The ecosystems and cultures of the Arctic are beautiful and inspiring – yet at the same time fragile. We believe that we have a lot to learn from people living in the Arctic, in closer connection to the world around them. That the Arctic is so much more than just an empty, icy landscape – it is alive, fascinating, full of stories.

We passionately believe the Arctic is an inspiring place, and we want to share this with you.

So we put together this festival.

Like a snowball turning into an avalanche, artArctica festival is a small idea grown big: we’re now hosting photography exhibitions, installations, dance and music performances, feature films and short film selections – and we are lucky to have participants from every corner of the Arctic: Greenland, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands.

In the final stages of production, we have come a long way – and now we need your support to ensure we produce a high-quality event, for both artists and audience.

We still need to cover certain travel expenses for the artists, as well as production expenses like printing large-format photographs and securing royalties rights for the films. By supporting this project, you are directly supporting grass-roots art-making in the Arctic.

We are lucky to be supported by cultural foundations and grants, as well as various independent groups and
organisations – and we need one last nudge, and that’s you. It’s the person we’re making this festival for: the
Arctic enthusiast (even if you don’t know it yet), the artist, the admirer, the traveller, the story-teller. You. We
need you, because without you our festival is just a private show.

So help us make this festival a beautiful and unforgettable get-together – and be part of something bigger. Whether you can visit the festival, or live far away, but think this is the kind of thing that is worth happening, you can support us in one way or another.

The festival is partly funded by Kulturkontakt Nord and Letterstedtska föreningen.

It is happening in collaboration with the following organisations:

Global Music Centre (FI)
City-Sámit (FI)
Walhalla Film (FI)
Finnish Arctic Club (FI)
Arctic Museum Nanoq (FI)
Skábmagovat Film Festival (FI)
Uummannaq Polar Institute (GL)
Arctic Arts Institute (RU)

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by artarctica
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IAMMAI

Fashion designer Mai Niemi is a storyteller and cultural designer who has created a unique and holistic fashion concept and stories, represented by the Finnish Fairytale brand and IAMMAI concept. IAMMAI is a unique and sustainable fashion concept with a Finno-Ugric and Scandinavian roots, lifestyle and exoticism. Its stories combine the worlds, East and West, practicality and fantasy, the local and the global. It is the story and the values ​​to which everyone can identify with anywhere in the world. It is therefore no wonder that the Finnish Fairytale is interesting internationally. Finnish Fairytale is also living and mosern cultural heritage that combines in different ages and eras. It is modern folklore and folkcostume to express one´s roots.

Mai Niemi is named the Fairy Godmother of Finland, because she is constantly working on uplifting women, ancient history of Finland and Finnish epic Kalevala and in helping people to maintain their nature connection with her fashion and combining Finnish design and tourism to also generate jobs.

IAMMAI concept and the Finnish Fairytale brand

Finnish Fairytale clothes and accessories are one size as in the folk costumes, so they can fit all sizes. They are timeless and suitable for all ages, all seasons and events, trips, nature weddings …. they are social invention that live in the wearer’s life transforming n as needed with different parts of the collection. They can be used to renew and enliven the existing clothes. They solve the problem: Closet full of clothes (black) and nothing to wear. Mai Niemi’s knitwear pamper your body forms and help women to accept their bodies and themselves as unique increasing self confidence.

Mai Niemi’s fashion is also suitable for the Role -and Cosplay dress.

It is a creative and joyful self-expression, modern forest fashion, which at the same time is empowering and boosts up self-confidence in a natural way. IAMMAI is also designed for sensitive individuals, who can sense the energies contained in the garment. The nature´s shapes, colors and symbolism in them have a positive impact to the mind and they nurture body space increasing body comfort. In addition, they help to maintain contact with nature.
If you alienate from nature, you alienate from yourself, say the Wise.

We in Finland we know this and that is what I want to tell you from Finland, amomg other miraculous things. I have lived and studied in England for many years and I see Finland with a foreigner´s eyes.

The Mai Niemi Finnish Fairytale concept store is located at Senate Square in Helsinki at the Finnish Fairytale shop, Katariinankatu 4 b, FI-00170 Helsinki

Finnish Fairytale Fair Tale values

All our products are locally handmade in Finland with Love to support local women entrepreurship and to create jobs. I have a strong vision of soft, genuine and lasting values, which are already, and will be the new fair trade values in the world. My designs are timeless and lasting and I use most natural materials that decompost in nature, like wool which is the most ecological material. It grows by itself with little water, the animal does not lose life for it. Wool breathes on the skin and keeps body temperature even. Wool repels dirt and products made of wool need fewer washes.

