Visiting Ateneum, the National Gallery of Finland
An essential part of learning the language is to get to know the culture as well. Besides the Finnish language we have occasional trips to Helsinki and to nearby destinations.
This time we took a local train from Kauniainen to Helsinki with our Finnish course students and visited the National Gallery, Ateneum, in the centre of Helsinki near the main railway station (Rautatientori).
Ateneum has most notable collection of Finnish art from 19th and 20th century. The time was very important for Finnish identity to form. The artist took inspiration from the Finnish nature, folklore and the National Epic, the Kalevala.
Finnish 19th century nationalism, national romanticism and symbolism took form in different art forms. Some of the paintings in Ateneum are famous and very well known by the Finns, young and old.
The tour was done by easy Finnish (also known in Finnish as "Selkosuomi") since in this point the students are able to understand it.
Trip to Ateneum was very interesting and educational for the Finnish language course. It gave an opportunity to learn from Finnish art, history and culture.
All the trips, travel expenses and entrance tickets are always covered by the course fee.
The visits to Ateneum can be booked from their website: https://ateneum.fi/aukioloajat-ja-liput/