Library hours this summer are scheduled for every other Wednesday beginning July 1st from 11am – 3pm. Regular library hours will resume in September. See below for a list of dates we will be open, and continue to check here and follow us on social media for updates.
Voulez-vous like to play some bingo? Take a chance on us Thursday, October 1st for a music bingo night featuring the songs of Swedish pop legends ABBA!
Here’s the name of the game: you’ll get a bingo card and fill it with hits such as “Waterloo,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Take A Chance On Me.” Then, we’ll shuffle a playlist, and when you hear one of your songs, mark it on your card. The first person to get five songs across will win a special prize–the winner takes it all!
There will (obviously) be a disco ball, and dancing is encouraged! We welcome you to dress up in all manners of sequins, bellbottoms, and lurex. Drinks and Swedish candy will be available for purchase, and an array of exciting prizes available to win! Don’t let this opportunity go slipping through your fingers…
Thursday, October 1st | 7 – 8:30pm | $20, $10 for members | tickets
The Scandinavian Cultural Center & Library is excited to be hosting a theater workshop this summer! The program will run from July 13th – 31st for kids ages 8-12 who are interested in acting and theater production. We will be putting on a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s classic play Peer Gynt, adapted for community theater by Barry Kornhauser. The workshop will meet every weekday from 9am to 4pm and we will cast the play, build the sets, develop acting skills, design the costumes, and rehearse our lines to ready for the performance on July 31st for family and friends.
Does this sound like something your child would be interested in? Learn more by clicking the links in the blue boxes above, then sign up by filling out this form. Once you have submitted the form, we will contact you to continue enrollment.
Email caroline@scandicenter.org if you have more questions or would like to set up a call to discuss if this is a good fit for your child.
Presented as June’s Library film choice: Odd Fish (Ljósvíkingar)
Odd Fish (Icelandic: Ljósvíkingar) is a 2024 Icelandic drama film directed and written by Snævar Sölvi Sölvason. When two childhood friends get an unexpected opportunity to keep their fish restaurant open all year round, one of them comes out of the closet as a trans woman, putting a strain on their friendship and they see their lives in a new light.
Saturday June 14th | 1pm | $10; $5 for members | Tickets
In Icelandic with English subtitles | Drama | 104 min.
⚔️ BERSERK RETURNS! ⚔️ Sharpen your axes and gather your clan—BERSERK, our epic Viking festival, is storming back into town on Saturday, May 31st!
🏕️ TWO Rival Viking Encampments will take over the front lawn—witness warriors crafting tools of the past, playing traditional Viking games, and clashing in combat demonstrations throughout the day. It all leads up to an all-out battle to the “death” at 2PM—you won’t want to miss it!
🕚 WHEN: 11am – 3pm 🎟️ TICKETS: Adults $20 in advance ($25 day of), Kids 12 & under $10 ($15 day of)
💥 Want to be part of the raid? We’re still welcoming Volunteers, Vendors, and Food Trucks to join our mighty village. Sign up here!
🔥 HAPPENING INSIDE THE NORDIC HALL: 🕛 12:00 PM – Dr. William Short presents Life, Death, and Afterlife: Religion in the Viking Age A deep dive into the spiritual world of the Norse!
🛡️ ON THE LAWN:
🌲 Viking Encampments Step into the world of Norse warriors—explore daily life, tools, and traditions in our rival camps.
🎶 Live Performance by Merulae – 1pm on the lawn Experience hauntingly beautiful melodies inspired by ancient Nordic soundscapes.
🛡️ Crafts, Games & Warrior Training Fun for all ages—test your skills, train like a Viking, and unleash your inner shield-maiden or berserker!
💪 Stone Lifting Challenge with New England Stone Lifting Prove your strength in this traditional feat of might—can you lift the stone?
🔮 Rune & Viking Tarot Readings by Michi Tarot(Additional cost) Seek guidance from the runes or peer into the Viking mystic with an intuitive tarot session.
⚔️ Climactic Battle at 2PM The rival camps collide in an epic showdown—don’t miss the action!
🐉🔥 DRAGON ALERT! 🔥🐉 On behalf of Universal Pictures & DreamWorks Animation, the Boston Universal team is flying into BERSERK Viking Festival with free promotional goodies for the new HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON movie — plus movie passes!
