The Night of the Arts, which kicks off the Helsinki Festival, will be celebrated this year on Thursday, August 14. The Theatre Museum is participating and offers activities and experiences for all ages!

On the Night of the Arts, admission to the museum is free from 17:00 to 21:00. The program begins at 17:30 in the Cable Factory’s Glass Courtyard with the museum’s August resident artists Siiri Haatainen, Olga Kastemaa, and Pilvi Mäkeläinen. At 18:00, Theatre ILMI Ö’s live-action role-playing game MetsäLarppi starts in the Manege. The evening concludes with a play reading and discussion organized by the Finnish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild. In addition, there will be a joint guided tour of three museums, Triplasti kivaa kaikille, with the start time announced later. The dance artists’ performance does not require Finnish language skills; other spoken program is in Finnish only.

Exhibitions on view include Third Call and Arkadia Theatre, as well as the temporary exhibitions Anna Kontek – Enchanted Space and On Tour – Kajaani City Theatre’s Regional Group Performs.

Siiri Haatainen, Olga Kastemaa, Pilvi Mäkeläinen: PULP

At 17:30 and 18:30 in the Glass Courtyard
Theatre Museum’s dance residency artists present movement experiments and contact work twice during the Night of the Arts in the Cable Factory’s Glass Courtyard. These improvisation moments are connected to the group’s upcoming dance piece PULP (working title). PULP is not only a dance performance but also an experiential and performative installation that can be viewed like a moving artwork. Duration approx. 15 min. (Photo: Kiia Laakkonen)

About the exhibitions

Third Call is an exhibition about performing arts and the process of creating a show. You can follow the journey from idea to performance and see everything that happens in between.

In Arkadia Theatre, you can take a short trip into theatre history or unleash your creativity by stepping into the shoes of an actor, director, costume, lighting, or sound designer. In the backstage dressing room, you can change roles and take your place in the spotlight when the curtain rises. Arkadia also features theatre puppets to try out.

Anna Kontek – Enchanted Space showcases the impressive career of set and costume designer Anna Kontek, specializing in opera and ballet. The exhibition combines Kontek’s signature freedom of imagination, visual richness, historical precision, and attention to detail.

The photo exhibition On Tour – Kajaani City Theatre’s Regional Group Performs by Minna Hyvönen is an ode to theatre in its most authentic form. Regional theatre brings performing arts to places where people would otherwise not have access to shows. Through photographs, we see the everyday life of the tour before and after performances.