The Guggenheim wants to build a 140 million euro (£116m) museum on the Helsinki waterfront as it expands its satellite of contemporary art galleries to new locations such as Bilbao in Spain and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversees the original, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum in New York as well as four overseas sites, proposed that it and the Finnish capital jointly develop a new museum.
The Guggenheim chose Helsinki due to strong local interest and tradition in art and design, as well as the city’s plans to develop its harbour properties, it said in a report on Tuesday after a year-long feasibility study.
It also noted the city lacked a significant modern art collection, a gap it said the museum could fill and help draw tourists.
“Helsinki’s cultural landscape is rich, but it is also fragmented … Helsinki’s art scene lacks a centre of gravity,” the report said, recommending the city move forward with an architectural competition.
It proposed a museum be built on a city-owned site in Helsinki’s south harbour, next to the Alvar Aalto-designed headquarters of Finnish forest company Stora Enso (via Telegraph)
Around 100 street beggars from Romania and Bulgaria have remained in Finland for the winter. They have found shelter in overcrowded one-room apartments and on the streets as no new camp has been constructed. The National Bureau of investigation says some of the Romania Roma may be here against their will. However, claims of human trafficking are not being followed up as the Roma remain tight lipped.
Those working among the Romanian roma say that most of them stay overnight in small apartments housing dozens of people. In Vantaa, one person has given shelter to around ten people.
Each of them presents harrowing tales of difficult and poor conditions back home, and of their poor state of health. Thanks to the Helsinki Deaconess Institute, they are able to receive medical attention. At a day centre in the Sörnäinen district of Helsinki, the street beggars can wash, cook and rest.
All say they beg money to help their children back home. It has cost them between 150 and 300 euros to get to Finland, they claim.
According to the National Board of Investigation (NBI), over ten people were convicted in Romania for human trafficking last year. They had brought people to Finland and forced them to beg, play in the street, steal or work on building sites for low wages. The NBI took part in the investigations.
Since last summer, investigations have not continued. Romanian’s living in Helsinki say they have not heard of cases of human trafficking. (via YLE Uutiset)
Travellers departing from Helsinki-Vantaa airport and the capital’s ports are being greeted with condoms and advice on safe sex starting on Wednesday. The campaign is organised by the Finnish Red Cross and the Finnish AIDS Council.
Organisers want to reach passengers as Finnish tourists continue to contract HIV abroad from unprotected sex.
This year, 164 new HIV cases have been diagnosed in Finland. Most of these cases were contracted via heterosexual sex. Intravenous drug users account for fewer than ten new cases annually. (via YLE Uutiset)
The Helsinki District Court has dismissed charges of libel related to the contents of an authorised book about the Finnish band Nightwish.
The former manager of one of Finland’s most successful rock bands, Marcelo Cabuli and three of his Brazilian associates as well as former soloist Tarja Turunen sued both the author and publisher of the book ”Once Upon a Nightwish” for libel.
The court ruled that the book written in Finnish and aimed at the Finnish market, which criticises Cabuli on a few pages, did not detrimentally affect his work or reputation in South America. (via YLE Uutiset)
The acoustics and services at the new Helsinki Music Centre concert hall have been getting mixed reception from the general public. While the acoustics have been widely praised by performers, the hall’s sensitivity to noise from the audience has been a problem.
After decades of putting up with the less than satisfactory acoustics of Finlandia Hall, Helsinki concert-goers have had to learn a few new lessons. Audiences in the Helsinki Music Centre concert hall cannot whisper nor cough. One concert this past autumn was even paused because of distractions originating from the audience.
According to Concert Operations Manager Antti Pylkkänen, the main hall’s acoustics have created some challenges for staff.
“We are looking for the best practices, what is acceptable and what is disturbing,” says Pylkkänen.
He adds that it is a fact that the excellent acoustics mean that not only the music, but also everything else can be well heard throughout the hall.
“This is the fact that we’re now wrestling with at the Music Centre.”
Since its opening, there has also been discussion of the Music Centre’s services. Coat check and refreshment services have been criticized as being slow. Antti Pylkkänen points out that the Centre is new not just as a concert venue, but also as a service provider. An effort is being made to expand the number of spots where concert-goers can purchase refreshments. (via YLE Uutiset)
Finland: dogs blamed for corroding city lamp posts
Dogs in Helsinki are taking the blame for corroding lamp posts and fences with their urine deposits. Energy provider Helsingin Energia is concerned about the cost of replacing lamp posts supposedly damaged by a man’s best friend.
