Aftermath of the night of the arts

The annual night of the arts was held in Helsinki on Friday evening and night. We visited several places around the downtown with the whole family, and thus were forced to focus on earlier shows. We had good time, had a hearty Italian meal in La Famiglia, and then strolled around the city from happening to happening.

Some of them were purely commercial, like being able to purchase pocket books with 20% discount in Academic Bookstore — and to listen to Jörn Donner to speak about his relationship with Ingmar Bergman while browsing the titles. Others were, honestly speaking, crap disguised in art, and then there were several touching, funny, and whimsical shows in really unexpected places.

Our focus was on children friendly ones, and we didn’t go to see any show that required being able to sit still for a certain period of time. Aapo and Niilo participated in a Picasso workshop before I joined the group — having had some quality time with my client. Then we visited a performance that felt just odd and cheap, and finally ended up to an art gallery that we’ve never visited before on Uudenmaankatu.

There, we spotted an extremely good looking painting and ended up purchasing it. I paid a visit to the gallery today to pick it up for checking whether it would fit inside our house, and after finding out that it fit, Sanna returned it while popping over to an aerobics (are these things called still aerobics?) session — it was a bit bent (the painting, that is), so they need to straighten the frame.

Pretty expensive gig; four meals, six books, and one painting. Not bad in about three hours with children.