Image by Heidi Peng | HAM Helsinki Art Museum

If you couldn’t already tell, I’m a total aesthete (or lover of art), but to be completely honest, you don’t have many opportunities to immerse yourself in art when you’re in…Bloomington, Indiana…emphasis on the Indiana. And I think that’s why I instantly fell in love with Scandinavia’s creative scene. My favorite museum (although perhaps it’s tied with Louisiana) was Amos Rex, located in Helsinki. This contemporary art museum features stunning architecture and impeccable art curation, and this season’s exhibition was titled Subterranean. The highlight of this exhibition was a section titled Down the Rabbit Hole that explored “underground fairy tales” and stories involving the great unknown; moreover, there was one particular piece that had me absolutely enthralled, and it didn’t even have a name (that I know of). The untitled sculpture was created by Tom Claassen, and if you don’t already know that name, I suggest you start doing a bit of research.

The sculpture (pictured on the left) showcases a larger, perhaps mama, rabbit staring down at a baby rabbit who has supposedly just fallen on its back. In the picture, you can see a definite narrative; the baby rabbit is even illuminated by a bright spotlight. But when you first look at this unassuming sculpture, all you can see is the larger rabbit peering down into an abyss. It’s only when you take the opportunity to share the mother’s vantage point that you start to make sense of the rabbit’s story.

There are no clear facial expressions, no sounds to accompany the sculpture. In fact, the piece is eerily quiet. Or maybe it’s just heartbreaking. The narrative is frozen in time, yet you know exactly what’s happened. The mother is petrified; the baby is probably cold to the touch. Or maybe I’m completely wrong, and I’ve concocted some depressing narrative based by on my own artistic vision.

But that’s also kind of the point of art—to allow people to tell their own stories and feel their own feelings. It’s why art preservation and education are so paramount to our society…not to get all philosophical with you. And it’s why Scandinavia is such a wonderful place for the study and appreciation of art. These massive, yet tight knit, cultural hubs create the perfect opportunity to expand your creative horizons and delve into something new.

Image by Heidi Peng | Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Yet another incredible contemporary art museum we visited in Helsinki was Kiasma, and the image on the right depicts an installation created to resemble a womb. Now this museum was…wild. The somewhat brutalist architecture mixed with modern art coupled with societal commentary was a bit of a sensory overload. You were either confronted with something that made weird sounds, something that made you feel weird emotions, or something that made you sweat profusely (aka the womb room set to 98°F). But despite the hard to grasp messages and unique visual stimuli, you got a sense that Kiasma was trying to push the envelope of…well, art.

And Stockholm wasn’t far behind when it came to the cultivation of modern art. On our last full day in the city, we visited the Moderna Museet Sculpture Park, which included various pieces ranging from a room full of mirrors to life-size models of living spaces. The museum was also home to a massive Dali that left me moderately speechless (although I’m not sure if that was a positive or negative reaction). But besides the many, many museums we explored throughout Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, we also had a chance to visit design studios.

My favorite design studio was Snask, an internationally renowned studio co-founded by Freddie Öst. Meeting the designers at Snask and hearing Freddie’s story reminded me of why the creative world is so necessary, but he also showed us the importance of knowing how to have fun with your work. I’m certainly guilty of taking myself and my designs a little too seriously; thus, I’m grateful that I was able to meet such an amazing design role model. I even felt compelled to invite Freddie to speak at IU (but we’ll see if that dream can become a reality).

Now I could spend hours and hours writing about how amazing Scandinavia is when it comes to studying art and design, but what I really want is for everyone reading this blog to feel the sudden urge to travel to any one of these three cities and see for yourselves why Scandinavia is so impressive. And even if you can’t just get up and fly to Europe this second, I hope you’re, at the very least, motivated to visit your local museum or art collective to experience the power of art.