With the passage (more or less) of covid, the college is picking up initiatives that had to be put on hold due to lockdowns. One of the yawning needs of our programs is greater opportunities for study abroad programming. Always an interest to students in our majors, it’s also a huge part of the Belmont ethos. I was delighted to have this reason to travel to Finland, which has long been on my list of hoped-for destinations (along with all the other Nordic countries).

As anticipated, it was great, but for bonus reasons in addition to what I expected. Interesting to learn that Helsinki is both the smallest and most modern of European capitals–it has about 660,000 people and a land area of 82.53 mi² (compare with London at 607 mi²). Named the capital of Finland in 1812, it has no reason to have a medieval core.

Finland has always exceeded expectations in terms of impact on the design world, with major modern players (Eero Saarinen, Aino & Alvar Aalto, Armi Ratia, Maija Isola, Wivi Lönn, Lars Sonck) emerging from long traditions of nature-bound, quality craft spanning millennia. The land of Marimekko & Moonin, the Aalto vase & Princess Leia’s necklace , as well as Metropolia’s “Creative Campus,”  I am thrilled to have established a partnership with Metropolia for our fashion & interior design students, and am just a skosh jealous of them.