Tour of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), guided by Andres Tammsaar, Kristiina Krabi-Klanberg and Solveig Jahnke.

The new EAA building opened in 2018 after the Academy had been operating in different places around Tallinn for a decade. Designed by EAA graduates from the architecture office KUU, the building uses an old textile factory as its core to facilitate a contemporary art and design university.

New home of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Photo: Tõnu Tunnel, EAA

Tour of the Kumu Art Museum, guided by Anu Allas, Vice-Rector for Research, Head of Doctoral School at EKA  (bus tour from the EKA)

Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori won the international architecture competition for the art museum in 1993 chosen from 233 entries. But it took another 13 years for the museum to be built, providing the main institution for collecting and displaying Estonian art with an up-to-date building. The recently renewed permanent exhibitions are accompanied by temporary exhibitions of local and international art. The most recently opened exhibition at the time of the symposium will be ‘Art in the Comfort Zone: The 2000s in Estonian Art’, offering comprehensive insight into the noughties of the Estonian art scene.

Kumu Art Museum in Kadriorg, Tallinn. Photo: Kaido Haagen, Museum of Estonian Architecture

Visit to the Film Museum and the Maarjamäe memorial complex, guided by Karlo Funk, film critic (bus tour from the EKA).

The recent Film Museum building is situated in the Maarjamäe summer manor complex which also houses the Estonian History Museum in the 1870s historicist Maarjamäe palace. The permanent exhibition ‘Take ONE’ concentrates on the different stages of filmmaking and creates connections between Estonian and international cinema history. Close to the museums is the Maarjamäe memorial complex, an outstanding example of landscape architecture where the 1960s–1970s modernist memorial is next to the contemporary and minimalist Memorial to the Victims of Communism (2018).

Film Museum in Maarjamäe, Tallinn. Photo: Martin Siplane, Museum of Estonian Architecture

Flo Kasearu’s House Museum and the Telliskivi Creative City (walking tour).

Flo Kasearu’s House Museum is a site-specific art project whereby the artist with her family lives and works in the wooden house characteristic of the area from the early 20th century. A short walk from the museum is the Telliskivi Creative City. Next to the main railway station, this industrial quarter has been refurbished bit-by-bit over the last decade, home to galleries, event spaces, design shops, bars and restaurants.

Fotografiska Tallinn in the Telliskivi Creative City. Photo: Martin Siplane, Museum of Estonian Architecture