Finnish Fairytale is growing international

China

Mai Niemi Finnish Fairytale is of particular interest in China and the USA, where we have already done groundwork for some time. Finnish Fairytale also appeals to children. This spring, in March, is held a large European children’s fashion review in Hangzou and Nanijing and Mai Niemi from Finland have been invited to present her fashion to the Chinese kids. My goal is to be part in this European children fashion event and the new online web portal. In Shanghai there is already one Mai Niemi retailer, sustainable fashion store, to present my collections there. Also, autumn, Mai Niemi is invited to to participate a Finland event in Shanghai. I will participate to these events with this funding. The Mai Niemi brand is registered in China.

USA

is my second target country, which is equally enthusiastic about Mai Niemi’s fashions. My roots are also there, and a big part of my family lives in USA. My grandfather was for 30 years a gold miner in Alaska. We have paved the way now for three years in the US market with local partners: In 2013 Mai Niemi was invited to lecture in New York`s Fashion Institute of Technology. Mai Niemi has also appeared in the BBS Radio show Reach for it and Cristo Bowers Amazing People Show in 2015. My first wearable art exhibition was in Philadephia Museum of Art and Craft show in 2006. My partner in New York is ready to start development and marketing work as soon as we receive concrete action funding. All this I have achieved alone with the supporting encouragement of my network and friends, but now I need a larger support to benefit in the future the entire world.

The challenges of a small business internationalization

Mai Niemi Finnish Fairytale fashion interests the world and I am constantly offered opportunities that I want to grasp. Unfortunately, many good opportunity has passed, because it has been hard to get funding for small businesses run by women presenting also soft values for growth and internationalization in Finland. The problem is the small size of the company with too few resources, and the whole funding system in Finland. The truth is that no matter how talented, a good idea or invention you have, without money it can not be offered to the world.

In addition, in Finland, funding can only be received afterwards and with self funding beforehand with own start-up capital. It is an impossible task to design art and handicrafts entrepreneur. This will require assistance of private sponsors and business angels.

How finance will help?

With your help I can hire the expertise and knowhow what I do not have myself: to systematize the concept, to tell stories digitally, make a Finnish Fairytale game, to increase production and to obtain the best ecological materials, to improve my graphic identity and marketing materials, packaging, to buy time for the development and design, to recruit a key employee and agent to handle exports and marketing. I have set up a goal for 5000 euros, but I will need to raise 25 000 € to get Finnish government funding and for all of this to happen and. I am utterly grateful of all the assitance you can give for my long time dream to come true.

Once upon a Time

by Global Blue on Mai Niemi

Fairy tales have long formed part of the Scandinavian psyche, inspired in no small part by the landscapes of Finland and other Nordic countries. And while their magic may have waned in the 21st century, a raft of taste-makers and contemporary fashion designers are keeping their spirit alive.

“Finland is a magical land of forests and thousands of lakes. Nature is always close, and Finnish artists have always been inspired by its beauty”, says Mai Niemi, the designer behind the fashion label Finnish Fairytale. “The fairy world is a great source of inspiration for me. Finnish mythology is intertwined with that of the Vikings and Celts, and with the Scandinavian sagas. Our country ́s culture of story-telling even inspired J.R.R. Tolkien in creating The Lord of the Rings”.

It is easy to see something of the ethereal, Tolkien-esque elfin queen in Mai Niemi ́s designs.

After studying fashion at London ́s Central St.Martin`s College of Art, Mai Niemi returned to Helsinki and carved out a career conjuring up whimsical, flowing and feminine pieces that alude to Norse heritage. Intricate braiding and beadwork, trailing hemlines, fringing and elements of nature, from feathers to pieces of wood, are all worked in her designs. “Fairies like to dance, move, play and of course dress up”, she says with a smile in reference to the procession of forest nymphs in saturated saffron, tangerine and olive tones that she deputed for this autumn/winter. “I ́d like to think of what I do is also a kind of role-play fashion to express fantasies”.

Mai Niemi Design House
www.mainiemi.com

Facebook Finnish Fairytale Shop
www.facebook.com/FinnishFairytaleShopHelsinki/

Facebook Mai Niemi Finnish Fairytale
www.facebook.com/MaiNiemiFinnishfairytale/

Facebook Iammai
https://www.facebook.com/IAmLivingDivineMai/

Immai blog
iammai.fi

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by MaiNiemiMesenaatti
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Uusia ystäviä -group (ENG New Friends) was established on 25.11.2015 to Facebook based on “Looking for new friends” add made by Anne Palomäki. Uusia ystäviä -group was and still is meant for people that experience loneliness or are looking for new friends. Amount of people grew rapidly to 1000 and as days rolled by, all the way to the current 2300 people. Events were set up based on interests and one of the events was started by Maisa Ojanen. Event was meant for people interested photography and modelling. From this group formed up a team that is working on a charity calendar for year 2016.

