LONG-TERM COURSES

Our ten-month courses are currently attended by approximately 140 students. At the moment, teaching is provided in English only in our department of Photography.

The next ten-month courses will take place from August 2010 to June 2011. At the moment, the price including accommodation is 4,650 euros, accommodation only on workdays 4,250 euros and 3,900 euros without accommodation. The price includes breakfast and meals on every workday.

Our departments are Film School, Photography, Journalism and TV and Radio Work.

The Film School is divided into three study lines: Film and TV, Documentary and Film Acting.

Photography

Starts with the technical and theoretical basics, which are complemented by expressive exercises. The primary focus is then shifted to journalistic, documentary and art photography. Photographers cooperate with students of Journalism by carrying out joint assignments and productions. Working in studios, darkrooms and lightrooms is also practised.

Studio work; teacher Tero Jussila, 4.2.2010.

Photo by Hannu Sinisalo.

In darkroom, 4.2.2010. Photo by Hannu Sinisalo.

Finally, we hold our annual exhibition at the culture house Telakka in Tampere. Students of Photography are involved in many international projects as well.

In addition, students of Photography are offered the possibility to continue their studies with an 18-month advanced course that ends with an examination qualifying students to work as a professional photographer.

Five of our 18-month advanced course students with Sinar monorail sheet film camera, 3.2.2010.

Photo by Jussi Sauramo.

In our photo courses teaching is provided both in English and in Finnish.

Head: Phil. Lic. Hannu Sinisalo

Journalism

The study programme provides students with valuable practice from the very beginning in writing articles and reportages for newspapers and magazines. Students are also given assignments in journalistic photography and using Photoshop, in addition to which our annual publications, Voionmaa Today and Väinö, are put together in cooperation with Photography students.

Making the lay-out of magazine Väinö, 15.2.2010. Photo by Hannu Sinisalo.

University-level studies are provided through the Basic Study block in Journalism (25 ECTS) by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. of the University of Tampere. Furthermore, students will write news, interviews, reportages and columns for different media. Students will also become acquainted with good linguistic usage as well as layout and graphic design.

Head: MA, headmaster Pasi Salmikallio

Radio and TV work

Students are trained in practice by working in TV and radio, and programs are also made for online publication. In addition, students will practise elocution and public appearance on TV and become acquainted with live broadcasting. Programs made in a TV studio are produced together with the students of our Film school.

Radio and TV work students practicing multi-camera production at news studio, 10.2.2010.
Photo by Hannu Sinisalo.

Head: MA, headmaster Pasi Salmikallio and on radio work Timo Ruusuvuori

WHAT´S NEW

Photos from Albania at the Museum of Cultures, Helsinki

A selection of 154 photos about contemporary Albania can be seen on screen at the Marubi-exhibition, in the Museum of Cultures, Helsinki. Photos are taken by the students of Voionmaa Institute: Veli-Matti Hoikka, Nina Leppälä, Laura Näkki, Turkka Nikula, Rauli Riihiaho and Jaan-Erik Vainio (some are former students but still with us), also by teacher in charge Hannu Sinisalo. Exhibition is open until the 9th of January 2011.We were in Tirana and Vlora from the 6th of May to the 13th of May. All our photos which are in the Museum of Cultures can be seen here.

Towards Albania and Scotland

The network of our foreign co-operation partners is growing: With the Pärnu Museum of New Art (MONA) and the Pärnu International Anthropological and Documentary Film Festival (PIDA) we signed already a collaboration agreement in the beginning of this year. Now we have a new contract about co-operation with the art school Lindart and the photographic Projekt5.6.

Our journey began already at the opening of Marubi-exhibition on the 4th of May in the Museum of Cultures, Helsinki. The General Honour Consul of Albania, Ms Liliana Verdha, treated us supper after opening at Seurahuone. The Voionmaa Institute has also supported the Exhibition. At the opening was also Albanian TV, Top Channel, which made a short news insert.

The students of Projekt5.6. and the Voionmaa Institute had meeting in Cafe Briker, Tirana 8.5.2010. Photo Hannu Sinisalo.

On Wednesday the 5th of May we flew via Milan to Tirana. We strolled through the city in day and at night, visited art school Lindart and Projekt5.6, met students of photography and film making, visited as invited guests beach town Vlora and after all, opened with 18 prints and slide show our own photo exhibition Private Space at the Projekt5.6, Rruga Kajo Karafili.

”Ekspozite fotografike me punime te stundentevete Voionmaa Institute, Finland”. A bundle of exhibition posters at the door of Projekt5.6. Photo Hannu Sinisalo."

Veli-Matti Hoikka is explaining his photo series Artificial Night. Photo Hannu Sinisalo.

All our photos of this exhibition can be seen here.

Photos taken in the opening party can be seen here. We photographed differend themes about Albania and its character.

The other group of students of photography (course II) made their way at the same time towards Edinburgh, Scotland. Here they became acquainted with Scottishness, made contact photography on the streets of Edinburgh and visited the photo organization Scotland's centre for photography. A tentative collaboration agreement with the Scotland's centre for photography will be signed as soon as may be after finishing details.

The students of photography (Course II) in front of the gallery Stills, which is a part of the Scotland's centre for photography, in Edinburgh 10.5.2010. Photo Anne Aromaa.

The Voionmaa Institute has, and will continue to, engage in a variety of international activities. In 2005 we participated with a photo exhibition in the Kaunas Photo Days in Lithaunia and as well as the exhibition of the AKTO Art & Design School in Athens, Greece.

In 2008-2009 photos of our Photography students were selected for two international publications: the Polish annual Czas Cultury that introduced Finnish contemporary culture and book Work - Changing Faces, a collection on the changing concept of work.

The art book Look!The First Book was created by 24 of our Photography students in spring 2008. The book is in both Finnish and English and has been our most important manifestation of skill when searching for foreign partners.

Look! The First Book proves that a group of talented young people is able to independently produce a real, fascinating art book that can be introduced internationally.

After publishing Look! The First Book, this group has organised two photo exhibitions titled Private Space.

The first exhibition was held 11.5.-30.7.2009 in Athens, Greece at the gallery of the AKTO Art & Design School, our first international partner.

The second exhibition was held 4.10.-1.11.2009 at the Museum on New Art (MONA) in Pärnu, Estonia.

Watch the interview of Mark Soosaar, director of MONA here. And see how we organised this exhibition here.

In July 2009, Veera Airas, a student of our Film and TV department participated in the Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropological Film Festival (PIDA) in Estonia with her short documentary Hairy Business. This film was shown in a special screening to invited guests at the award ceremony.

In the photo, festival director Mark Soosaar is dancing with Veera Airas on the parquet of MONA after the special screening at the award ceremony. Photo by Hannu Sinisalo.

Watch the interview of Veera Airas in Pärnu here. The future will bring more international activities: We have been invited for cooperation and exhibitions in Tirana, Albania, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Our Albanian partners will be the art school Projekt56 and the Lindart organisation. In Bosnia, we will collaborate with the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina which concentrates on contemporary multiculturalism of Sarajevo. You can watch the short invitation and greeting videos of Adem Karapus (Bosnia) here and Eleni Laperi (Albania) here.

Our partner in Bosnia is General Jovan Divjak, who was interviewed last August in Bosnia during the international Sarajevo film Festival. Watch the interview here.