Finlandia Foundation Boston Proudly Presents Finlandia Foundation National Performer of the Year: Violinist Charlotte Loukola.
Join us for a captivating solo performance that takes audiences on a musical journey across the globe—from the United States to South America and Europe. Charlotte’s program showcases the violin’s versatility across genres, blending her artistry with personal storytelling. Having studied at both Finland’s prestigious Sibelius Academy Youth Department and the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York, Charlotte brings technical brilliance and heartfelt passion to the stage. The performance culminates in a tribute to her Finnish roots, featuring traditional folk melodies and a nod to her great-uncle Hannes Laine, a pioneer of Finnish accordion music in New York City.
Experience the warmth and spirit of Finland through Charlotte’s remarkable violin performance—a celebration of culture, connection, and timeless music.
Join us for a book talk with author Joan Wickersham as she discusses her book No Ship Sets Out To Be A Shipwreck in conversation with author Suzanne Matson.
In this nonfiction/poetry hybrid, Wickersham meditates on a Swedish warship Vasa, which sank only minutes into its maiden voyage and lay forgotten underwater until it was found and raised more than three hundred years later.
No Ship Sets Out To Be A Shipwreck is a contemplative, strange, passionate, funny, and haunting book that both is and isn’t about the ship – a personal yet universal reckoning with mortality, and the question of what vanishes and what endures.
Saturday March 15th | 1pm | Free with registration | Tickets
ABOUT JOAN: In addition to No Ship Sets Out To Be A Shipwreck, Joan Wickersham is the author of The News from Spain and The Suicide Index, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work has been published in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, as well as many magazines. She is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe, where her op-ed column has been running for the past 15 years.
ABOUT SUZANNE:Suzanne Matson’s two volumes of poetry are Sea Level and Durable Goods, from Alice James Books. Her four novels are The Hunger Moon, A Trick of Nature, and The Tree-Sitter, from W. W. Norton, and, most recently, Ultraviolet, from Catapult. She also has a forthcoming work of nonfiction from Duke University Press called Winnowing, about our personal and cultural relationship to “stuff.” She is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the American Scandinavian Foundation, and was the 2023 Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the Year. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she attended Portland State University, the University of Washington, and is an English professor at Boston College, where she co-directs the Creative Writing Concentration.
In honor of International Women’s Day the SCC&L is screening the new documentary The Day Iceland Stood Still (Dagurinn sem Ísland stöðvaðist)
When 90% of Iceland’s women walked off the job and out of their homes one morning in 1975 the country came to a standstill. Unexpectedly funny and told for the first time, this is the true story of one day that catapulted Iceland to the world’s superpower of gender equality.
In 1975, nearly all Icelandic women walked off their jobs and out of their homes, refusing to work, cook, or care for children. This powerful strike reshaped the nation, making Iceland one of the best places in the world to be a woman. Told by the women themselves and timed for the 50th anniversary, this story is both subversive and unexpectedly funny. One activist recalls, “We loved our male chauvinist pigs, we just wanted to change them a little!” The Day Iceland Stood Still is a collaboration between U.S. director Pamela Hogan, an Equal Rights Amendment campaigner, and Icelandic producer Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, who attended the strike at age 7. While the U.S. E.R.A. never passed, Iceland has closed over 90% of its gender gap and is committed to full equality. This story aims to inspire viewers worldwide to reimagine the possible.
Saturday, March 8th | 1pm | $10; $5 for members | Tickets
In Icelandic with English subtitles | Documentary | 70 min.
** PLEASE ONLY SIGN UP IF YOU ARE ABLE TO PREPARE A DISH TO SHARE WITH THE GROUP. THE FUN OF IT IS ABOUT THE PARTCIPATION**
What’s a cookbook club? It’s the idea is that — like a traditional book club — every month you get together as a group. Instead of talking about a book you will make a recipe from a chosen cookbook, bring it in and the group will sample the recipes and discuss the the recipes and the cookbook. If you love to cook or bake, (especially Scandi recipes) and love sharing food with friends this is the perfect place for you!
Each month we will choose a different cookbook from a Scandinavian country and pick out 15-20 recipes for people to choose from. On March 6th, 2025 we will be tasting Finnish recipes from the The Finnish Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas.
The cookbooks we choose are available on amazon to purchase. The Finnish Cookbook
Saturday, March 1st | 1pm | $20; FREE for members | Tickets
Timothy Johnson is a Norwegian guitarist, composer, and educator, based in NYC. He has performed at world-renowned jazz clubs like Dizzy’s Club (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC) Scullers Jazz (Boston), Smalls (NYC), and at festivals like the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival (Argentina), as well as clubs in Japan and Norway. Additionally he has appeared alongside jazz luminaries Damien Sneed, Melissa Aldana, and Neal Smith, and most recently has also performed in the award winning musical, Once on this Island.
He completed his Bachelors degree at the Berklee College of Music on scholarship, and recently completed his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship, studying with guitarist Mike Moreno. He has received many prestigious awards along the way, such as the Berklee Jimi Hendrix Award, the NAMM Innovation Award, the Juvenarte composition award, placed runner up in Lee Ritenour’s Dreamcatcher Competition, and most recently was a scholarship/fellowship recipient of the Norway-Amerika Association. He appears on recordings by the award winning composer Eri Chichibu, as well as singer April Varner’s release “Hummingbird”, and is preparing to record his debut album later this year.
