THE ESTONIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS WEEKLY NO. 61 NEWS EAA international curricula are open for applications until 3 May. The study is conducted in Russian (BA) and/or English (MA/PhD) Bachelor’s studies Media Graphics (in Russian) Master’s studies Animation Design & Crafts (including Jewellery and Blacksmithing, Textile Design, Ceramics, Fashion Design, Glass Art and Design, Leather Art and Design) Interior Architecture Interaction Design Urban Studies Design & Engineering (joint programme with Tallinn University of Technology) Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies (joint programme with Tallinn University) Doctoral studies Architecture and Urban Design Art and Design Find out more and submit your application on www.artun.ee. If you have any questions, please write in English to admissions@artun.eeor vastuvott@artun.ee. EAA Department of Leather Art opened an exhibition and presented its anniversary publication The Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Leather Art celebrated its 100th anniversary on 1 March. A comprehensive exhibition of various works found in the archive collection was opened in the Staircase Gallery of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, and the EKA NAHK 100 (EAA LEATHER 100) book was presented to mark the occasion. The symbolic display opened in the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design gives an exciting overview of the works included in the archive collections of the Department of Leather Art over the 100 years of its existence. The display in the Staircase Gallery of the museum emulates a storage space and features leather bookbinding, boxes and bags made over various decades. Different aesthetics principles have been entwined into a coherent whole, which manifests creative dedication and excellent craftsmanship. The exhibition curated by Kadri Kruus, leather and bag designer and Associate Professor at the EAA Department of Leather Art, will remain on view until 16 April. The EKA NAHK 100 book, which is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the EEA Department of Leather Art, includes recollections of graduates from their time in the school, and is illustrated by photos of student works from different decades and by elaborate staged photos of the department’s present teaching staff. The third section of the book gives an overview of the activities and the most important projects of the Department of Leather Art over the past five years. The book was compiled by Jaana Päeva, Lennart Mänd, Kadri Kruus, Marta Moorats, Eve Kaaret and Anneli Filipov. Language editing by Riina Kruus, translation by Tiina Randviir and design by Andres Tali. The book was published in cooperation with Printon Trükikoda AS. More information on the 100th anniversary of the EAA Department of Leather Art is available here (in Estonian): www.nahakunst100.ee http://www.artun.ee/erialad/nahakunst/ Photo: Eva Luure Photo by Eva Luure. Lennart Mänd, Professor of Leather Art, showing off the anniversary publication Take part in the FUTURE STARS OF ESTONIAN ART COMPETITION, part of the Tallinn Music Week art programme! The aim of the competition, which is co-organised by the NOAR art environment and the Estonian Academy of Arts, is to present our talented young artists and their practice to the public, and to facilitate the early discovery of future talents. An additional goal is to engage the public more in the art field – as last year, www.NOAR.eu will host an online voting competition to select the public’s favourite as part of the Tallinn Music Week programme. A selection of the art works will be shown on the walls of the Wabadus café-restaurant. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION: • All students of the EAA Department of Fine Arts and its graduates who have finished their Bachelor’s or Master’s studies within the last three years are welcome to participate alongside students from other disciplines active in the field of contemporary art. • All applicants can submit up to three works to the competition. • To apply, please submit images of art works and additional information via the application form found on the NOAR.eu environment in the ‘Artists submission’ section, and add the keyword ‘EKA’ to the first line of the ‘Summary in English’ field. • The competition deadline is 20 March 2017 at 12:00. • All art students will have their own profile created in the NOAR.eu environment just like professional artists, and they will be given the same opportunity to present and sell their art works (including the opportunity to add more art works, exhibition views to show proportions of the works, link Facebook, create a community of followers, etc.) • The standard conditions of the art environment apply to students who join the NOAR.eu platform, and the agreement does not limit the artists from working on other projects and cooperating with galleries, etc. More info about the competition is available at info@noar.eu. The NOAR.eu art environment offers a single platform for the best Estonian and Baltic contemporary art by showing more than 1,200 art works by 140 different artists. NOAR also organises various projects, the common denominator of which is the encounter between art and the wider audience, including in public space (Tallinn Art Week, Estonia100 digital street art project in ten European capitals in collaboration with Edward von Lõngus, public space art projects in the future smart district of Tartu and Ülemiste City, and others). Alongside recognised artists, NOAR also wishes to promote emerging artists and, to this end, NOAR founded the Baltic Young Artist Award in 2016 in addition to organising the Future Stars of Estonian Art Competition. Open Lecture Kristi Kuusk Associate Professor of Textile Design, EAA Crafting sustainable smart textile services Friday, 10.03.2017 - 4:00 