Finnish-Russian cultural center to open in Helsinki
A new center opens in Helsinki aimed at helping Russian speakers integrate into Finnish society through culture. The meeting place will offer exhibitions, discussion events, films, music, poetry readings and other literary evenings.
There are an estimated 60,000 Russian speakers living in Finland, about half of them in the Helsinki region.
The Finnish-Russian cultural center is the first concrete project by the Cultura Foundation, which was set up with state support to advance interaction through the arts and culture. The meeting place opens on 10 th of April at 14.30, 2013 at Vuorikatu 8, Helsinki.
The Cultura Foundation, which takes over the work of the former Institute for Russia and Eastern Europe, is partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The Minister of Culture and Sport, Mr Paavo Arhinmäki, appointed the members for the foundations Board of Trustees for a three-year term.
With the establishment of the foundation, as of 1 January 2013 the library of the Institute for Russia and Eastern Europe was transferred to the Espoo City Library as a special task assigned by the Ministry of Education and Culture.