The Anglo-Finnish Society

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  • Higher Education in Finland: A strategic look

    Higher Education in Finland: A strategic look at its role in the Education system and what can be learned from higher education policies in the UK: A talk by Birgitta Vuorinen – Counsellor, Education and Science, Embassy of Finland, London

    Community Hall, St Anne’s Church, 55 Dean Street, London, W1D 6AF at 18.00 -19.30 on 13 January 2026

    The Talk: Context and Content

    Finland is known for its high-quality education system striving for educational equity, equality and excellence, at all levels. Finland invests in building a  strong foundation for learning in early childhood education and care, offers inclusive comprehensive education as well as upper secondary general education and VET, which both give eligibility for degree studies either at academically oriented universities or professionally oriented universities of applied sciences.

    A well-functioning education system has been crucial in transforming Finland from a poor war-torn nation to a prosperous, innovative society in a relatively short time. Today, Finland is renowned as one of the most innovative economies in the world. 

    Birgitta Vuorinen will talk about the role of higher education, research and international cooperation in these fields in today’s Finland. She will also share her view on the UK’s higher education and research policies Finland could learn from.

    About Birgitta Vuorinen

    Birgitta Vuorinen joined the Embassy of Finland in London in 2022 as Counsellor for Higher Education and Science. She relocated to London from the Finnish Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, where she had worked in various roles since 1995. Her latest position at the Ministry was Director of Higher Education Policy Unit (2019-2021), before that she was Head of the Group for Government Key Projects (2016-2018). In her roles she has been  involved in European policy making in the context of the Nordic Council of Ministers, European Union and Bologna Process.

    In London, her task is to follow higher education and science policy in the UK, foster opportunities for cooperation, promote Finland’s visibility, and assist Finnish higher education institutions, research institutes and other innovation ecosystem stakeholders in their endeavours for closer cooperation with British parties.

    Birgitta Vuorinen belongs to Team Finland Knowledge Network which consists of eight higher education and science experts stationed in seven countries and eight cities: Beijing, London, Los Angeles, New Delhi, Pretoria, ​São Paulo, Singapore and Washington. All experts work in Finnish missions abroad.
    Birgitta Vuorinen graduated from the University of Jyväskylä in 1995 with a Master’s Degree in Educational Sciences.

    Members of the Anglo-Nordic Societies and guests are welcome to attend (£5). Students and under 26 year olds can attend free but student ID will be requested at the door. Please use this link to book: 

    ​Select tickets – Higher Education in Finland: A strategic look at its role in the Education system – Community Hall, St Anne’s Church, 55 Dean Street​, London​

  • Visit and Tour at Christie’s

    We are grateful to our member Christina Cadogan for organising this visit to Christie’s in collaboration with the Anglo-Swedish Society. 

    The visit will start at 10.30 on 11th December 2025.  There will be coffee and a guided visit of the exhibition ’Nordic Lights’ by Anna Touzin, Senior Specialist, Director, Post-War and Contemporary Art, and Alastair Plumb, Director, Senior Specialist, 19th Century European Art.

    In recognition and celebration of the artistic brilliance of artists, designers and makers from across the Nordic countries – where light is a defining element of life and culture – Christie’s is holding a private selling exhibition Nordic Lights from 20 November to 12 December, which will be on view at Christie’s London and available online. Showcasing a curated selection of important cross-category works of art alongside exceptional design pieces from distinguished collections, works will span the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, with prices from £85,000. The theme is reflected in the wild landscapes of Pekka Halonen and Akseli Gallen-Kallela, the quiet interior scenes of Vilhelm Hammershøi, Carl Larsson and Karin Mamma Andersson, and the refined elegance of Paavo Tynell‘s iconic lighting designs.

    ​We have limited places which will be allocated on a first come first served basis to subscribing AFS members only with no non-AFS member guests. If you wish to attend please email the Hon. Secretary on secretary@anglofinnishsociety.org.uk (we are already operating a waiting list).

