SUSIRAJA ARTS ACADEMY
Photo: Vera Tegelman
Susiraja Arts Academy (formerly Sukset Ristiin Susirajalla) is a legendary institution of artistic creation, sensation, thought, and experimentation—an inspiring space where courses in different art forms and their cross-pollinations become experiences to be explored both collectively and individually.
The academy takes place from Monday, June 30 – Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Nurmes, North Karelia.
The Artistic Director of the academy is dance artist Elina Pirinen.
This year, the academy has adopted a new name that honors its history, roots, and core idea, while further emphasizing its identity as an interdisciplinary artistic space. In challenging times, collaboration, coming together, and in-betweenness bring light to the horizon.
The academy’s courses are curated around the theme of expressive bodily imagination—embracing art forms that emerge from and contribute to this vision of connection and consolation, along with the value of free, inclusive art. The artist-pedagogues of the academy form an intergenerational bridge, enriching the learning experience.
Susiraja Arts Academy offers a rich, profound, and joyful exploration of artistic disciplines and interdisciplinary visions—drawing from the contemporary currents of dance, performance, theater, literature, music, and visual arts, while creating new combinations and understanding the historical canons of various methodologies.
The academy has become one of the most significant and unique national platforms for dance and its allied art forms. It is communal, feminist, experimental, classical, sensitive, energetic mayhem, wise, dialogical, profound, therapeutic, imaginative, humorous, and full of enchanting creative madness—all experienced together.
Each year, 60 participants take part in the academy. This week-long intensive program is open to professional artists, art students, enthusiasts from various backgrounds, and first-time participants of all ages. Courses bring together professional and non-professional students in an open, warm, and respectful learning environment. Every year, we witness firsthand what happens when a person “moves into art for a week”—rediscovering their creative temperament, reconnecting with their artistic persona, experiencing holistic summer joy, and finding support through artistic practice in navigating their existence in the world. Meeting like-minded people and engaging in shared artistic learning becomes a transformative experience. Particularly in a world shaken by climate crises, human rights struggles, and wars, the very question of art’s meaning can feel uncertain. Yet, studying art in a peaceful environment, surrounded by nature, together once again, can be a profoundly resilience-building experience.
The full experience of the academy, including courses, school accommodation, and nourishing vegetarian meals, is available for €360.
Any further questions? Ask away! Leena Nordberg, executive director of the Summer Academy
and prudcer Siiri Kortelainen are available to answer questions at the email address [email protected].
The academy takes place from Monday, June 30 – Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Nurmes, North Karelia.
The Artistic Director of the academy is dance artist Elina Pirinen.
This year, the academy has adopted a new name that honors its history, roots, and core idea, while further emphasizing its identity as an interdisciplinary artistic space. In challenging times, collaboration, coming together, and in-betweenness bring light to the horizon.
The academy’s courses are curated around the theme of expressive bodily imagination—embracing art forms that emerge from and contribute to this vision of connection and consolation, along with the value of free, inclusive art. The artist-pedagogues of the academy form an intergenerational bridge, enriching the learning experience.
Susiraja Arts Academy offers a rich, profound, and joyful exploration of artistic disciplines and interdisciplinary visions—drawing from the contemporary currents of dance, performance, theater, literature, music, and visual arts, while creating new combinations and understanding the historical canons of various methodologies.
The academy has become one of the most significant and unique national platforms for dance and its allied art forms. It is communal, feminist, experimental, classical, sensitive, energetic mayhem, wise, dialogical, profound, therapeutic, imaginative, humorous, and full of enchanting creative madness—all experienced together.
Each year, 60 participants take part in the academy. This week-long intensive program is open to professional artists, art students, enthusiasts from various backgrounds, and first-time participants of all ages. Courses bring together professional and non-professional students in an open, warm, and respectful learning environment. Every year, we witness firsthand what happens when a person “moves into art for a week”—rediscovering their creative temperament, reconnecting with their artistic persona, experiencing holistic summer joy, and finding support through artistic practice in navigating their existence in the world. Meeting like-minded people and engaging in shared artistic learning becomes a transformative experience. Particularly in a world shaken by climate crises, human rights struggles, and wars, the very question of art’s meaning can feel uncertain. Yet, studying art in a peaceful environment, surrounded by nature, together once again, can be a profoundly resilience-building experience.
The full experience of the academy, including courses, school accommodation, and nourishing vegetarian meals, is available for €360.
Any further questions? Ask away! Leena Nordberg, executive director of the Summer Academy
and prudcer Siiri Kortelainen are available to answer questions at the email address [email protected].