Uskalla -calender 2016

Calendar “Uskalla” (Dare) tells about what we all should sometimes do: dare. We should dare to get excited, to dare to be inspired, dare to indulge in with an open mind to new things, dare to put between ourselves on the line and take risks and dare to be ourselves – just as we are. Calendar team decided to do just this: dare to do this project, even that the schedule was tight and we didn’t know each other beforehand.

Theme of the calendar is touch & closeness which every person should get regularly. Closeness usually is something else than physical, it’s friendship, companionship and feeling trust. With these goals in mind we chose our charity: HelsinkiMissio, which works towards getting rid of loneliness in Helsinki. HelsinkiMissio aims it’s work to people of all ages and they interview and train new volunteers all the time to work as support for a young person or a family mentor not to forget about morning phone which is aimed for people over 60-year of age. “Uskalla” calendar is done totally by volunteers and financing is gathered through crowdfunding (Mesenaatti) and also with possible support from business cooperation. In order for the calendar to reach its target audience we market it in Facebook, our own profiles as well as the projects own page, in all the articles and interviews about the “Uusien ystävien” group and by HelsinkiMissio in their own channels.

Calendar will be sold through a webshop and in some small shops in Helsinki. Profits after printing and delivery costs will be directed fully to charity. Profits per (1) calendar are estimated to be 10€.

You also have an opportunity to order outstanding postcards, which you can send out as a hello to a friend, cheer up lonely, Valentine’s day card or a birthday greeting! Awesome cards will be delivered as a package and the profits (5€ per pack) will be directed fully to the charity.

Idea of the calendar was put together in one evening and the team was together on the very next day. First pictures were taken within a week. Calendar was put together within a month. First envelopes and deliveries will reach your mailbox right after New Year. Let us all DARE to work for a worthy cause – TOGETHER!

Rewards

“Uusien ystävien” postcards 12 per packet/ 15 €
Order here New friends Uskalla/Dare -postcards. In the packet there is 12 different pictures. These awesome cards can be used as: Greeting to a friend, brighten up lonesomes day, valentain’s day card or as a birthday greeting. Profits from the card, approx. 4€ is guided directly to the charity.

“USKALLA” wall calendar 2016
Order this volunteer made USKALLA/DARE-wall calendar for year 2016! Profits made by the calendar are guided fully to charity: HelsinkiMissios activities. Calendar is fully done by volunteers. Pictures have been taken volunteer photographers and all the people in the pictures have been brought together by this project.

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by Uusien ystavien kalenteri
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Helsinki Wildfoods is a brand that aims to create simple approaches to well-being with its products, services and events. Wild food is nutritionally excellent food filled with vitamins and trace elements, gathering wild food is great natural movement for your body. Nature is our own nearby fitness center and grocery store.

Helsinki Wildfoods offers wild food products, workshops, health coaching, retreats and cooking classes that take businesses and individuals to their roots – to move around, relax and get inspired in the beautiful nature of ours. We believe that seasoning your favorite dishes with wild foods is the best way to dive into the mesmerizing world of Finnish superfoods. In Southern Finland you can find edible wild food from March to December, but with our mouth watering products it´s easy to nourish and spice up your home cooking all year around.

In January 2016 Annika Hannus is going to present our brand to 40 purchasers in New York, USA, in an export program event of Rapid Action Groupin and Amcham. By purchasing our compensations you´ll be helping Annika travel to New York and be part of pushing new quality export products from Finland to the international market. Join our journey and spread the word about these serendipities and nutrients of Finland.

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by Helsinki Wildfoods
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ENKEL is a traditional music girl band from Finland. We started playing together two years ago at the airport of Porto. At the time we found out that all of us have fairly relaxed travelling habits and decided to have a band with the idea of the best touring band in the world. Besides that we share the great passion towards traditional Finnish music, social folk dancing and storytelling.

The debut album of ENKEL, Wedding Night at the Vicarage will be released in January 2016. The album consists of traditional Finnish melodies and songs as well as own compositions in style of traditional music. In the band we like to concentrate in finding great but forgotten melodies from the Finnish archives and make them alive. The album is one step further in this project.

