Club’s News in IALC’s Website
International Bulletin N:o 67 October 2025, Click here
Spring trip to Helsinki
The most significant event of the spring was the Club’s trip to Helsinki in April. The main events were a visit to the Helsinki Lyceum Club and a theater evening at the Finnish National Theater.
The connections between the Helsinki and Oulu Lyceum Clubs were established when our Club was founded. Carin Kahlson from the Helsinki Lyceum Club, who was president of the International Lyceum Club Association (1986–1992) at the time, quickly took up the matter after hearing of Oulu’s interest in founding a Lyceum Club in early 1988. The founding meeting of the Oulu Lyceum Club was held in March 1988, and by the end of May it had been accepted as a member of the IALC at an international congress in Cremona, Italy. In September, Carin Kahlson visited our club’s members’ evening, where she shed light on the activities of both the Helsinki Lyceum Club and the International Association of Lyceum Clubs and gave us guidance on developing our local activities. We have visited the Helsinki Lyceum Club a couple of times before, but now our new members in particular wanted to get to know our sister club in Helsinki.
A return visit to Oulu has been tentatively agreed upon. Hopefully it will take place next year, when Oulu, together with the Slovakian city of Trenčín, will have the honor of serving as the European Capital of Culture for 2026.
Here we dine together before the theater evening.
The Finnish National Theater’s production of “The Collected Suffering of Kaarlo Bergbom” interested us because of the historical background of the play. The siblings Kaarlo and Emilie Bergbom were pioneers of the first Finnish-language theater, founded in 1872: they were directors and producers. Struggle and determination were needed as Finnish-language theater sought to gain a foothold alongside Swedish-language theater in our country.
We prepared for the National Theater’s Bergbom performance in advance at our February members’ evening, when our member Tiina Kinnunen, professor of Finnish and Northern European history at the University of Oulu, gave a presentation on the topic of how Finnish-language theater laid the foundation for Finnish-language culture, raised Finnish self-esteem, and contributed to the appreciation and rise of the Finnish language as the national language of our country.
With best wishes from
Paula Rossi
President
Oulu Lyceum Club
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Club’s News in IALC’s Website
International Bulletin N:o 65 October 2024
We 35-year-olds – sending greetings from Oulu!
The Oulu Lyceum Club celebrated its 35th anniversary in December 12.12.2023 in an idyllic snowy landscape – Maikkula Manor – less than 10 km from the centre of Oulu. (https://www.maikkulankartano.fi)
President Paula Rossi, in her keynote speech, opened the core of Lyceum’s activities, which is summed up in the Club’s motto: “Understanding on a socio-cultural basis since 1988”.
“As members, we come from different fields and backgrounds, and our ideas about social values, for example, may differ. Understanding means that we meet each other in dialogue and that we respect and value each other’s opinions, even when we disagree.
Education may be academic and scholarly, but hopefully we have also accumulated inner, spiritual development. I have read somewhere a summary that also applies to Lyceum meetings: listen, seek common ground, be patient, treat everyone equally and with respect, and seek cooperation.”
The past was recounted in words, memories and photographs. Hely Laitinen (President of the Association of Finnish Lyceum Clubs 1994-1996), honorary member of the club, shed light on internationalism and recalled her IALC trips. Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa (President (2013-2015), founding member and driving force behind many of the Club’s trips abroad, described the enthusiastic activities of the early years of the Club. Päivi Kytömäki (President 2018-2022) returned to the events and atmosphere of the IALC International Culture Days in Oulu in summer 2018. We enjoyed memories, fellowship, discussions and good food. We were unanimous: Oulu Lyceum Club has provided its members with many moments of joy over the years.
Oulu 30 September 2024
Paula Rossi
President
Oulu Lyceum Club