Workshops

On September 10, the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA) will host a spectacular finale of the iron casting course at the Raja Street outdoor studio, where metal will be cast and creative and technological experiments completed during the course will be presented. Over 40 students and professionals from Estonia and abroad will participate in the international course.

Iron casting is primarily common in heavy industry, but despite its complexity, artists and designers are also involved in it. In the pursuit of efficiency and clear definitions, such areas between the highly standardized and the creative-experimental tend to disappear, but in order to maintain cultural integrity, it is important to keep these spaces – to maintain existing competencies and at the same time strengthen diversity.

The course, which will take place from August 31 to September 11, will explore iron casting technologies at different levels – starting with learning about iron casting as a basic metalworking technology and its various processes, and moving on to metal alloys, technological possibilities and creative experiments on different scales.

The course is attended by students from EKA and other higher education institutions, as well as professionals from Estonia and abroad. Among the participants are students from Germany, Sweden, Norway and Japan, as well as students from EKA’s jewellery and blacksmithing, craft studies and contemporary art departments, and Erasmus students. Professionals have come to the course from, among others, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Germany and the United States.

The course is supervised by Nils Hint (EKA) and David Snoo Wilson (UK). The technological research is being conducted by lecturers from Ostrova University of Technology and Riga Academy of Arts, artist Peter Bauhuis from Germany and members of the international iron casting organization ICCCIA.

On Thursday, September 10 at 6:00 PM, the public final of the course will take place at the EKA’s Raja Street outdoor studio.

The iron casting course has been held at EKA since 2016. Over the past ten years, Estonian iron casting practice has become increasingly visible in Estonia, Europe and internationally. As a next important step, the EKA Department of Jewelry and Blacksmithing, in cooperation with ICCCIA, will organize an international iron casting symposium in Tallinn in 2028.

On 2 October from 13.00–15.00, the Disainiöö programme at Põhjala Factory will host “Sustainable Textile Counselor: A New Learning Opportunity in the Textile Sector”, introducing a new international educational initiative focused on supporting sustainable transformation in the textile sector.

The textile industry faces an urgent need for new knowledge, skills and approaches to make production and consumption more sustainable. The Sustainable Textile Counselor (STC) project offers a practical learning pathway for professionals who want to support companies and organisations in developing more sustainable textile practices.

The event will introduce the STC project and its independent learning opportunities, while also exploring what it means to work as a sustainable textile counselor. The event will also celebrate the completion of Estonia’s first STC pilot programme, with diplomas presented to the newly trained counselors.

The programme will conclude with a hands-on workshop led by the new sustainable textile counselors. Participants will have the opportunity to explore practical approaches, knowledge and methods developed during the pilot programme.

The event is free and open to everyone interested in sustainable textiles.

Põhjala Factory
2 October
13.00–15.00

More information: https://www.sustainabletextilecounselor.com/

The event is organised by DiMa, EKA’s Circular Design and Materials Research Group.

As part of the exhibition “Mythbústers”, a comic-themed workshop for students will be held on Friday, September 4 from 2 to 4 pm, led by Emmi Valve. The workshop will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but places are limited (up to 20 participants). Please register here.

More information about the exhibition “Mythbústers”.

Join the NART resident artists for an evening dedicated to the artistic side/perspectives of Narva. The event is held at Narva Artist Residency (Joala 18, 20103, Narva, Estonia).

Programme all evening:

⎆ Installation “Firewall” – Vitalli Shupliak
⎆ Virtual installation “If These Walls Could Speak” – Bart Kuipers

17:00 Welcome with soup, bread, and snacks!

17:15 Tour of the installation “Firewall” by Vitalii Shupliak
Vitalli Shupliak works primarily with video installation, painting, and performance and will present video work and an installation based on his modular spatial installation “Firewall”, that is scheduled to be built in Narva later this year.

Liso Stec (BY) is a curator and researcher exploring the context of Narva and the artistic potential of NART.

18:00 Workshop “Writing the Poetry of Narva” by Bart Kuipers
Bart Kuipers is a poet and multimedia artist and is looking to write the poetry of Narva together with people who know Narva the best!