     

  • Transylvania and Sweden: Contested Borders and Human Rights

     

    11 November 2025 from 6pm to 8pm GMT at 16 Taviton Street, London

    A SSEES Study of Central Europe seminar with Anders Blomqvist, Dalarna University

    This research project examines how Sweden, as a neutral state committed to international law and minority protection, responded to the evolving Transylvanian Question from the post–World War I settlement through the late communist period in Romania. While officially accepting the post-Trianon territorial status quo and the principle of territorial integrity, Swedish governments consistently regarded minority protection and autonomy as legitimate instruments to prevent conflict and safeguard human rights. Drawing on diplomatic records, press coverage, and international debates, the research traces Sweden’s position from its early support for the League of Nations’ stability framework to its explicit human rights–based criticism of Ceaușescu’s policies in the 1980s. Sweden’s stance was shaped not only by its neutrality but also by its own historical experience with an ethnic minority abroad — the Swedish-speaking population in Finland. By analysing these continuities, the research illuminates how neutrality, human rights discourse, and respect for borders intersected in Swedish responses to ethnic and territorial conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe.

    For tickets:

    Transylvania and Sweden: Contested Borders and Human Rights Tickets, Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite

  • The Punsch Ball

    We have received this kind invitation from our friends at the Anglo-Swedish Society. 

    The Punsch Ball is on 22 November and our members have been offered the member rate of £155.

    The Punsch Ball will be held in William Gladstone’s magnificent library at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in Whitehall. The ball was last held here in 2017. This magnificent venue has views looking over the Thames. There will be a short performance by the Society’s music scholars. Helan Går and Punschen Kommer will be sung during the 3-course meal, which will be followed by dancing.

    Cocktails 6:30pm
    Dinner 7:30pm
    Dancing 9:30pm
    Carriages 1:00am

    DRESS CODE: Black Tie

    https://www.angloswedishsociety.org.uk/payment-event/

  • Short film by a Finnish director Wille Hyvönen

    European Short Film Festival
    Date: 7 November – 8 November
    Time: 18:00
    Venue:
    Regent Street Cinema
    307 Regent St., London W1B 2HW

    There is a short film by a Finnish director on 8 November: What My Mother Calls Me, dir. Wille Hyvönen, Finland, 2024, Fiction, 15 mins, Age Rating 12. When her mother dies, Anna has a choice to make. She embarks on a journey of self-discovery to Helsinki, where she finally meets others like her.

    See further: Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre London | In Short Europe 2025: Opening Doors

  • Concert featuring  Leevi Madetoja’s Symphony No. 2

    Barnet Symphony Orchestra Concert

    Sunday 23 November 2025, at 7pm, at St John’s Church Friern Barnet, London N11 3EQ

    The Barnet Symphony Orchestra has extended a warm invitation to their upcoming concert which is believed to be the UK premiere of Leevi Madetoja’s Symphony No. 2 (written in 1918). This programme features one of Finland’s most celebrated composers.

    The programme includes:
    Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto (featuring soloist Mabelle Young-Eun Park )
    Madetoja – Symphony No. 2

    We are especially excited to perform the Madetoja because it somehow isn’t as well known as similar masterpieces by Jean Sibelius, but has really excited us during rehearsals. We feel this concert offers an opportunity to celebrate Finnish musical heritage in our local community and I have written more about my experience preparing this work in a blog post here.

    It’s also possible to attend the concert day rehearsal (2-5pm) if you cannot make the evening event. Further details about the concert and ticket options can be found at: Select tickets – Barnet Symphony Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky and Madetoja – St John’s Church, Friern Barnet Road

  • Christmas Lunch at the Finnish Church in London

    Tuesday, 16 December 2025 (1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)

    We are once again holding our Christmas lunch at the Finnish Church in Rotherhithe, with a range of delicious Finnish Christmas dishes.

    Pre-lunch drinks and the Christmas buffet will be held in the Church Hall.

    To make this year’s occasion even more festive, we are delighted that John Eady will play both organ and piano. John is the organist at St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge. His  repertoire will include familiar seasonal songs, Finnish and British, so there will be plenty of opportunities for all members to join in the merriment.