pm Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Kanada Room 245 | North Building Can design process make technology more human while innovating crafts? Kristi Kuusk will share her insights from working with smart textiles, where hard technology meets soft textiles. She will explain the craft and sustainability qualities refined through her PhD research. Kristi Kuusk, Associate Professor at Estonian Academy of Arts, also works on bridging textiles and technology in smart textile projects at Spell disain. She is looking for new ways for textiles and fashion to be more sustainable through the implementation of technology. Her research on craftsmanship, smart textiles and sustainability resulted in a PhD thesis “Crafting sustainable smart textile services” presented in 2016 at Eindhoven University of Technology. http://www.ecuad.ca/calendar/talk-i-kristi-kuusk-i-mdes-speaker-series CINEMA ARS FILM FESTIVAL AFF 2017 ARS Project Space, Pärnu mnt 154 10-11 March The first edition of the ARS Film Festival AFF will show films on the big screen made by artists who work at the ARS Building. The ARS Building public programme has to date focused to a large extent on presenting the production of designers and small enterprises in addition to visits to the studios of contemporary artists and exhibitions in the project space. AFF will, in turn, show video works by the contemporary artists residing in the ARS Building to both the wider public and fellow artists. The AFF launch event will focus on the artists’ earlier film and video production, but some new material is also shown. The participants include many alumni and teaching staff members of EAA: Merike Estna, Johnson and Johnson, Raul Keller, Laura Kuusk, Mait Laas, Laivi, Camille Laurelli, Arne Maasik, Marge Monko, Mihkel Maripuu, Marko Mäetamm, Krista Mölder, Robin Nõgisto, Fideelia-Signe Roots, Liina Siib, Ave Taavet, Erik Alunurm, Karl-Erik Talvet, Jaan Toomik, Olivia Verev, Liis Viira and Visible Solutions LLC. Films made by students of the Nukufilm Children’s Studio and Sally Stuudio operating in the ARS Education Building are also shown. Friday 10 March at 17:30-23:00 Saturday 11 March at 13:00-16.30 FREE ENTRENCE! More info (in Estonian): www.arsimaja.ee https://www.facebook.com/events/660216290854496/ ARS Film Festival is supported by the Estonian Artists’ Association and Cultural Endowment of Estonia. We thank: Dint graphic design studio, Tõnu Narro, Narrot OÜ, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Avision. EXHIBITIONS Zones of Indistinction by OGH to open at EAA Gallery on Friday The new Zones of Indistinction exhibition by OGH will open at EAA Gallery on 9 March at 18.00. The artists will give a presentation of their practice at EAA Gallery on the opening night. Zones of Indistinction is a chapter in the project that is based on the long-term and daily practice of the artist duo OGH. The artists will create objects in the gallery that embody or have once embodied the artists’ strive to live according to a self-imposed set of rules in a way that life becomes indistinguishable from the rules. The impetus for this rigid adherence is not a masochistic desire for structure or constraint, but – somewhat paradoxically – liberation from an imposed order. The project has been influenced by ideas like Hakim Bey’s Temporary Autonomous Zone, folk-political programmes of resistance, as well as Greco-Roman and Neoplatonic Christian asceticism. OGH is Paige Früchtnicht and Greg Ponchak. Paige Früchtnicht (b. 1994) is an artist, writer and curator from Columbus, Ohio, USA, currently living in Amsterdam. Greg Ponchak (b. 1991) is an artist, designer, and curator from Cleveland, Ohio, USA, currently living in Amsterdam. For the past three years, he has co-operatively run Skylab Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The exhibition will remain on view until 1 April. EAA Gallery is located at Vabaduse väljak 6/8 (entrance through the inner courtyard of Tallinn Art Hall) and is open Tue-Sat, 12:00-18:00. Vano Allsalu Associate Professor of Painting, EAA Collection, an anniversary exhibition at Vabaduse Gallery 11-29 March 2017 Opening on 10 March at 17:00 You are kindly invited to the opening of the Collection exhibition by Vano Allsalu at Vabaduse Gallery on Friday 10 March at 17:00-19:00. Vano Allsalu (b. 1967) is one of the most consistent and programmatic abstract expressionists in Estonian art. Allsalu graduated with a painting speciality from the Academy of Arts in 1991; two years later he had personal exhibitions in Tartu Art House and at Tokko & Arrak Gallery in Tallinn; he started taking part in comprehensive exhibitions as a schoolboy in the mid-1980s. Allsalu has been a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 1992. The show at Vabaduse Gallery will present viewers with a selection of the artist’s works from the past four years. Collection doesn’t offer a collection of selected works in the classic sense – the time span is too short and the gallery too small for that. However, this selection is not random, because not only do the paintings present the viewer with something that the artist has considered important during the day and hour of making that work, but it’s clearly carried by a desire to relate to both the artist’s earlier works and a wider cultural legacy. Vano Allsalu teaches at the Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Painting and is President of the Estonian Artists’ Association. The Collection exhibition marks the artist’s 50th birthday. Read more, in Estonian Spell. Vano Allsalu, acrylic on canvas, 180 × 160 cm, 2016) Life on Earth and in the Country. The 17th Survey Exhibition of the Estonian Artists’ Association Tallinn Art Hall 4 March - 16 April 2017 The 17th Survey Exhibition of the Estonian Artists Association Life on Earth and in the Country will be open at Tallinn Art Hall from 4 March. Can we get cottage cheese from curd snacks? Is the Earth flat? Is there a forest behind the trees? asks Mari Kartau, the curator of the exhibition, who knows that these trick questions are not just hot air; they actually hit the mark. The works created for this exhibition, which developed out of a collaboration between the Artists’ Association and the weekly Maaleht in celebration of the newspaper’s thirtieth anniversary, are living witnesses to this; because as the curator recognises, this art tends to decrease the nostalgic, romantic and utopian picture of country life that is divorced from reality. The participants include many alumni, students and teaching staff members of EAA. Fideelia-Signe Roots. Female Tractor Driver Plays Accordion. Photo. 