In this laboratory, exercise, biodegradable plastic is made from organic materials. Bioplastics decompose quickly in compost. Did you know that it can take up to 1000 years for ordinary plastic to decompose in nature?

Finnish utopian communities have an interesting history reaching back to the 1792 “New Jerusalem” plan in Sierra Leone. While the best-known Finnish utopian ventures are Sointula in Canada (1901-1905) and Colonia Finlandesa (1906-1940) in Argentina there were, however, almost twenty similar Finnish ventures around the world based on nationalism, utopian socialism, cooperative movements, “tropic fevers,” and religious ideas. This exhibit includes photographs, texts and maps.

Presenter Bio: Mr. Teuvo Peltoniemi, Licentiate of Social Sciences, is a Finnish researcher and science journalist specializing in Nordic migration. He has worked in universities, radio, TV, and print media, and published 18 books. In 2007, he was honored with the “State of Finland Award for Life Work on Public Information.”

This exhibit honors Minnesotans, past and present, who consider themselves Finnish American. This exhibit is presented in eleven topics presented through photos and text. The topical selections, and the people documented here, are not meant to represent the complete experience of Finnish Americans and those who identify as such. We encourage you to think about this as you explore the sources presented here. What other topics might we also have included? What questions do these sources raise for you? You may know the complex history of the land now known as Finland; what do those complications mean for the historical record of Americans of Finnish identity? We invite you to think about these questions as you experience this exhibit.

Presenter Bio: The Immigration History Research Center Archives at the University of Minnesota maintains a large and significant collection of Finnish American materials, one of the two major collections in the USA, the other at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock, Michigan.

Welcome to Traveling Traditions: Nordic Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest, a traveling panel exhibition with online components! This exhibition features a cross-section of traditions Nordic Americans practice in the region. From 2017–2019, graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, trained in folklore fieldwork practices and working in cooperation with the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Finnish people have created a number of utopian communities around the world, including the Russian Far East, the Pacific Coast of Alaska and other sites in the USA. This presentation will narrate the story of Finnish Utopian communities through lecture and video.

Teuvo Peltoniemi, Licentiate of Social Sciences, is a Finnish researcher and science journalist specializing in Nordic migration. He has worked in universities, radio, TV, and print media, and published 18 books. In 2007, he was honored with the “State of Finland Award for Life Work on Public Information.”

This event is held at First Lutheran Church in Duluth.

Pulla Baking is central to Finnish American cuisine Come to learn more about pulla. If you bake pulla, come with your entry in this 2024 Pulla-baking contest. Listen and watch as Tom Dubois and Beatrice Ojakangas talk about the pulla entries. Watch Beatrice Ojakangas demonstrate her own pulla-baking artistry. (Bea may have a pulla-baking surprise to share at this event.) Everyone is welcome to this free and open event.