Anniversary Exhibition Free 90 | HAM
Detail from Elga Sesemann’s work Self-Portrait with Yellow Pot, 1943. Photo: HAM/Hanna Kukorelli
Free Art School strengthens ties with Sweden – anniversary book widely distributed to Swedish art institutions
The Free Art School will distribute its trilingual 90th anniversary book, published this spring, to a wide range of Swedish art museums, galleries, educational institutions, libraries, and professional organisations. The books will be sent to recipients free of charge, and alongside the distribution the school seeks active dialogue with the Swedish art field. The aim is also to explore opportunities for collaboration in the coming years.
The project increases the visibility of Finnish painting, and particularly the Free Art School’s painting pedagogy, in Sweden. The school’s four-year study programme, focused exclusively on painting, is exceptional not only in Finland but also within the Nordic context, and presenting it to the Swedish art field forms a central part of the project.
The extensively illustrated anniversary book, published in April 2025 in collaboration with HAM Helsinki Art Museum and Parvs Publishing Company, serves as a concrete calling card for the project. The book presents the 90-year history of the Free Art School, its key figures and pedagogical approach, as well as its current teaching and artistic community.
The work directed towards Sweden is closely linked to the Free Art School’s new internationalisation strategy, in which the Nordic countries — and Sweden in particular — play a key role. The goal is to build long-term relationships that may eventually include teacher and student exchanges, guest lectures, joint projects, and other partnerships. The contacts established during the project will also be utilised in implementing the strategy after the book distribution has been completed.
The project is supported by a €5,000 grant from the Finnish-Swedish Cultural Foundation, enabling the distribution of around one hundred copies of the anniversary book. The Free Art School thanks the foundation for its support, which makes it possible to carry out the project at the planned scale.
The book can be purchased from our online store.
Painters Anna-Stiina Korhonen and Marika Lahdenperä, who graduated in 2021, in their studio. The 90th anniversary book includes dozens of images: in addition to artwork reproductions, it contains a wide selection of documentary photographs from the school’s history and present day. Photo: Virppi Sysilehto.