KUBU 2025,  PARTICIPANT INFO

-> SUOMEKSI

Last update: March 26, 2025

This page is for KUBU 2025 Summer Exhibition & Program participants: Artists, facilitators & volunteers – keep this page bookmarked:
kubu.fi/artist

To-do: Early April

• Familiarise yourself with the program
• Fill in your personal details
• Check the contract – agree / comment
• Book your travel / transport & request accommodation

Annual theme “Earth(soil)”

Year 2025 in KUBU has an elemental theme of “Earth(soil)”. This theme encompasses and inspires the programming of all of the activities in the house, for example many activities deal with soil health and biodiversity. Year 2025 is the first year of selected elemental themes and we have already envisioned following annual themes of water and wind. This hopefully helps also you and your networks to plan future collaborations with KUBU.

Two summer exhibitions

Summer program has two exhibitions both spanning for 12 weeks: The international Summer Exhibition “The Garden And the Hedge” curated by Teresa Dillon taking place mostly indoors KUBU, and The Environmental Art Exhibition “Piha, Pyhä, Metsä, Maa” curated by Ritva Kovalainen, taking place around KUBU’s old trees on the yard. Both exhibitions draw from the theme of “Earth” and are about the nature, our relationship, and the borders with it: The guarded, the sacred, the cultivated and the wild.

Workshop program

Summer program extends to both spring and autumn seasons with a all-year workshop program. While the exhibitions cater for our conceptual or spiritual minds, the workshops brings us the practical. We learn how to build a greenhouse together, learn how to cultivate, ferment and make both edibles and dyes from our KUBU-grown produce.

Important dates

ENVIRONMENTAL ART WORKSHOPS
May 24. & 31.

EXHIBITIONS
June 5th – August 31st 2025
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 11-17 (Sat 11-15)
Tours & previews on request: info@kubu.fi

KEMIÖNSAARI 7oo WEEK
June 8-15, daily locations & themes

SYNTH CAMP 2025
Electronic music event in KUBU
June 13-15

MIDSUMMER 2025
June 20-22. Closed

PRIVATE EVENT
June 27-29. Public opening limited

KUBU Car-boot sale days
June: 7
July: 5 & 19
August: 9 & 23

BALTIC JAZZ
July 4-6 (+3000 in Dalsbruk)

NORPAS FESTIVAL
August 1. – 3.

TAKEDOWN & HARVEST FEST
August 29-31

Location

Kulturhus Björkboda (KUBU)
Smedskullavägen 3
25860 Björkboda
Kemiönsaari
FINLAND

(map and visiting info below)

Accommodation

KUBU has two rooms for accommodation. Both rooms are private for 2-4 persons from evening to morning, but rooms may have communal use in the daytime. Toilet & shower on the other side of the building, mini kitchens, mattress & pillow, sheets on request. KUBU is a big old school with a school vibe. All of our visiting artists so far have really enjoyed the unique atmosphere and facilities staying over. However, KUBU is not a hotel:

Besides lodging in KUBU, we can offer friends & family guest-rooms, BnB’s and hostels and hotels. All of these are 2-10km away, and thus come with transportation considerations.

See Visit-links above for more.

Contract

Contract template below. You/your group will receive pre-filled document, where you can update missing information. Don’t hesitate to give feedback of the documents so we can develop and improve. FYI: all our documentation and templates are to use.

Contract template: (view only)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12AX36W-5hKUOnk0k3i-fVii3K7pOiXx_8hvaZhWBRoE

Infosheet template: (view only)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ADid9mir3Cwc_FatVvgVg21r2eNYm1uiRCBwlDQhbVM

Contract in a nutshell

• Artists are compensated 300€ for the display of the artwork
• Extra work & workshops are compensated separately, agreed individually
• Travel expenses are compensated to agreed maximum
• Shipping expenese are compensated
• Organiser is repsonsible for installment & take-down
• Artworks are insured according to their value
• Arworks can be sold, 30% commission
• Organiser can use media of the artworks for marketing the program

Team & contact info

Tuomo Tammenpää
Exhibition producer / KUBU Co-director
+358 40 525 4636 (signal, whatsapp, telegram)
tuomo@kubu.fi

Sari Kippilä
KUBU host & Co-director
+358 41 806 4766 (signal, whatsapp)
sari@kubu.fi

Teresa Dillon
Curator, international program
teresa@polarproduce.org

Ritva Kovalainen
Curator, environmental art program
kovalainenritvaleena@gmail.com

Customer service
Niina Silenius (shop)
Eeva Toivanen (café)

Facility maintenance
Kyösti Palokärki

Summer job
Janna Ahonen

Participants

(TBD)

Visit KUBU & Kemiönsaari

By car / bicycle
From Kemiö, drive/cycle 13km towards Taalintehdas on 183. Slow down by SEO service station and turn next left. Continue 100m. Parking in front of the house

By bus
From Helsinki take a bus or train to Salo and change to bus connection heading to Taalintehdas. From Turku there are direct connections. Björkboda is 13km from Kemiö and 11km before Taalintehdas.

From abroad
When planning a visit to KUBU from abroad, consider traveling via land and ferry. From northern Europe, take a train via Copenhagen to Stockholm and day or night ferry to Turku and bus to KUBU. 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 above.

Regional travel info
https://www.visitkimitoon.fi/en/

Bus connections
https://www.matkahuolto.fi/en

Train connections
https://www.vr.fi/en

Cyclist info
https://www.bikeland.fi/en/reitit

Stockholm – Turku ferry
https://www.sales.vikingline.com/

What is KUBU?

Kulturhus Björkboda aka KUBU
… is a new cultural house on Kimitoön island, South-west Finland, two-hour drive from Helsinki, an hour from Turku. The 100-year-old Björkboda Folkskola was given a new lease of life in the form of a cultural center in 2022 when Kulturhus Björkboda, nicknamed KUBU, opened on the premises.

What?
The house hosts all year-round exhibition program, weekly courses and workshops, a craft shop and a pop-up café. The house also has conference rooms, a gym and stage, a small library and collaboration spaces.

Why?
We believe any rural area should have a safe haven for informal learning, communal meeting, creative work – personal or collaboratuve or just land, sit down, and contemplate.

Who?
KUBU is owned and governed by a local couple Sari Kippilä and Tuomo Tammenpää, has staff of one part-time, one summer job for busy hours and help and group of actives for volunteering when needed.

Our values, code of conduct and accessibility

KUBU is a culture house – for us everything we people do together is or creates culture. KUBU is not an art gallery, nor a communicty center. The house was a school for 100 years and we are the current custodians of it. We work towards a vision of the house as a public place for life-long learning for the next hundred years.

KUBU is for everyone. We do not discriminate, nor should you. This calls for a civilized respectful human behaviour from all of us.

We have a zero-tolerance on any harrasment. We are all different, we value diversity. Be yourself and grant the same freedom for the others. Report any concerns to the staff.

The ground floor of KUBU is accessible with a wheel-chair via the inner yard and has a toilet equipped for wheel-chair users.

Many of the KUBUs guests are elderly many are very young. Please be observant and be prepared to assist.

First Aid cabinets are located in the bottom and top of the main staircase.  The escape plan and extinguisher equipment are marked on the floor plan besides the staircases.