CHS Celebrates Finnish Culture with “Sisu and Creativity” Exhibit March 21 – May 6

To celebrate the state’s vibrant Finnish culture along with Finland’s 100th anniversary of independence from Russia, the Connecticut Historical Society has partnered with the Finnish American Heritage Society (FAHS) to present a new exhibit of art works, images, audio recordings, and documentation. The exhibit, “Sisu and Creativity: Finnish Cultural Heritage in Connecticut,” explores the central agricultural, environmental, social, musical and artistic characteristics that make up this community within the state. It runs from March 21 – May 6 at the CHS with an opening reception on Friday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m. Finnish cultural leaders will speak at the reception and musical performers will include fiddler Saul Ahola and accordionist/composer Hannu Makipuru. For details visit www.CHS.org.

“Sisu and Creativity” brings to life the Finnish experience in Connecticut – which really took hold in the 1920s when immigrants moved from New York to Connecticut’s eastern farm lands. The exhibit offers oral and visual depictions of the character and creativity of the people who came to Connecticut to build up this community. It highlights their farms and agricultural cooperatives, barns and community halls, as well as the important saunas each family constructed as social gathering places. It also includes festivals that celebrate important Finnish holidays and the many artistic and musical traditions still practiced throughout the community.

“The title for this exhibit, sisu, is the perfect descriptor as it is the Finnish word for ‘the spirit of determination, resilience, hard work, and creative problem-solving,’” said Jody Blankenship, CEO of the CHS. “Each of these traits are on full display throughout this exhibit, and throughout the longstanding Finnish community in our state. During this historical anniversary year, we are pleased to host this program and continue to tell the story of Connecticut’s Finnish cultural heritage and identity.”

This exhibit also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the FAHS, an organization that the CHS has helped support for more than 17 years. Through the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program, the CHS has helped fund Finnish programs and apprenticeships at the FAHS in traditional arts such as weaving, sauna building, woodcarving, fiddle playing, and birch bark weaving. In 2014 architectural historian Rachel Carley conducted a detailed survey of Finnish heritage sites in partnership with the FAHS community, and serves as an essential background to this exhibit project.

To further explore Finnish culture and history in Connecticut, the CHS is offering a bus trip to Canterbury to tour Finn Hall, headquarters of FAHS, along with several historic sites. Built in 1925, Finn Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places and houses the extensive FHAS Finnish archive, oral history collection, and museum of Finnish life in Connecticut. The tour is led by historians Rachel Carley and Burton Jernstrom and includes an authentic Finnish lunch. For more information and to register, call 860-236-5621 x 235.