BENJAMIN FILENE

I recently gave a keynote talk in Bergen, Norway, for the Nordic Association for American Studies, where the conference theme was...

The Helsinki City Museum (HCM) very intentionally investigates and deploys memory. I recently experienced some of the public programs...

My favorite Finnish phase is "put the cat on the table." It's not about bringing felines into restaurants (although that's a thing, too:...

Last weekend, my wife and I took a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia. It's just a two-hour ride, but it was striking how much it...

Last week, Fulbright Finland grantees were given the opportunity to go north--to Oulu, Finland--through the Fulbright Arctic Initiative. ...

I recently made a guest teaching appearance at the University of Helsinki and got an interesting glimpse into contrasting cultural values....

The Amsterdam Museum is a bustling place that has done some bold work. I had the pleasure of meeting with curator Annemarie de Wildt,...

My Espoo museum experience (see previous post) reinforced my fascination with the public-orientedness of Finland. This is a place where...

Ei mainoksia, kiitos means "No ads, please." It's a phrase that Finns sometimes put on their mailboxes to ward off junk mail. But...

My Helsinki City Museum colleague Jari Harju tells me that very early on, the museum decided that the permanent exhibition in the new...

I generally favor actual historical voices in exhibitions instead of generic ones, but this week I visited an exhibit that made good use...

I spent most of my first week here attending--and then teaching for--a University of Helsinki seminar on Current Trends in Museological...

In my previous post, I noted the buzz around Amos Rex, the newly opened art museum. Given the huge lines and the number of...

Through Fulbright's "buddy" system, my wife, Rachel, & I had dinner last night with Päivai Rannila and her husband Sami. As we were...