!PARTICIPANT INFO
This page is for KUBU 2025 Summer Exhibition & Program participants.
https://kubu.fi/artist
(last update: June 24th, 2025)
What is in this document:
• Welcome to KUBU
• How to get to KUBU
• Accommodation Info
• Food and Drink Provisions
• Invoicing Info
• Quick Update on Marketing
• Meeting Schedules
• General Programme Briefing
Press info folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12rTGomB6ocL-1Dff-T8PC8ImAGf8jXeU
Welcome to KUBU!
In advance of your trip, we have prepared some guidance for how to get to the house and some support to prepare for your trip. We advise when coming to visit or work at KUBU that you prepare for staying on site. So bring what you need for work and pleasure.
KUBU (Kulturhus Björkboda) is located in rural Southwest Finland The Archipelago Sea is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland. While the island is connected to the mainland of Finland and close to areas of outstanding natural beauty, access to it and to supermarkets, bars, restaurants and other amenities when on the island is not possible without a car, bike and/or other modes of transport.
KUBU is also a former school house. The architecture and atmosphere of the house is still very much like a school. Hundreds on the island have been educated within its walls and so close to the hearts and minds of some of our local audience. In transforming the site into a space for catering too and supporting local cultural production and creative expression, our audience are our local residents, senior citizens, families and young people.
In establishing KUBU in 2022, we have spent the last few years building up the local audience. 2025 marks the first year, to explicitly work in an international manner. Moving into this new phase, we see KUBU as an opportunity for rural retreat. Sitting outside of the dominant norms of the urban gaze, we see it as a space for testing, sharing and showing new and existing work with local and other professional communities.
We look forward to your visit! Below are some practical guidelines relating to your stay, including invoicing, contracts, marketing and the programme brief.
How to get to KUBU
Below directions are orientated towards those traveling from aboard, public transport and/or by car. Notice, the region is bilingual, with swedish speaking majority over finnish speaking, place names have the swedish version first, few important examples:
Kimitoön = Kemiönsaari (the island)
Kimito = Kemiö
Dalsbruk = Taalintehdas
KUBU’s address:
Kulturhus Björkboda
Smedskullavägen 3
FI-25860 Björkboda
info@kubu.fi
From abroad
When planning a visit to KUBU from abroad, options for travel are by air, land and ferry. From northern Europe, take a train via Copenhagen to Stockholm and day or night ferry to Turku and bus to KUBU (see https://www.sales.vikingline.com). If you fly, Turku airport is the closest (1h drive, 1h30 by bus) and small and effortless Airport. From Helsinki airport, you can look for a bus connection to Salo or Turku and follow the guide below.
By train+bus from Helsinki
Helsinki central railway station (address: Kaivokatu 1) has a train connection to Turku, but you get off in Salo. You can also take a bus from Helsinki to Salo, from Helsinki bus terminal in Kamppi (Urho Kekkosen katu 1). From Salo, you can take a bus to Björkboda or arrange a pickup with us. In Salo, the bus terminal is 200m from the train station (address: Vilhonkatu 11). KUBU has a busstop (Björkboda koulu) 200m from the front door.
Train tickets can be purchased from the stations, with app, or pay in train (more expensive), buy bus tickets online or from the bus bus.
From the Helsinki airport, we recommend a local train to Pasila (on stop before central station) and transfer to Helsinki – Turku train and get out in Salo as above.
Train tickets:
https://www.vr.fi/en
(Helsinki – Salo)
! Bus replacement for trains between Helsinki-Karjaa until July 27th. Easier to book bus connection directly.
Bus tickets:
https://www.matkahuolto.fi/en
(Helsinki – Salo)
(Salo – Björkboda)
! New direct bus connection:
Helsinki – Kasnäs (stops at KUBU)
By bus from Turku
From Turku airport or Turku harbour (satama), take the city bus (line nr.1) to the Turku bus terminal (Linja-auto asema). You can pay the city bus with the contactless credit card (or phone/watch). From the bus terminal, there is a direct connection to KUBU (Björkboda). Turku-Björkboda tickets online or from the bus.
Turku city bus
https://www.foli.fi/en
Regional bus to KUBU:
https://www.matkahuolto.fi/en
(Turku – Björkboda)
By car / bicycle
From Helsinki, you can drive via Salo-Perniö-Kemiö or Tammisaari-Perniö-Kemiö. From Kemiö, drive/cycle 13km towards Taalintehdas on road #183. Slow down at the SEO service station and turn next left. Continue 200m. Parking is available at the front of the house. Signs for KUBU are on the road. Cyclists can take the bike via train (or bus) to Salo and cycle three different routes to the island, one with small ferry via Kokkila – Angelmniemi.