19:00: Artist talk “Artistic Unlearning in Narva” and discussion by Yulia Krivich
Yulia Krivich is a visual artist and scholar. In her artist talk, she will present her research on how visual culture shapes identity, memory, and belonging in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union space, inviting us to unlearn inherited ways of seeing and imagine different futures.

You are invited to listen to how The Circular Design and Materials Research Group (DiMa) got its start, what we are working on today, what projects are currently underway and what the future holds.

Let’s see what impact DiMa’s research and development work has created over the years, both in Estonia and internationally. We will also take a closer look at the journey of the UPMADE platform, which grew out of DiMa’s activities, and its first major steps in the international market.

Margaret Aus, senior researcher at DiMa, and Triin Siimer, project manager, and Jeanine Ballone, founder of World Collective and UPMADE’s business model advisor, will talk about the work and experiences of the research group.

The event will be held in English.

Schedule:

15:00 Welcome
15:05 DiMa – who are we, what have we done so far and where are we going?
15.30 Introduction to the UPMADE platform and plans
16.00 Discussion and questions
16.30 Closing

On Wednesday, September 2 at 4–6 pm, as part of the exhibition “The Island of Girls” at EKA Gallery, artist and designer Katya Lesiv (@katya.lesiv) will share her practice and work over tea. During the conversation, we will drink tea together, sit around the table, and talk.

The event is free, but places are limited (up to 20 participants). Please register in advance here.

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Katya Lesiv currently lives and works between Ukraine and Finland. Her practice explores cyclicality, physicality, emotional and sensitive experience, and motherhood. She works across photography, artist books, installation, objects, text, graphics, and moving image. Performative methods, often rooted in everyday rituals, allow her to encapsulate and share intimate experiences while safeguarding personal space. The body of the book often serves as the final form of her work.

Lesiv’s work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Ukraine, Finland, and the Netherlands, as well as in curated group exhibitions internationally. Her photobook Lullaby 1 was included among the top 100 photobooks in How We See: Photobooks by Women, selected by 10×10 Photobooks. Her book I Love You was shortlisted for the Aperture PhotoBook Awards in 2022. In 2024, she was nominated by ISSP to join the FUTURES Photography Platform. Lesiv is a member of the Association of Photographic Artists in Finland and the Finnish Darkroom Association.

Read more about the exhibition here.

On August 22 and 24 at 6pm, a communal dinner and embroidery workshop will take place part of the exhibition “The Island of Girls”.

Food will be prepared using recipes created by Aly Sparkling Beveridge (@alysparklingbeveridge). The food is prepared and the workshop is led by Helena Atkin, Mariia Chudna and Daria Titova.

The table will become a place to share food, recipes, stories, and fairy tales about resistance, survival, home, and escape. Guests will also contribute to a shared embroidered tablecloth, stitching onto it the things they wish to leave behind. As the dinners continue, the tablecloth will grow with the stories of the people who gathered around it.

You don’t need to bring a story or know what you want to say. You can come to share, listen, eat, embroid, or simply sit at the table.

The dinners are free, but places are limited (up to 10 participants). Please register for one of the two evenings in advance here.

Read more about the exhibition here.

EKA students, staff, alumni and friends; join us for (re)building EKA aed behind K10 building under the oak tree. We will work to initiate the beginnings of a new garden site, this one-day event (with some additional preparation days if you feel like it!) will be a starting point, somewhere to lay down our roots, take up space within the institution’s expanding campus, and dream of ways the garden can unfold and grow. 

Throughout the day we’ll spend time building a garden; practically, poetically and politically.. 

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Materials and plants will also be provided, but if there is anything specific that you want to plant we welcome you to bring seeds/plants. 

You are welcome to join whether you would like to be involved in the garden’s future, have been involved in its past, or if you just want to spend a mid-summers Sunday under the oak tree; the garden will be passed between hands year after year.

All welcome, no experience necessary. 

