Events

EKA will celebrate its 111th birthday on Thursday, October 30, with an auction, alumni reunion, and party. All former and current EKA members are welcome to attend!

PROGRAMME:

• 18:00 – The group exhibition “compose◠decompose” opens at the EKA Gallery. As part of the opening, Albertina Tevajärvi’s performance will be presented at 18:30
• 19:00 – EKA Rector Hilkka Hiiop welcomes the party guests
• 19:30 – Graphic Design students start the Color Bingo
• 20:00 – The charity auction “The Special First”, led by Siim Raie. Works by alumni, staff, and students will be auctioned. Half of the proceeds go to student scholarships and half to the authors. View the auction works HERE
• 21:30 – Siim Pojeng on the stage
• 22:00 – The cake arrives, and DJ Kersten Kõrge sets the mood for dancing.
• 23:00 – The legendary Helina Risti karaoke begins.

A shop selling EKA souvenirs and publishing products will be open. Alumni can place orders for EKA graduation rings at the party.

Food and drinks will be sold by Kuri Koer, Fermendid and TOHI.

Alumni are welcome to visit their departments:

• 17:00 – Textile Department: Launch of the first three publications in the Textile 110 interview series and a reunion of alumni and students | room D505
• 17:00–18:00 – The Dean’s Office of Fine Arts faculty welcomes all alumni | room D301
• 17:30 – Printmaking Department: Open doors, all alumni welcome. Prize for the best joke | room B409
• 17:30 – Animation Department: Welcoming all animation alumni | room B311
• 18:00 – Product Design Department: Party for students and alumni. Music by student DJs Lumi & Maheviin, plus an open Halloween bar | room C301
• 18:00 – Architecture and Interior Architecture: Inviting all alumni from the Faculty of Architecture to drop by the Dean’s Office to chat, sketch on a napkin, and project into the future | room D409
• 18:00 – SDSI, Interaction Design, Social Design, Circular Design: Four EKA Design masters’ invite the students, alumni and friends over for Food, Drinks & Music. DJ Örn & Friends on the decks | room D306
• 18:00 – Graphic Design: Student-organized activities, dancing, and DJs | room C304
• 18:00 – Design & Innovation student bar | room A300
• 18:00 – Ceramics Workshop open and welcoming all ceramics alumni | room B602
• 18:00 – The Institute of Art History and Visual Culture welcomes all KVI alumni | room D309
• 18.00 – Cultural Heritage and Conservation Department welcomes all alumni in the sculpture conservation studio | room D308
• 19:00 – Glass Department: Welcoming all glass alumni | room B604

See you at the EKA 111 party!

EKA 111 Facebook event
EKA 111 Auction Facebook event

As part of Tallinn Photomonth, FOKU gallery hosts the presentation of And Then It Fades (Away), a new bilingual (Lithuanian-English) book on contemporary Lithuanian photography. The publication brings together twelve artists whose works explore themes from placelessness and archives to instability and identity, weaving personal, cultural, and ecological narratives into a vivid map of the present.

Editors Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė and Paulius Petraitis will discuss the book with moderator Annika Toots, touching on its themes as well as broader questions of contemporary photography. Published by Six Chairs Books, the volume highlights photography as a medium of inquiry and experimentation.

The presentation will be preceded by an introduction of the new MA in Photography programme at Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty. MA in Photography is a unique programme in the Baltic states, dedicated to exploring photography as a critical, experimental practice that responds to and questions contemporary realities.

The presentation and discussion will be held in English.

Are you a student passionate about creating a more inclusive and socially sustainable world? You are invited to an inspiring workshop, “Designing Our Future for All,” conducted by the design and architecture facilitator, Jasmien Herssens from Fourmind.

“Design for All” concept is about exploring how design can enrich the lives of every person. The goal is to create a more inclusive and socially sustainable world for everyone by designing environments where people know and feel their needs are supported. Ultimately, it aims to create a world where design based on caring and humanity is the norm, rather than the exception.

This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on training in the implementation of Design for All, providing you with the insights and methodologies that enrich skills and contribute to a world where caring and humanity are the norm.

The workshop is structured in two parts:

Day 1 | 30.09.2025 | 9:45 AM – 1:00 PM | Part 1: Insight & Knowledge
Delve into the latest approaches, research, and perspectives in architectural and design practice.

Day 2 | 01.10.2025 | 2:00 PM – 5:15 PM | Part 2: Application
Apply the Design for All methodology directly to one of your own personal projects or ideas.

REGISTER HERE

Workshop is part of the EKA Design Week programme.

New Visions in Slovak and Estonian Architecture: Exhibition and Discussion

Under the leadership of Sille Pihlak, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, a discussion with a group of Slovak architects will be held on the contemporary development and visions of Slovak and Estonian architecture.

At the same time, we will also open the landscape/nature/architecture exhibition of students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.

The exhibition and event are organized by The Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Helsinki.

All interested parties are welcome!

Alejandra Alarcón & Sandra Mirka
GROUNDED GATHERINGS: ROOTED BEGINNINGS
Ground floor of EKA Gallery 27.09.–19.10.2025
Open Tue–Sat 12–6 pm Sun 12–4 pm
Opening: Friday, September 26 at 6 pm

As the seasons turn, “Grounded Gatherings: Rooted Beginnings” invites us to slow down, share food, and reflect on our relationship with the landscape. It offers a space to come together around the table, to simmer jams, and to share seasonal bites. This exhibition is imagined as a place for learning and unlearning, for exchanging different kinds of memories and knowledge. The work focuses on specific locations in Finland and Estonia, places where encounters with humans and more-than-humans have been flourishing. Through visual documentation from Spring and Summer, recipes, workshop events, and communal meals, the project invites us to build and maintain a long-lasting relationship with our surroundings through taste.