2016/17 Two EAA Master’s students in Jewellery were selected to participate in an international exhibition after a tense competition Hanna-Maria Vanaküla and Merlin Meremaa, Master’s students in Jewellery at the Estonian Academy of Arts, will take part in the Schmuck 2017 international jewellery exhibition and the Talente 2017 exhibition of emerging applied artists taking place within the framework of the Handwerksmesse trade fair for craft trades in Munich on 8-14 March. Schmuck is the biggest exhibition of preselected contemporary jewellery that has regularly taken place already since 1959. Cornelie Holzach, Director and Curator at Pforzheim Jewellery Museum, chose 67 artists from 31 countries among more than 700 applications. Hanna-Maria Vanaküla’s coal necklace and brooch from Estonia were one of the chosen. Necklace by Hanna-Maria Vanaküla The Talente exhibition of emerging applied artists taking place in the same place had more than 600 applications from 32 countries. 105 works by young artists were chosen including a series of brooches made by Merlin Meremaa from pressed steel. Hanna-Maria and Merlin are the only jewellery artists from Estonia who were chosen for the exhibitions. More info herel and herel Untitled 2 by Merlin Meremaa EAA Department of Leather Art 100 Inferno, a thematic exhibition of bookbinding Rahva Raamat in Viru Keskus → 1 April 2017 Students and teachers of the Department of Leather Art have designed unique bindings for Inferno, the first and most renowned part of Dante’s Divine Comedy. These varied binding solutions are presented to the public at the exhibition with a slightly uncanny title. EAALEATHER100 Tallinna Kaubamaja display windows → 19 April 2017 The exhibition features works by students of the Department of Leather Art over the past five years. Rural-themed Long Field exhibition by Tiina Sarapu Estonian Agricultural Museum Curated by Reeli Kõiv Pargi 4, Ülenurme, Tartu County www.epm.ee → 19 August 2017 Tue-Sun 10-18 Jaanus Samma’s personal exhibition Divider Temnikova & Kasela Gallery → 11 March 2017 TEACHING STAFF NURTURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING STAFF IN EAA IN 2017 During the EAA briefing on 27 February, Vice Rector of Academic Affairs Anne Pikkov presented new principles and plans to nurture the development of the teaching staff. Kristiina Krabi, Head of Open Academy, wrote down a summary of her presentation: We in EAA value and recognise our teaching staff and teaching. We are planning a study module of study/teaching for EAA students, graduates and teaching staff to nurture the development of teaching skills and knowledge in our community. We started working with the EAA Student Council in 2017 to recognise the Teacher of the Year with a cash prize. We have launched the Inspiration Café series (taking place once or twice per year) to support the teaching activity of the EAA teaching staff; we offer trainings that are connected with teaching, developing language skills and fostering entrepreneurship among students. Information on training activities is available in the training calendar on the EAA Estonian-language webpage (http://www.artun.ee/oppimine/kalender/koolitused-tootajale/). Conferences for staff members on current issues are being organised (e.g., a conference on pre-study in 2016). I would like to encourage the EAA teaching staff to take part in education conferences and networks (there will be an international teachers’ conference in the University of Tartu in 2018). This year, we will announce a scholarship for curriculum development and start reform of the feedback system in EAA. We collaborate with other universities and networks. For example, from this academic year, EAA students can participate in the ELU programme at Tallinn University and hopefully our teaching staff can also be supervisors of the ELU courses (http://www.tlu.ee/elu). We are taking part in survey projects and involve experts to develop our academic activities. As a positive example, I would like to bring out the consultations of higher education expert Mari Elken from December 2016. The resources to nurture the development of teaching staff come from the EAA budget for human resources, and through the EKA Loovkärg project and the Edu Tegu entrepreneurship programme. We are also applying for additional financing and projects. Information on nurturing the professional development of the EAA teaching staff is available on the EAA Estonian-language webpage http://www.artun.ee/akadeemia/tootamine/ under the menu item ‘Õppejõu tugi’ (support for teaching staff) with documents (e.g., Best Practices of Assessment), training calendar for the teaching staff and other materials including mostly documentation of past events. Come for a visit! Dear friends, acquaintances, relatives, you are warmly welcome to the EAA Open Doors Day on 23 March. All the EAA academic buildings in Tallinn are open to visitors, as well as the mobile classroom that the Department of Interior Architecture will open in Narva. Stay up-to-date on www.artun.ee/avatuduksed2017. Solveig Jahnke Kommunikatsioonijuht/Head of Communications solveig.jahnke@artun.ee Tel +372 6267 111 Mob +372 5626 4949 www.artun.ee