This exhibit is a deeply personal collection of photographs capturing the beauty of Sweden, primarily from Medelpad, where Karina Granbom grew up, and the Stockholm region, where she spends much of her time. Each year, she brings these images back with her to the U.S. as a way to stay connected to the country that shaped her. For Karina, preserving this bond is essential—it keeps her grounded. And, much to her children’s amusement (or dismay), she never misses a chance to share stories about Sweden with those she meets.
Photography has become her way of sharing not just places, but emotions. By enlarging and exhibiting her landscapes, she hopes to transport viewers to the moments that move her, allowing them to experience a piece of Sweden, whether they have been there or not.
Karina is a Swedish portrait photographer based outside Boston. She is an active member of SWEA Boston, the Swedish School of Boston, and SACCNE (Swedish American Chamber of Commerce New England). Every summer, she returns with her family to central Sweden, spending time in Sundsvall and Fränsta.
A few years ago, she and her brother became the latest caretakers of their family’s summer house, a historic farmhouse in Fränsta. As the 13th generation on that land, they feel both the pride and the responsibility of carrying on a legacy that stretches back centuries.
Through this exhibit, Karina invites you to see Sweden through her eyes—her heart, captured in every frame.
The Kaufmann Duo (Mattias and Charles Kaufmann) will play Norwegian folk dances collected by Norwegian folklorist Klara Semb (1884–1970) and their own arrangements of Scandinavian folk music.
Saturday, April 26th | 1pm | $20; $10 for members | Tickets
Mattias Kaufmann is an accordionist based in Boston, MA, known for their innovative compositional work with the critically acclaimed interdisciplinary Yiddish theater group Magid Ensemble. They have studied with masters of the accordion in the USA and abroad, such as American accordionist Guy Klucevsek and Serbian accordionist Nenad Ivanović, and are a member of the New England Greek Orchestra, led by world-famous Greek musicians Vasilis Kostas and George Lernis. Mattias holds a degree in Contemporary Musical Arts from New England Conservatory and enjoys examining the threads that connect different styles of folk music from around the world.
Charles Kaufmann is an award-winning writer, historian, filmmaker, composer, bassoonist, organist, and the founding director of The Longfellow Chorus, a professional non-profit performing arts organization in Portland, Maine. During the 1980s, he was a bassoonist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Musikkselskapet Harmonien) in Bergen, Norway, where he recorded solo bassoon works for NRK Radio, including premiere recordings of those by Norwegian composer Øistein Sommerfeldt. In 2012, he arranged a rare visit to the US by Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen for performances with the Orchestra of The Longfellow Chorus of concert violin music by Ole Bull (1810–1880). Also in 2012, he edited, translated subtitles, and screened in Portland’s Nickelodeon Theatre the remarkable documentary for children “Ole Bull’s Fairy Tale” (NRK TV, 1982), starring Arve Tellefsen, currently available on YouTube as “Arve Tellefsen in Ole Bull’s Fairy Tale.”
Swedish Pianist Lana Suran is coming to the Nordic Hall for a solo recital.
Lana Suran is an award-winning Swedish pianist and one of the leading Scandinavian pianists of her generation. Hailed by the Augsburger Allgemeine as ‘simply an outstanding artist’, Lana is armed with the insights that flow from a deep understanding of her nature and the ability to communicate the most powerful and personal emotions. Her expressive pianism rises directly from the heart to reveal the tremendous vitality and range of her inner emotional landscape. The eloquent honesty of her interpretations is supported by a rare sensibility for tonal nuance and shading, a combination that gives surging life to strikingly mature performances of an equally striking range of repertoire.
Lana’s artistic credo has been shaped by her determination to grow naturally as a performer, without undue haste or cutting corners. “Making music, for me,” she notes, “is something that cannot be compromised. I want people to feel something when they hear me play. This demands giving more of everything, physically, emotionally, spiritually.” Fluent in six languages and at home on both sides of the Atlantic, her cosmopolitan outlook is reflected in the breadth of her recital programmes and explorations in the field of chamber music. Her repertoire list encompasses the great landmarks of the keyboard literature, including Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations, Chopin’s Ballades and Schumann’s Humoreske and such 20th-century classics as Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2 and Prokofiev’s late piano sonatas.
Friday, April 25th | 7pm | $20; $10 for members | Tickets