“Grounded Gatherings” is a multidisciplinary project by Alejandra Alarcón and Sandra Mirka, unfolding between Finland and Estonia. Sandra Mirka holds an MA in interior architecture and is a certified chef based in Tallinn. Her practice is led by sourcing and building with up-cycled materials, connecting spatial design with food cultures. Alejandra Alarcón is an interdisciplinary artist and designer based in Helsinki. She holds an MA in Contemporary Design. Her interest in (food) sustainability—the seasonality of things, non-human collaborations—is deeply tied to embodied practices such as walking, foraging, cooking, and digesting. Both creatives share a passion for food and cooking, working with it in different ways throughout their individual practices. Both creatives are deeply interested in how humans and more than humans co-exist in ways that create opportunities for more caring and sustainable practices.

Graphic design: Daria Titova
Technical support: Erik Hõim
The exhibition is supported by Sadolin Estonia and Tallinn City.
Special thanks to Joni Judén, Kaitlyn D. Hamilton, TUOTUO, Lenne Nigul, Anumai Raska, Estonian Centre for Architecture, Mariann Drell, Markus Koistinen and Radul Radulović.
Opening drinks from mirai™ and Põhjala Brewery.

On 29 September, as part of the Design Night festival, the exhibition “UPMADE® in Kenya: DiMa + EKA Circular Design” will open in the Krulli quarter, showcasing creative works made from the textile offcuts of a Kenyan factory.

The exhibition is free to attend, with the opening on Monday 29.09 at 18:30 at The Machine Shop I, Krulli quarter. Regular opening hours Tuesday–Saturday 11:00–20:00 and Sunday 11:00–18:00 (29.09-05.10.2025).  

The textile industry is one of the world’s most environmentally impactful sectors – it consumes vast amounts of raw materials and energy and generates large volumes of waste. In Kenya, where the industry is rapidly growing, sustainability principles have not yet been systematically implemented.

At the Rivatex textile factory in Eldoret, Kenya, the Estonian science- and design-based UPMADE® model—built on value-adding recycling, or upcycling—was taught and applied in collaboration with students from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). The goal was to reduce the environmental footprint of production, develop skills, and help bring the local industry in line with circular-economy principles and climate targets.

From the factory’s textile remnants, the students designed clothing, accessories, lamps, sunshades and a variety of other objects. The exhibition presents the creative work of EKA circular-design master’s students who participated in the initiative during 2024–2025: Doreen Mägi, Eva Liis Lidenburg, Kaisa Ilves, Lisandra Türkson, Maria Rojiko Nisu, Mariann Hendrikson, Marit Saare, Mart Maide, Marta Konovalov, Merily Mikiver and Eva Reiska. The students were supervised by Reet Aus, Maria Pukk and Lisandra Türkson.

The EKA x T4EU podcast episode “Rethinking Fashion Waste” is available HERE. Designer and researcher Reet Aus shares insights on rethinking fashion waste in a discussion led by Anna Lohmatova, exploring the UPMADE® model in Kenya and the impact of EU sustainability regulations on the textile sector.

The exhibition is part of the project “Transferring UPMADE Expertise to Kenya,” led by EKA’s Sustainable Design and Materials Laboratory (DiMa). The project was carried out in cooperation with the Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre (SEI Tallinn) and Moi University, funded by the Estonian Ministry of Climate’s international climate-cooperation programme, with student mobility supported by the EU Erasmus+ programme.

Running from 29 September to 5 October, Design Night features many other EKA initiatives. The satellite programme includes EKA Design Week and a fashion artists’ exhibition, and EKA students will also take part in the joint display of Estonian design schools. The festival’s opening performance, “Inclusion Is Action,” is organised by EKA lecturer Reet Aus.

The full Design Night programme can be found here.

Fashion designers Ron-Jonas Verlin (Ron Verlin), Maria Roosiaas, Jaagup Kaiv, Kristiina Tali and Hanna Tiina Pekk from the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Fashion Department will present the best works from their successfully defended graduation collections in the spring of 2025 at the Solaris Centre.

The works selected by the designers will be on display on the Solaris Centre’s Design Street from 29.09-12.10.2025.

Public program at the exhibition “30×30” at EKA Gallery
Participation in the events is free!

Thursday, September 11 at 4–6 pm
Event “And this is not all…”
Drawing lesson with Malle Jürgenson, head of the Interior Architecture Department (on the second floor of EKA Gallery, in Estonian)
NB! The number of participants is limited, register here.

Sunday, September 14
At 1 pm, guided tour led by curators Madli Kaljuste and Paco Ulman (in Estonian)
At 2 pm, curatorial tour (in English)

Sunday, September 21 at 3–5 pm
A discussion, where topics that arose during the planning of the exhibition and during the exhibition will be discussed.

Read more about the exhibition here.

The opening of the joint work “Weather As a Conversation Topic” by Liisa Kruusmägi and Lukas Weidinger will take place on Thursday, September 11 at 6 pm in front of the EKA Billboard Gallery. During the event an artist talk will also take place. The event will be held in English and will be moderated by David Schilter. In case of bad weather, the conversation will take place indoors. The artwork is visible round the clock until October 26.

Read more about the exhibition here.

EKA Back-to-School Sale will take place on 1–2 September in the EKA lobby. You can find EKA merch, including sustainably produced sweatshirts, T-shirts, socks, erasers, pens and pencils, but also professional art supplies, such as paints, pens, sketching paper etc. from Gallery-G and Skizze Vunder shops.

The EKA Back-to-School Sale is open on Monday and Tuesday from 12pm to 4pm.