Residencies
Saastamoinen Foundation Helsinki residency apartment. Photo: Pasi Haaranen.
Saastamoinen Foundation supports a wide range of residency options and is constantly expanding its own residency offering.
Saastamoinen Foundation has been running its own alumni residency programme in partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts since 2015. As part of the University of the Arts’ international partnering programme, graduate artists are offered the opportunity to work at leading residency centres in Toronto, Scotland, Amsterdam, Maastricht and New York.
The Foundation additionally has its own residency on Pieni Roobertinkatu in the heart of Helsinki, offering researchers and artists a space for brief periods of work as well as opportunities to network locally and explore the Finnish academic landscape and art scene.
In 2024, the Foundation launched a project to establish a new residency centre for artists and researchers at the Syvänniemi Spool Mill site in Kuopio. The future residency is currently awaiting a construction permit and is scheduled to open in 2028.
Saastamoinen Foundation Residency
Saastamoinen Foundation offers artists and scientists a space to work in downtown Helsinki at its residency apartment on Pieni Roobertinkatu. The apartment accommodates 1-2 guests.
The Helsinki residency promotes international networking by offering artists and researchers the opportunity to network with local artists and scholars and explore the Finnish art and research scene. The apartment accommodates foreign artists or curators visiting Finland, or can be used as a retreat-like setting for Finnish and foreign artists collaborating on joint international projects. It can also be used for accommodating guests on institutional visits or participants in exchange programmes.
Photo: Jan Ahstedt
Alumni residencies abroad
Academy alumni are invited to apply for a residency at one of five internationally respected residency centres, each offering artists extensive opportunities for professional development and international networking. The residency centres offer a focused working environment enabling artists to immerse themselves in research or art production, as well as opportunities to engage in critical debate about their practice. The five international sites currently included in the programme offer residencies ranging from three months to two years in duration. The grants awarded by Saastamoinen Foundation cover travel expenses, participation in the residency programme, a working space, accommodation, living costs and a small production budget.
Photo: Jan van Eyck Academie
Syvänniemi Spool Mill, Kuopio
The village of Syvänniemi in Kuopio is integrally linked to the rich history of the Saastamoinen Foundation and the legacy of its founding fathers. It was there that Herman Saastamoinen founded the Oy H. Saastamoinen Limited spool mill in the 1890s, which went on to become the world’s leading manufacturer of wooden spools. A vibrant community complete with school, church and community hall sprang up around the spool mill, which employed hundreds of workers back in the day. The factory was demolished in the late 1960s, but its legacy lives on – now with a brighter-than-ever future.
Saastamoinen Foundation acquired the former mill site in order to to establish a new residency centre on the property and foster the region’s strong local identity through art and science. Plans are under way to construct artist studios and a field laboratory for water research alongside the residency, providing a natural site for exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary encounters.
ELKA, Syvänniemi in the 1920’s.