Urine easily corrodes older hot galvanized and aluminum lamp posts with the potential of causing danger to passers-by. Energy companies are forced to replace corroding posts for fear they may collapse on pavements and roadways.
Energy provider Helsingin Energia says a lamp suspension post can cost over 10,000 Euros to replace. Park fence posts cost a mere 500 euros. Painting the posts does, however, offer a degree of protection from passing dogs and possibly other two legged culprits.
Lighting unit manager Olli Markkanen from Helsingin Energia hopes dog owners will take note of the problem. (via YLE Uutiset)
Helsinki city centre was lit up on Sunday with the annual Christmas Street opening. This year Helsinki’s Christmas Street Aleksanterinkatu is illuminated with LED lights for the first time. Compared with previous years’ lights, the LEDs save over 80 percent energy. The Christmas season was kicked off in many Finnish cities at the weekend.
Traditionally marking the beginning of the Christmas season, the opening of the Christmas Street on Aleksanterinkatu was celebrated for the 63rd time this year.
Senate Square hosted a “good will market”, and the Christmas lights went on at 3 pm. A colourful procession including Santa Claus started off from Senate Square down Aleksanterinkatu, spreading the seasonal spirit into Helsinki’s centre.
A Christmas street was also opened in the central Finnish town of Jyväskylä. In Vaasa, the season has been traditionally opened at Vaasa market, where the event climaxes with a fireworks display. A Sunday afternoon parade kicked off the season in Tampere, while Turku stepped into Christmas time the previous evening, when its Christmas streets lights lit up.
Santa Claus’ northern hometown Rovaniemi will open its Christmas Street on Friday 26 November. (via YLE Uutiset)
Finland: Helsinki zoo welcomes rare Przewalski’s horse
Staff at Helsinki’s Korkeasaari Zoo are celebrating the birth of a rare Mongolian wild horse, known as a Przewalski’s horse.
Zookeepers say the colt, who was born on November 1, is being treated affectionately by the entire herd, says zoo curator Nina Trontti.
“The foal’s father, the herd’s stallion, appears to be quite interested in his offspring,” she says.
The colt is expected to nurse for about its first six months, but has already begun eating grass.
It is also rare for this species to give birth so late in the year. Usually foals born at zoos arrive in the summer.
Przewalski’s horses, which are considered the only truly wild breed of horse, were nearly extinct in the wild in the 1960s. However, zoo-bred individuals were successfully reintroduced into the wild in Mongolia. There are now more than 300 of them living in national parks and nature preserves. (via YLE Uutiset)
Finland: Helsinki drinkers offered health checks in pubs
Health services in eastern Helsinki are moving into uncharted territory – local pubs. Two neighbourhood bars, Siilinpesä in Herttoniemi and Kulmapotku in Roihuvuori, have been offering customers blood pressure and blood sugar level tests since the start of October.
The idea is not to admonish drinkers for having a tipple in their neighbourhood bar, but to take health services to hard-to-reach customers, according to project director Jouko Ranta.
The venture is backed by research showing that barflies consider traditional healthcare services difficult and patronising. Siilinpesä proprietor Ari Eränti was amazed at the proposal to co-operate on offering health checks at his pub, but he says the experiment has gone well.
Nursing students from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences have now visited Siilinpesä three times to offer blood pressure testing, among other checks. According to Eränti, customers compare their results and discuss which factors might affect them.
Lowering thresholds to accessing healthcare is an important goal for Finnish healthcare providers. Identifying potential problems with type 2 diabetes and hypertension could both improve patients’ well-being and lower the cost of treatment. (via YLE Uutiset)
The Occupy Wall Street protest movement originating in New York spread to Finnish cities on Saturday, with people demanding reform to the global financial system.
Around 100 protestors gathered by the Kamppi shopping centre in Helsinki’s city centre. Loosely organised groups also clustered in Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Lahti, Tampere, Turku and Oulu to criticise the country’s handling of the eurozone crisis. (via YLE Uutiset)