Please sign up for the garden day here: https://tally.so/r/PdrNYP

Day content:

• 10-10.30: Arriving, simple breakfast and introductions 
• 10.30-11.45: reading together (excerpts of texts that cover various garden-foundations: compost, seeds, the commons, poetics/politics of community gardens)
• 11.45-13.00: filling raised beds with compost, mulch
• 13:00-14.00: lunch
• 14:00-14:45: A notion to the future gardeners (yourselves or others) – manifesto, a list, a promise, an intention, a hope, 
• 14:45-15.15: planting plants/seeds
• 15:15-16:15: A holding space (rug decoration, from the previous activity)
• 16:15-1700: final reflections, tidying up, ending.

One-day workshop is led by Jake Shepherd and Yvette Bathgate and funded by Transform4Europe.

 

At the seminar, we will introduce Met(s)aRING, a joint research and development project by EKA PAKK (Estonian Academy of Arts) and RMK (State Forest Management Centre), which aims to develop a circular and modular construction system for RMK’s visitor infrastructure, including small-scale structures and cabins.

The project explores how infrastructure can be designed to be adaptable, upgradable, and reusable over time. The focus is on recurring standardized timber components, the use of production residues, and solutions that reduce material consumption, simplify maintenance, and extend the lifespan of structures.

The aim of the seminar is to gather practical feedback from builders and manufacturers on the applicability of the system currently under development. We will discuss how standardized or flexible a construction system should be, the opportunities for using reclaimed or lower-grade timber, and how procurement models and collaboration frameworks influence the implementation of sustainable solutions.

You can register for the event HERE!

PROGRAMME

27 August 2026, 9:30–12:30
EKA White Building (Kotzebue 10, Tallinn)

9:30 Introduction to the ongoing research project, RMK’s long-term goals and ambitions (RMK)

9:45 Eight Design Principles for Visitor Infrastructure Design (EKA)

10:00 Introduction to the Construction System (EKA)

10:15 The Use of Underutilized and Lower-Value Timber in Construction (TalTech)

10:30 Coffee Break and Introduction to the Construction System Prototype

11:00–12:30 Workshop

Research at EKA PAKK is co-funded by the European Union and the Estonian Research Council through the project “PUUSTER: Development of Methods for Valorising Underutilized Timber and Wood Materials in Construction” (TEM-TA80).

This event is part of the Adapter Network Collaboration Club Series, a platform where researchers, companies, and representatives of the public and private sectors come together to engage in meaningful discussions and explore opportunities for collaboration. You can find all Adapter Collaboration Clubs here.

The Estonian Academy of Arts will organize its 2026 workshop “Abandoned Landscapes” in Tallinn from 19 to 22 January, with the City Hall as the focus.

The aim of the workshop, which is already being held for the 14th time, is to practice international cooperation between students of architecture, heritage conservation and interior architecture, and to understand the needs and opportunities for preserving and using local heritage. This year, the workshop will be held in collaboration with lecturers and students of the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA).

On Tuesday, January 20 at 5 pm, Dan Dubowitz will give a public lecture in the EKA auditorium: Cultural Masterplanning.

Dan Dubowitz, Visiting Professor from Manchester School of Architecture, will introduce his celebrated work on Cultural Masterplanning, which has been developing new methods for engaging people earlier and better in the transformation of their city across the UK. He will introduce his current research project, Megalomania, which includes sites in Estonia (Naissaare and Hiiumaa), the Helsinki Archipelago, Latvia (Karosta) and Lithuania (Visiginas).

 

This lecture is the inaugural event of a new research and public pedagogy collaboration between MSA and EKA to investigate how mobile architectural methods, such as walking and talking after dark, choreographic things and slow photography can give voice and awaken a building with narcolepsy.

Several events open to the public will also take place as part of the workshop. All interested parties are welcome to attend for free.

• Wednesday, January 21st at 5 pm, Ingel Vaikla’s documentary “The Housekeeper” (2015) will be screened in the EKA auditorium.
• On Thursday, January 22nd at 5 pm at lobby stairs, student groups will present their short films about Linnahall made during the week.