The Hanasaari Swedish-Finnish cultural centre ( Finnish: ''Hanasaari - ruotsalais-suomalainen kulttuurikeskus'',

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: ''Hanaholmens Kulturcentrum för Sverige och Finland'') is a cultural centre in

Hanasaari Hanasaari can refer to the following places in Finland: * Hanasaari, Helsinki, a neighbourhood and a former island in Helsinki * Hanasaari Power Plant Hanasaari Power Plant (also referred as Hanasaari B power plant to distinguish from the dismantle ...

, Espoo, Finland, owned by the Finnish state and maintained by the Finnish-Swedish culture fund. As well as the cultural centre, Hanasaari has a hotel, conference spaces and a restaurant. Gunvar Kronman has worked as the director of the cultural centre since 2003.

Function

The function of Hanasaari is to propagate the cooperation between Finland and Sweden in the areas of culture, education, society and business. It functions as a provoker of societal discussion and offers a place for international cooperation. It is visited by tens of thousands of visitors every year.

Hanasaari in a nutshell

The Hanasaari cultural centre functions under supervision of the Finnish-Swedish culture fund. The cultural centre has two areas of function: program activities and conference hotel. The administrative premises of the culture fund are also located in Hanasaari. The Hanasaari cultural centre also supervises the functions of bilateral culture fund activity towards Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The activity of the cultural centre is supervised by a board of directors elected for a three-year term, of which five members are from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and five from Finland. Of the Finnish members, one is the chairman of the board, appointed by the Finnish Minister of Culture; other members are appointed by the Finnish-Swedish culture fund. The chairman of the board from 2013 to 2015 was Member of Parliament

Kimmo Sasi Kimmo Kalevi Immeri Sasi (born 21 February 1952) is a Finnish politician and lawyer. A member of the centre-right National Coalition Party, he has served a member of the Parliament of Finland since 1983. He served as Minister of Foreign Trade from ...

. The Hanasaari cultural centre was inaugurated by King of Sweden

Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Du ...

and

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...

Urho Kekkonen on 1 June 1975. The architect of the building was Veikko Malmio and the interior was designed by professor

Yrjö Sotamaa Yrjö Kalervo Sotamaa (born 25 September, 1942) is a Finnish people, Finnish interior design, designer and design strategist. Sotamaa is Professor Emeritus of Design Innovation in the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto ...

. King Carl XVI Gustaf and President of Finland

Sauli Niinistö Sauli Väinämö Niinistö (; born 24 August 1948) is a Finnish politician who has served as president of Finland since March 2012, the 12th person to hold that office. A lawyer by education, Niinistö was Chairman of the National Coalition Part ...

reinaugurated the building after its renovation on 1 June 2017 with Queen of Denmark Margrethe II, King of Norway Harald V and President of Iceland Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson in attendance as part of the 100th anniversary of independent Finland.

Chairmen of the board and directors of the Hanasaari cultural centre

Chairmen of the board * Kalervo Siikala 1973 - 1993 * Mirja Saari 1994 - 2003 * Esko Aho 2004 - 2008 *

2009 - present Directors * Pär Stenbäck 1974 - 1985 * Ann Sandelin 1985 - 1990 * Anna-Maija Marttinen 1991 - 2003 *

Gunvor Kronman Gunvor Group Ltd is a Cypriot-domiciled multinational commodity trading company registered in Cyprus, with its main trading office in Geneva, Switzerland. Gunvor also has trading offices in Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai, with a network ...

2003 - present

Hanasaari in figures

* 100 own events, with 14 thousand participants per year * 60 thousand conference and hotel guests per year * about 60 employees * conference rooms from 2 to 231 people * 66 hotel rooms * 2 suites * restaurant with 240 places, summer terrace * 1.2 km of own coastline * 244 artworks

External links

Official site
{{Coord, 60, 09, 50.2, N, 24, 50, 11.5, E, region:FI-ES, display=title Buildings and structures in Espoo