Sahil Warsian Acoustic Bassist and Jazz Composer from New Delhi, India, and based in Boston, MA, graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2016 with a degree in Jazz Composition. He performs regularly with various ensembles and orchestras, both jazz and classical, and hosts Friday night jam sessions at Wally’s Jazz Cafe, a historic venue established in 1947. Sahil is currently the Principal Bassist of the Boston Conservatory-Berklee Orchestra and a member of the Boston Civic Symphony. Previously, he was the Principal Bassist of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra and the Terence Blanchard Jazz Composition Orchestra.
A prominent figure in Delhi’s jazz scene, Sahil helped reintroduce the Acoustic Bass to the city, performing over 350 times at various venues. He has also played with the Longwood Symphony, Harvard Summer School Orchestra, Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, and the Neopolitan Orchestra. At Berklee, Sahil regularly performs at recitals, film scoring sessions, and with project bands, contributing to recording sessions for both student composers and industry figures like Patrick Doyle. His studies have included renowned bassists like Susan Hagen, Ron Mahdi, and Bruce Gertz.
We are excited to welcome Juliana Gagné for their first exhibit at the SCC&L titled:
The Dream Dimension: Beyond the Veil
This exhibit is largely inspired by Juliana’s Grandfather, Dr Sherman Eddie Nelson. Dr Nelson was a pioneering psychologist and came from a family of Sámi, Nordic and Finnish immigrants. The exhibition explores the themes of: ancestral memory, family stories, immigration and the politics of maintaining or denying your heritage after immigration. This show explores the impact that immigration has on the following generations as well as the study of epigenetics: an area of science that looks at how our ancestors experiences and the environment influence our genetics without changing our DNA structure.
About Juliana:Juliana Nelson Gagné is a multidisciplinary artist and writer with a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design (Lenape Land, New York City). Juliana is currently in their first year of graduate school, studying Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design at OCAD University in Tkaranto (Toronto, Canada) on the land of the Mississaugas of the Credit as well as the Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat Nations. Juliana explores various media ranging from: illustration, printmaking, embroidery, photography, sound pieces and installations. Nature is a prominent theme, both in materials, motifs and inspiration: from crushing plants to make photo-sensitive emulsions for anthotypes, or drying plants to create photograms on cyanotype-coated fabric. Juliana’s work typically addresses themes of: the study of epigenetics, family history, immigration, cultural mixing, entropy and the connection between memory and land.
Their art will be on display throughout January and February.
Got Sauna will be at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in Newton, celebrating National Sauna Week, Friday thru Sunday February 21-23, 2025.
There are many sessions available each day, starting as early as 10:00am. Choose between 60 minute and 90 minute sessions. The session cost is the same regardless of the number of people in your party. The sauna comfortably accommodates 3 people at once. Ten minutes of each session is allotted for turn over. You are welcome to book available consecutive sessions for a longer sauna experience.
Sauna Mestari will be on site to provide full orientations to all participants
Daring souls are invited to experience the thrill of thermal extremes with a dip in the cold plunge tank or if mother nature supports us… some snow angels.
Afterwards relax around the fire pit to share stories of sauna adventure while enjoying tasty snacks.
Each participant must provide their own towels, swimsuits and hydration.
Preregistration is required. An welcome/orientation packet will be sent and a liability waiver must be signed by each participant.
If you have Sauna specific questions Mark@gotsauna.com For more information about Finlandia Foundation Boston www.Finlandiafoundationboston.com This event is supported by Finlandia Foundation National www.Finlandiafoundation.org
Filmmaker Suvi West takes the audience behind the scenes of the museum world, revealing a visual, philosophical, and spiritual realm. Sámi herself, she seeks a connection with her ancestors through old museum objects, eventually arriving at the collective pain points of the Sámi people. How can the damage caused by outsiders be repaired so that collective pains can be left behind?
‘Máhccan – Homecoming’ is set in the changing world of museums and deals with the repatriation of museum objects. In recent years, museums around the world have had to confront their own colonialist burden and consider returning objects taken from oppressed or subjugated nations, often through theft.
Suvi West is an award-winning director and script writer. She has directed several short films and two feature documentaries, Me and My Little Sister and Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle. Her films have been screened in film festivals around the world and distributed in European TV channels. In 2019 she was selected to be one of the directors present in Venice Biennale in Finland’s pavilion.
Saturday, February 22nd | 1pm | $10; $5 for members | tickets
In Finnish with English subtitles | Documentary | 76 minutes
Did you know birch trees are an important part of Nordic culture, history, and the environment? They are used for many purposes, including construction, food, and medicine.
Join us for to learn a little about birch in the Nordics and add your own birds to a birch forest print to take home!
Fun for all ages!
Saturday, February 15th | 10-11am | $5; FREE for members | register here
** PLEASE ONLY SIGN UP IF YOU ARE ABLE TO PREPARE A DISH TO SHARE WITH THE GROUP. THE FUN OF IT IS ABOUT THE PARTCIPATION**
DATE CHANGE: February 13th
What’s a cookbook club? It’s the idea is that — like a traditional book club — every month you get together as a group. Instead of talking about a book you will make a recipe from a chosen cookbook, bring it in and the group will sample the recipes and discuss the the recipes and the cookbook. If you love to cook or bake, (especially Scandi recipes) and love sharing food with friends this is the perfect place for you!
Each month we will choose a different cookbook from a Scandinavian country and pick out 15-20 recipes for people to choose from. On Feb 13th, 2025 we will be trying out multiple Swedish recipes from the The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo.
ABOUT JOAN: In addition to No Ship Sets Out To Be A Shipwreck, 
