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Viljandi Culture Academy is pleased to present a photo exhibition located at the Blue Hall of the academy’s main building. It is a selection of photographs about a study trip in April, 2016 to the Greek island of Crete by the University of Tartu Classical Philology students. One of the participants was a current Viljandi Culture Academy music and former Classical Philology student Tanel Sakrits. Tanel initiative is what brought the exhibition to Viljandi.

Switch On! Innovation Camp was arranged in Viljandi, Estonia, between September 15th and 18th, 2016 as part of the Finnish-Estonian project Lights On! Camp participants came from Estonia, Finland, Belgium and Turkey. The main goal of the innovation camp was to make the participants aware of the potential of the project’s sites and encourage them to boldly innovate new ways to improve visitor experience and tourism industry on the sites.

Last semester Viljandi Culture Academy's Music Department started with two free e-learning courses, namely Accompaniment on the Guitar for Beginners and Microphones - the Sound Engineer’s Musical Instruments. As the courses turned out very popular they will be starting again.

Viljandi Culture Academy is present at this year’s Tallinn Design Festival. The exhibition "Firmament II" showcases the works of native metalwork students. Traditional forgings, jewellery and metal forms as well as objects in modern technologies are exhibited. Each object is as a star in the galaxy, moving on its reference point, whilst being part of a big firmament in the exposition.

The new academic year in University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy has begun and this year 189 new first-year students will begin their studies. We welcomed our new students and staff yesterday during the opening ceremony held at the Estonian Traditional Music Center. The beginning of a new semester is a good time to thank our staff for the extraordinary work they do in making this a great environment for teaching and learning. We look forward to another rewarding and successful year.

At this year’s Viljandi Folk Music Festival, the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy is represented with an area of its own – the Culture Nest is open to guests in the courtyard of the Museum of Viljandi on Friday and Saturday at 13.00-20.00. The Culture Nest features: The students of Estonian native crafts and residents of Viljandi Center for Creative Industries who are selling the jewellery, clothes, etc they have made. Workshops from the crafts department – “Ribbons and tablets” (weaving ribbons with jersey using traditional techniques, belt we

"Taevavõlv" is the joint exhibition of students and professors of TU Viljandi Culture Academy Estonian Native Metalwork specialty, where there are exhibited over a few hundred pieces of jewellery and forgings. The incentive behind the idea of the exhibition comes from the theme of Viljandi Folk Music festival this year, which dedicates itself to one of the most beautiful and powerfully expressed sounds in the world - the voice of a woman. Jewellery, adorning and metal working are as traditional and old as musical instruments.

UT is the only Baltic university among the top 3% of the world’s universities, placing among the first 400 in two world’s most reputable university rankings (QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings). According to the Centre of World University Rankings UT places highest by quality of the faculty.

This year’s Craft Camp takes place – for the third time – during 9-15 July in Olustvere, Estonia. More than 40 people from 13 different countries come together to learn new skills in a variety of handicraft workshops. The workshops introduce Estonian handicraft by giving an overview of traditional handicraft techniques from Estonia and teach the modern usage of those techniques. The camp is organized by UT Viljandi Culture Academy Estonian Native Crafts Department who is known as a great centre for professional handicraft teaching.

The General Assembly of this year’s IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz), held in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA decided that the 2018 annual jazz meeting will take place in Viljandi.

A mixture of ethnic glam and traditional clothing was on stage during the fashion show OmaMood in Estonian Traditional Music Center on June 9 in Viljandi. This year graduates and alumni of Tartu University Viljandi Culture Academy and students from Viljandi Gymnasium participated in the fashion show. Among other collections on the stage the audience had an opportunity to see traditional festive clothing of Ruhnu woman, Setu traditional clothing and ethnic-futuristic collection inspired by Finno-Ugric traditional clothing.

University of Taru Viljandi Culture Academy is participating in a Finnish-Estonain project Lights On! which is funded by the European Union’s Central Baltic Interreg 2014-2020 programme. The aim of the project is to create a joint network of historical tourist attractions in Finland and Estonia. The project sheds new light on the enchanting shared past of the North-Eastern Baltic Sea.

On May 11, at 19.00 Helsinki University of the Arts Theatre Academy will host two of University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy’s choreography diploma acts – „Kvadratuur“ by Eline Selgise and „Look at all the Silverware“ by Sylvia Köster

On Monday, 2 May the Culture Landing begins its six-day tour, where the students of UT Viljandi Culture Academy introduce their most outstanding creative works to the wider public. The fourth year of the festival targets three cities—Narva, Tallinn and Tartu. The Culture Landing includes students with various backgrounds—actors, dancers, musicians, craftsmen, cultural managers, who introduce their skills, profession and offer an exciting cultural experience through workshops, exhibitions, concerts, dance and theatre performances.

From 23 to 29 April, modern dance art in presented in Viljandi County at the initiation of Culture Academy lecturers in celebration of International Dance Day on 29 April. The aim of the dance week, taking place for the 11th time, is to introduce different forms of this art that induce thinking and movement to people of all ages and backgrounds.

From April 19 – 24, Viljandi will host this year’s annual Nordtrad meeting. Nordtrad is a network of academies and universities in the Nordic and Baltic countries that offer education in folk music. Nearly 150 folk musicians and teachers from countries like Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Latvia and Lithuania will take part of various concerts, seminars, mixed ensemble workshops and of course spontaneous playing and dancing.

In addition to traditional culture subjects, all specialisations at the Culture Academy include entrepreneurial studies, which begin with a festival-like idea market. On 8 and 9 April, at the Estonian Traditional Music Centre students will meet with numerous experienced and inspiring entrepreneurs and develop initial business ideas during two days. In addition to students, more than 30 pupils from Viljandi Secondary School will participate. The idea market is an introduction to entrepreneurial studies that will last for a year and a half.

On Tuesday, 5 April, a delegation from Georgia will be visiting UT Viljandi Culture Academy and Viljandi Centre for Creative Industries to learn about the local study environment, entrepreneurial studies and creative industries.

On Thursday, 31 March, open doors day takes place at UT Narva College where UT Viljandi Culture Academy will also introduce itself. Open doors day begins at 11:30 with an information meeting, where those interested can learn about different opportunities to study in Narva and Viljandi. In addition, it is possible to take part in lectures and workshops to get to know our specialisations and student life and get new experience and knowledge. PROGRAMME: 11:30 Information meeting 11:45 Opening of open doors day

On World Theatre Day, on 27 March, the annual theatre awards were presented at Theatre NO99. Congratulations to all Viljandi Culture Academy graduates who received an award! Award for production preparation work OLIVER KULSPOO (graduate of Light Designer, 2003) Crystal Shoe Award For a young theatre person for notable production works RAHO AADLA (graduate of Dance Art, 2013) Joint award for performance arts