Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.10.2, Connecticut Historical S…

Flyer: 2013 Finnish American Heritage Society Events

Date2013

MediumPaper

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionEvent flyer for June 2013 events at the Finnish American Heritage Society.

One of these events was a required public presentation of the Year 15 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Finnish fiddling. Teaching artists John Chambers and Christine Anderson with apprentice Saul Ahola. The other was an initiative in Finnish folk dance organized by apprentice Saul Ahola.

Apprentice Saul Ahola, a physician and long-time member of the Finnish American Heritage Society (FAHS) in Canterbury, Connecticut, worked with teacher Christine Anderson on Finnish fiddle repertoire, and John Chambers for fiddle technique (although both teachers are very familiar with Finnish folk music). Their concert presentation at FAHS included performance by all three artists as well as information on the fiddle tradition in Finland, and involved dancers and singers from the community.

Object number2015.196.10.2

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from RI, MA, or CT with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Subject Note: In Year 15 (2012-2013), apprentice Saul Ahola, a physician and long-time member of the Finnish American Heritage Society in Canterbury CT, worked with teacher Christine Anderson on Finnish fiddle repertoire, and John Chambers for fiddle technique (although both teachers are very familiar with Finnish folk music). Saul's goal was to increase his knowledge of both the music and the Finnish folk music network, and to host more concerts and folk dances in eastern Connecticut. Their concert presentation at at the Finn Hall included fiddle playing by all three artists as well as information on the fiddle tradition in Finland, and involved dancers and singers from the community. This event was a required public presentation of the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Finnish fiddling.

Subject Note: Based at the hundred-year-old Finn Hall in Canterbury, the Finnish American Heritage Society formed in 1987 to prevent the sale of the hall to outsiders, and established its mission to promote Finnish heritage, culture, and language. The group renovated the building, first dedicated in 1925, adding a national monument to Finnish American World War II veterans, a meeting room with full kitchen, and an updated theatre area with dressing rooms. To house a growing archives collection, a purpose-built climate-controlled museum and storage space was designed with a slant roof reflecting the hall’s structure and the roofs of many sheds throughout the landscape. To advance the appreciation of Finnish culture, the society has sponsored an array of educational and arts programs, along with celebrations of Finnish culinary traditions, craft workshops, regional gatherings, and theatrical productions over the years. Since 2020 and continuing, FAHS has developed its collections, archives, and library into a professional museum open to the public. A quarterly FAHS newsletter, The FinnConn Connection, reaches over 400 subscribers.

The Finnish American Heritage Society library, comprising works of fiction, history and rare Marxist titles in Finnish translation, stands as one of the most complete of its kind in the country. This archive also houses one of the largest collections of Finnish music in the US, as well as folk art, costumes, textiles, and memorabilia. The restored backdrops used in theatrical productions over the life of the hall form a significant collection. In 1996 the Brooklyn NY Imatra Lodge, which had been a Finnish workers’ association, social hall, aid society and publisher of the New Yorkin Uutiset edited by Matti Kurikka, closed and transferred its records and books to the Canterbury Finnish Hall, forming the first collections of the archive and library. In 1997 the Imatra Foundation awarded a generous grant to FAHS to fund the new heritage center addition, built by cooperative community labor in typical Finnish talkoot style. FAHS members have conducted oral history interviews with several older community residents, recording their memories on audio and videotape. In 2000 FAHS compiled an illustrated community history as part of the Local Legacies: Celebrating Community Roots project organized by the Library of Congress, available online and as part of the permanent collections of the American Folklife Center.

The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History has partnered with FAHS since 2000 on apprenticeships that have taught traditional arts of weaving, sauna-building, woodcarving, traditional fiddling, kantele-playing, and birch bark basketry. Through the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, FAHS members shared their learning with Finns from other New England states, re-energizing several traditional practices across the region, building a working sauna at their community hall, developing a weaving cooperative, training folk musicians, and reviving a form of woodcarving that has been nearly lost in Finland. In addition to these activities, CCHAP has advised FAHS on oral history interviewing and archiving and museum practices. CCHAP has also brought new visitors to the Finn Hall in Canterbury through two bus tours that introduced visitors to Finnish heritage sites and culinary experiences. In 2017, FAHS and CCHAP developed and displayed an exhibition of Finnish history in Connecticut at the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford. Sisu and Creativity presented art works, images, oral histories, and documentation of the community’s history from the FAHS archives, one of the largest Finnish collections in the country. The exhibit explored central characteristics of Finnish settlement in Connecticut – their agricultural cooperatives; the built environment including farms, barns, and community halls; the saunas constructed by every family as a social gathering place; the festivals celebrating important Finnish holidays; and the many artistic and musical traditions still practiced throughout the community. 2017 marked the centenary of Finland’s independence from Russia, as well as the 30th anniversary of the founding of FAHS, and the project was part of a series of local and national commemorative events.

Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to these artists.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Subject Terms