    Drinks: The Church does not have a licence to serve alcohol. However, for the pre-lunch reception, the Society will provide sparkling wine, as well as soft alternatives. Please bring your own bottles of table wine.

    Address:  33 Albion Street, London, SE16 7HZ

    Price and payment. The price is £45 per head. 

    To book by 23 November 2025: Buy tickets – Christmas lunch at the Finnish Church in London – The Finnish Church in London

  • Book launch: Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman

    Book launch: Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman

    23 Oct 2025, 18:00

    UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
    Masaryk Room, 16 Taviton Street, London, WC1H 0BW

    The Modern Humanities Research Association is delighted to announce the publication of volume 11 in our Jewelled Tortoise series: Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman by L. Onerva, translated by Eva Buchwald with an introduction and notes by Viola Parente-Čapková.

    L. Onerva (the pen name of Hilja Onerva Lehtinen, 1882-1972) was one of the most versatile literary figures of her generation, and her novel Mirdja is among the most important works of Nordic fin-de-siècle literature. It recounts the life of its free-spirited protagonist from adolescence to old age as she navigates the gendered world around her, testing the boundaries of her sexuality and railing against conventionality. Onerva’s candid, subversive depiction of society’s norms and traditions creates a vivid backdrop to her heroine’s defiant quest for self-determination.

    Mirdja sharply divided the opinions of the contemporary reading public, winning the National Prize for Literature while being widely condemned for immorality. An example of early Modernist writing, described as having Decadent and Nietzschean tendencies, the novel has since been re-evaluated in light of feminist criticism and new trends in scholarship on fin-de-siècle culture and New Woman fiction. Just as her protagonist rebels against the constraints of bourgeois norms, so Onerva challenged the conventions of prose to create an experimental, vividly individualistic form of expression. This fully annotated translation brings this remarkable work of Decadent literature to an English readership for the first time.

    See also and to register: Book launch: Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman | Faculty of Arts and Humanities

  • Animal Nature Future Film Festival (ANFFF) opening with the Finnish documentary Once Upon a Time in a Forest

    The Animal Nature Future Film Festival (ANFFF) is an international platform based in the UK and China dedicated to promoting environmental and animal protection through film and the arts. Since its inception in London, ANFFF has reached over 17 million audiences worldwide.

    Their 2025 festival will open with the Finnish documentary Once Upon a Time in a Forest, directed by Virpi Suutari, which beautifully captures Finland’s landscape and the youth-led environmental movement that has emerged to protect it.

    Event details:
    Date and time: Saturday, 25 October 2025, 5:00–8:00 pm
    Location: Curzon Cinema Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 5DY

    Ticket booking details can be found here:
     

  • Cadogan Fine Arts: ‘Northern Visions’ Exhibition

    Cadogan Fine Arts presents ‘Northern Visions’, an exhibition of Nineteenth Century and Early Modern Nordic Art. This exhibition presents the work of different artists from across Scandinavia and Finland showing the influences of French Impressionism in the late Nineteenth Century towards a more conceptual or abstract style of art in the early Twentieth Century. Among the artists in the exhibition are Helene Schjerfbeck from Finland, Anders Zorn from Sweden, and Gerda Wegener from Denmark.

    There has been growing interest in this period of art in the Nordic countries. The new director of Frieze Masters, Emanuela Tarizzo, interviewed for The Times in September, was asked which trends to look out for. Tarizzo singles out late  Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century Scandinavian art… “This didn’t just happen overnight, in recent years we’ve had more acquisitions from museums across the world, not just in Scandinavia. And now we’re seeing galleries respond to that and the wider public of visitors and collectors.”

    The exhibition will be open daily at J-M Gallery, 230 Portobello Road, London W11 1LJ, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. from Thursday, 27 November to Tuesday, 2 December 2025.

    Any queries please contact info@cadoganfinearts.com

    Exhibitions | Cadogan Fine Arts