Our crowdfunding campaign is primarily aimed at mixing and mastering the album, and the album covers. The total budget for that is 5300€. At this point we are still missing 2500€. You can help us to get our album out there by ordering some ENKEL items which can be seen on the right. Thank you for your support and see you!

www.enkelband.com
www.facebook.com/enkelband

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by ENKEL
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Our elegant semi-acoustic band consists of singer Shirley Sparks, guitar player Mika Marjeta, bass player Matu Kormano and percussionist Markus Kallio.

Vintage American Songbook

We are working on our first album called Travellight which contains the following classics: I Got Rhythm, Sentimental Journey, Fly Me to the Moon, Summertime, Bei Mir Bist du Schön, If I Give My Heart to You, I’m Beginning to See the Light, Nature Boy, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Caravan, So in Love, Perfidia and The End of the World.

In addition to our energetic basic combo, the CD features talented musicians on piano, Hammond, cello, saxophone, clarinet, flute, violin, accordion and mandolin.

Fund Me to the Moon

The vintage-style layout of the CD will have a touch of glamour, beautiful images and information on the songs and their backgrounds.

Also released is a professionally produced DVD featuring rehearsal and recording session material, artist interviews and other additional “behind the scenes” footage.

The Travellight-CD release gig takes place in December in Helsinki. Stay tuned for more info at www.shirleysparksmusic.com

The album is self-published and we need your help

– Welcome to our production team!

Best regards,

Shirley Sparks & The Red Band

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by taketake
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Diverse microbial communities live in ancient, isolated and millions of years of old groundwater in deep Finnish bedrock. A drill hole reaching to the depth of seven kilometers is going to be drilled in Otaniemi, Espoo, enabling us to study just how deep life can reach inside the Earth. This research will answer questions such as how deep can we go and still find signs of life? What kind of single-celled organisms, i.e. microbes will be found?  Are we going to detect completely new lifeforms or superorganisms that are adapted to extremes? Is this life active in depths?

Life on Mars?

High temperature and salinity in addition to anoxic environment and low concentration of nutrients typically define life in the deep crystalline rock. Conditions deep inside bedrock resemble the situation on early Earth when life first emerged. Similar environments may be found from other celestial bodies, such as from Mars. By studying the microbial community structure and functions in deep bedrock of Otaniemi will allow us to determine the limits of life, as well as to understand the possibility of emergence of life in other places in the Universe.

You can help us too!

You can join in and be part of this groundbreaking research project. You can back up this project by purchasing a reward you will be informed of the progress of the project in form of a newsletter. You can also get a piece of rock from the depths with description of the lithology and environmental conditions in this specific depth, or a lecture about the project and science behind it, held by a scientist working in the project.  Funds collected with this crowdfunding campaing will be used to the challenging microbiological sample collection from the Otaniemi ultradeep drill hole.

Our research consortium

DeepHotMicrobe project is a part of larger research consortium formed by experts and researchers from St1 Deep Heat, University of Helsinki, Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. In the future St1 Deep Heat will provide environment-friendly, emission-free heating to the 10 % of the population of Espoo, second largest city in Finland. They will provide access to the scientific studies in the drill hole. Research scientist Lotta Purkamo and senior scientist Malin Bomberg, who both have several years of experience on microbial ecology and deep terrestrial subsurface research, will be responsible of the microbiological analyses. Both work at VTT that provides a world-class research environment and a platform for new technology innovations. The scientific collaboration is lead by Principal Investigator and geophysicist Ilmo Kukkonen from the University of Helsinki, and hydrogeochemistry of the drill hole will be analyzed with expert team from GTK.

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by LottaPurkamo
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Sitting all the time is bad for your health. It increases the risk of overweight, diabetes and cancer. That is why there are many gadgets on the market to make you sit less. We don’t know which are good and which are not. We at Cochrane Work at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health try to find out what really helps.

We have a team of five volunteers who locate all evidence for or against the effectiveness of measures to reduce sitting. At the moment, it is still very uncertain what works and what does not (see: http://goo.gl/fe6MiB). We know that there are many recent studies that we should include. This requires a lot of hard work and stamina.

You can follow some of the discussion on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sitlessatwork.

We estimate that incorporating the new studies takes 144 person hours. We have no funding for this but we would like to reward the team that will do all this. We need 2500 euros to provide them with a small fee. You can help by ordering the newsletter, participating in the webinar or paying a visit to our office in Kuopio. This will help to keep the team motivated because they know that there is a crowd out there who cares. This will result in an up-to-date report of what we know of how-to-sit-less-at-work in January next year.

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by jverbeek
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Signmark headed towards Nepal and Mount Everest with rock band AncarA to attempt a world record, Rockin’ High – World’s highest concert. Their target is to hike up to 5,5 kilometers and perform there the highest electric concert in the world. The concert is planned to be streamed live online and the live stream is accessible globally. The whole journey is also filmed for a documentary. During the project they also want to collect funds for a music school in Nepal.

