With the approach of spring came blooming flowers, new growth, and a generally refreshed feeling. And so VEMU’s cultural program blossomed with the onset of spring, with a whole slew of exciting events, old and new friends contributing to the growth of our following, and a revived energy and atmosphere. In keeping with the year of cultural diversity and multiculturalism in Estonia, we continued to feature several
interesting and educational events to promote this theme. But there is another important milestone to commemorate this year, the 80th anniversary of the Great Escape of 1944. After our summer break, VEMU’s programming in the fall will feature many events focusing on commemorating this important historical event, and we have already began dipping our toes into it at some of our spring events by previewing what we’ll have in store for everyone in our fall programming.
Continuing on with a major theme for this year, the year of cultural diversity, we ended February with the opening of our exhibition “My Many Lives. Being an Estonian in Multicultural Canada” on February 29th. The exhibit was the culmination of what we had collected in the process of our collection campaign, which came to a close at the end of January. Beautiful and expressive images were featured, which told the touching stories of the culturally diverse lives of people in our community.
With the onset of a proper spring, we dove into our March programming with the continuation of our keelekohvikud or language cafés. They have continued to be a success and while we have a great, fun group of participants that comes out faithfully to the bi-weekly cafés, we’ve also had new members drop in and join us. We are a culturally diverse group with varying levels of Estonian language skills and we truly cherish coming together and learning about Estonian culture as well as developing our language skills.
Our writers’ club also continued to meet once a month and it has also been a great success. Led by author Anne Remmel, we developed our biographical and memoir writing skills and learned to give as well as receive feedback on our compositions. It has been amazing to see the progress of everyone in the group. Starting quite soon, some of the stories composed by our writers will be published in a column in Eesti Elu/Estonian Life newspaper.
In the second half of March, we had Merle Varik PhD from the Tallinn Healthcare College present an interesting lecture about the current state of healthcare in Estonia on March 19th. She went into more details about topics such as the issues in the healthcare system, and the role of post-secondary institutions, their curricula and what opportunities they have to solve these issues.
Moving into April, the month started off with a riveting event on April 2nd, “Louis Kahn, Opera, and Small Towns” focused on architecture, featuring two lectures by Toivo Tammik and Ott Rätsep from Estonia. Tammik’s presentation, titled “The History of Architecture is the History of Reconstruction” touched upon building heritage and what challenges are faced in the present-day realm of architecture in Estonia. Rätsep’s lecture “Kahn — From the Island” focused on why the Estonian island of Saaremaa needs a “Kahn Centre.” A short documentary titled “A Stroll on Kahn’s Home Island,” made by the Louis Kahn Estonia Foundation in 2021, was also shown.
On the evening of April 3rd, VEMU and Estonian Music Week presented an acoustic concert by Estonian star vocalist ALIKA (Alika Milova). The main hall was packed and the audience was instantly charmed by her personality and powerful vocals, complemented by the mellow and lyrical notes flowing from guitarist Markus Nurmsaar’s instrument. ALIKA also performed the following evening, April 4th, at the Saulter Street Brewery in downtown Toronto for a wider audience as part of Sofar Sounds program, where she also wowed onlookers; along with local Estonian-Canadian artist Roland Campbell and folk duo Honeypaw.
Following closely after on April 6th was the launch of local Estonian community member Vaike Külvet’s long-awaited book “Memoir of an Exile.” It was a touching event that burrowed into the hearts of every guest. The month also featured a meeting of the VEMU Book Club which continues to be a popular place for book-lovers to meet and discuss literature.
On the evening of May 8th, we showed a pre-recorded lecture by Krista Aru titled “Creator of the Umwelt and preserver of unanimity: memory institutions and communities.” It was a truly educational experience, during which Krista dove into the details of the necessity of memory institutions, what role they play in communities and keeping unity, and more.
Many of us have probably heard that Estonia had multiple candidates for the European Parliament elections. But who to vote for? University of Toronto professor Andres Kasekamp shared his political expertise and presented a talk on everything that one would want to know about the European Parliament election in Estonia on the evening of May 22nd.
Over the course of May, we also ended our writers’ club and language café with celebratory get togethers before they start up once again in the fall after summer break.
Doors Open Toronto took place on the weekend of May 25th and 26th and VEMU took part in this great event for the first time by opening its doors to the wider public. We offered all kinds of activities and events, including exclusive archival tours, Malev Toom’s photography exhibition, a 3-hour long DJ set by local Estonian-Canadian turntablist, musician and producer Erik Laar on May 25th, featuring records by diaspora Estonian musicians from our archives, screening the “Our Tartu” film, and more. We had a constant stream of visitors over the course of the weekend from incredibly diverse cultural backgrounds and we made a lot of new friends and gained new interest towards our programming and
activities.
Closing off our programming for this spring season was a lecture by Fulbright Scholar at MIT and from
the Estonian Academy of Arts, Linda Kaljundi on May 28. Her presentation was titled “North American
Indigenous Heritage in Estonian Collections: Emerging Discussions on Entangled Colonial Histories” and
focused on the shared colonial history and experiences of Estonian and Indigenous peoples.
In May and June, colleagues from the Estonian National Archives once again came to VEMU to
help with archival work. It was the third time for Lea Teedema to visit Canada. Evelin Varris was in Toronto for the first time. We thank the Ministry of Education and Research and the National Archives for their support.
And so spring has turned into a balmy and (mostly) sunny summer so far, and VEMU is taking a short
break for the summer months. We have so much planned for the fall and winter, including a whole slew of
lectures, films, presentations, concerts and more. See you in September!
Kati Kiilaspea
VEMU Events and Communications Assistant