Cyclist info:
https://www.bikeland.fi/en/reitit
Island tourism info:
https://www.visitkimitoon.fi/en
Exhibition Dates:
Exhibition dates are 5.6.–31.8.20205
Press Preview Thursday 5th June 15.00
Opening Night: Thursday 5th June, 18.00-22.00
Opening hours:
Tuesday-Sunday 11-17, (Saturday 11-15), Mondays closed.
Private tours can be organised outside these hours, contact: info@kubu.fi
Entrance fee 10€ (7€ reduced, children free)
Accommodation
When you arrive at KUBU you will be greeted by the hosts Tuomo and Sari, and the KUBU team. Who will go through the house and show you to your rooms. Coffee/teas and snacks will be available when you arrive.
Provisions for sleeping on site include:
x1 self-contained studio flat and 2x single sleeping beds with working space.
x2 single sleeping beds, in annex off the main library.
Pictures from the residency
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hWaZPNBZCRt7pvwc7
As KUBU was a school house, the windows and rooms are large. Blackout curtains are installed to support sleep. Showers and accessible toilets are all on site. We provide towels.
At peak times, when the house is full. We also provide accommodation for visiting artists, workshop facilitators, performers and guests through local hotels and AirBnBs. If you do not have a car, we will drive and pick you up from your accommodation.
Food and Drink Provisions
During your stay we will offer simple breakfast ingredients (coffee/tea/cereal or toast and fruit). The house opens at 11 and has a Pop-up Café. The offerings of the café varies but usually some soup lunch is available. When working in KUBU lunch and dinner will be organised, often cooking together.
A mini kitchen is available to use (micro, fridge, stove) which is located in the library. As this is also an exhibiting and working space, we ask you to consider the activities that might be taking place here before using it. For residents we will provide a trip to local markets as needed.
**Please note: The main KUBU Cafe kitchen is not available for general use during café hours.
Contracts, invoicing & payments
Some of you have already signed a contract with us. If you need a signed contract, provide the following details for us and we can prepare the contract for you.
• artist / group name
• invoicer name (individual/company)
• invoicer street address
• VAT number if applicable
• artwork name
• insurance value
Contract template:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uGKSPLNvs2QGv4558QyMTw_ZBddql-sga4FY1GOMOTs/edit
Microsite
https://earth.kubu.fi/
(Notice, two exhibitions & languages from the top)
This microsite is an low-energy experiment inspired by many other similar projects. The images are reduced to very small files sizes and the website is a static and local, meaning it does not require power-consuming servers or cloud computing, instead, it will be running in a small Raspberry pi in KUBU, and could be fully solar powered. As we are still running the main kubu.fi website hosted conventionally and use social media as before, the intention is not to produce any significant energy savings yet. But it is a learning excercise for us and hopefully inspiration for others in trying out low-energy methods in computing and communications.
Schedule
https://earth.kubu.fi/#schedule
Marketing
When the scheduling, texts and media material is cleared we start promoting artworks and the program in KUBU social media channels:
https://www.instagram.com/kulturhus_kubu/
https://www.facebook.com/kulturhuskubu
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kulturhus-kubu
https://mastodon.social/@kulturhus_kubu
https://bsky.app/profile/kulturhus-kubu.bsky.social
We’ll be making a new low-energy website that we’ll be sharing in the coming days.
In preparation for this we have collected press images from your artworks and projects:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zQo9-ry6uKs2ER5uqede_RpR-h1OvgZi
Check your own, propose better alternatives /& better resolution with photo credits.
Meetings:
Over May, Fridays 10.00-12.00 (GMT) we’ll be online for check in.
This will be an open Zoom link here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89688074973
Key Contacts:
For any practical questions, chat / email to
Tuomo Tammenpää +358 40 525 4636 (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp) / tuomo@kubu.fi
Contact on programme direction:
Teresa Dillon +44 75 424 59 251(Signal, Telegram, Whats App) teresa.dillon@polarproduce.org
Invoicing & payments
We have agreed compensations with all of you. When the final costs from shipping and travels are known, you can invoice us. Please check the total sum with Tuomo before invoicing. We can also do invoicing in your behalf (self billing) if you prefer.
Invoice details needs to include the following:
• KUBU 2025 summer exhibition
• Fee (300€ or as agreed)
• Travel & transportation costs (tickets / 0,25€/km or as agreed)
• Material & misc costs (as agreed)
+ VAT if applicable (EU reversed tax excempt ok, code below)
Invoice to:
Osuuskunta Vinde /
Kulturhus Björkboda
Arkadiavägen 6
FI-25700 Kimito
Y:2463222-1 / FI:24632221 (EU)
Send a pdf invoice to email address:
tuomo@kubu.fi
Or e-invoice (in Finland)
Verkkolaskuosoite: 003724632221
Välittäjän tunnus: OKOYFIHH