When Signmark was at school, he never received proper music teaching. No music theory was taught – only some rhythmic exercises and mostly with poor sign language. For this reason good quality music teaching at the school in Nepal was selected as the target of the fundraising.

The aim is to hire two music teachers to the project. One will be a hearing Nepalese musician and the other a sign-languaged deaf person. The whole project will also be documented on film, starting from the beginning of the teaching and up until a joint music video with the students.

When the group for the project has been gathered, Signmark and Olli Hartonen will teach them methods of music teaching and inform on the process of the documentation. The aim is that after having participated in the project, the group involved would spread out to local schools for deaf children to further share their knowledge. This stage is documented also. The idea is that the students receive basic music teaching and get to enjoy the world of music first hand. At the end of the project all the participants come together for a music video experience!

Signmark: ”The extent of the project depends on how much we all together can collect funds and work for these children. Help me to realise this amazing project in Nepal!”

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by Anne Signmarkin tsto
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JUONIKUVAUS

Teini-ikäinen Miika on sulkeutunut syyllisyyteen ja itseinhoon vanhempiensa eron jälkeen. Ihastuttuaan kotipahoinpideltyyn Jennaan, hänessä herää halu ja tarve suojella tätä tilanteelta, joka on hänen omaansa vieläkin kaoottisempi.

Yrittäessään ratkoa niin aggressiivisen pikkuveljensä kuin Jennan sekä muidenkin ympärillään elävien onnettomien ihmisten ongelmia, Miika antaa omien tunteidensa sulkeutua syvään, jossa ne kasvattavat hänen inhoaan entisestään.

Miikan lähimmäisten on vuoro huolestua siitä, kuinka monia murheita tämä kykenee kantamaan harteillaan, ennen kuin ne antavat periksi. Kuinka suurta syyllisyyttä Miikan täytyy tuntea, oppiakseen välittämään myös itsestään?

AIHE JA TEEMA

Murrosikäinen ihminen kokee monien ulkoisten muutostensa lisäksi paljon merkittävämpää sisäistä kasvamista, joka ei kos-kaan ole täysin kivutonta. Teini-ikäisenä ihminen alkaa rakentaa omaa identiteettiään, minkä vuoksi hän joutuu ensimmäistä kertaa yksin kohtaamaan monia henkilökohtaisia koettelemuksia niin perheensä sisällä kuin kaveri- ja parisuhteissaankin. Ky-seinen ikä on yksi ihmiselämän kriittisimmistä vaiheista, sillä se mitä tuolloin koemme – ja ennen kaikkea se miten koke-maamme käsittelemme – määrittää sen mitä meistä tulee.

Elokuva “Kasvukipuja” käsittelee omien ajatustensa ja tunteidensa patouttamista, peittelemistä ja pois sulkemista. Teini-ikäi-nen päähenkilömme joutuu kantamaan niin monia huolia riitaisan eroperheensä, kotipahoinpidellyn tyttöystävänsä sekä roo-lien taakse piiloutuvien koulutovereidensa puolesta, ettei hän osaa huolehtia itsestään. Itseinho näkyy yläteemana myös mo-nissa elokuvan hahmoissa ja sivujuonissa. Tällä pyritään antamaan katsojille vahvaa esimerkkiä sulkeutumisen negatiivisista vaikutuksista ja tuoda sen kautta esiin selkeä sanoma: Muistakaa pitää hyvää huolta itsestänne, jotta voisitte pitää parempaa huolta toisistanne.

Elokuvan käsikirjoitukseen on valikoitunut monia hahmoja ja tarinoita, jotka kertovat siitä kuinka monin eri tavoin jokainen ih-minen hakee hyväksyntää ystäviltään ja perheeltään, saamatta sitä kuitenkaan itseltään. Se on toisinaan järjetöntäkin, kuinka pitkälle ihmiset ovat valmiita menemään säilyttääkseen vähäisenkin kontrollin, kun he samalla oikeasti haluaisivat vain luopua siitä ja päästää irti – nähdäkseen mihin he laskeutuisivat.

Elokuvan aihe ja teemat ovat ajattomia ja universaaleja. Ne koskettavat tavallaan jokaista katsojaa, niin nuorta kuin vanhaakin, sillä ihmisen henkinen kasvaminen jatkuu lakkaamatta läpi elämän. Todellista elämänoppia ei mitata vuosissa.

Filed under: Visual Arts, Film, Music, Nordic campaigns, Arts and Entertainment, Photography by Writerror Films
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