Lasnamäe pavilion appoints curators to focus on young people

Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe pavilion will be jointly led by curators and project managers Mia Maria Rohumaa and Irma Holm, ERR reports. A new programme focused on young people and collaboration will begin in October 2026, with the first exhibition scheduled to open in November.

With support from the City of Tallinn, the contemporary art programme at the Lasnamäe pavilion will continue after Tallinn Art Hall’s main building at Freedom Square reopens. The art hall selected a curator and project manager through a public competition to prepare the pavilion’s exhibition and public programmes and oversee their implementation.

The Estonian Association of Young Contemporary Art, known by its Estonian acronym ENKKL, submitted a concept focused on supporting young artists, collective creation and cooperation with Lasnamäe school students, families and local initiatives. Rohumaa and Holm will jointly implement the programme.

“The collective proposal from the Estonian Association of Young Contemporary Art surprised us, but after examining it, we found that a space for contemporary art activities offered by young people to young people is currently missing in Estonia,” Tallinn Art Hall director Paul Aguraiuja said.

He said the association’s considered approach, along with Rohumaa and Holm’s passion, experience and courage, would make it possible to create a programme in Lasnamäe that genuinely speaks to young people.

ENKKL aims to turn the pavilion into a place where young artists can experiment and address issues important to them, while young people in Lasnamäe can have a say in what happens nearby. Alongside exhibitions, the programme will include workshops, talks and film evenings, offering activities for different age groups and opportunities to spend time and discuss ideas together.

“We were inspired by the idea in Tallinn Art Hall’s call that, in an ideal future, the Lasnamäe pavilion could be the preferred place to encounter art among 16-year-olds,” Rohumaa and Holm said. “We gathered a 15-member team and presented the art hall with a utopia: a pavilion where teenage artists and people interested in art meet young artists from across Estonia, and where co-creation is explored and practised together.”

They said the programme would focus on community, environmental and social responsibility, openness and kindness.

Rohumaa is a curator, art writer, gallerist and art teacher. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history and visual culture studies from the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently studying for a master’s degree in contemporary art there. She has worked as an education curator at the Niguliste Museum and has helped organise ENKKL exhibitions and other projects.

Holm is an artist and project manager who holds a bachelor’s degree in photography from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She was the project manager for the exhibition “Together Is Warmer”, organised by ENKKL and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Estonia, and has organised exhibitions, conferences and workshops.

Established in 2022, ENKKL now has 66 members. The association has organised exhibitions, summer schools, conferences and other art events, focusing on creating opportunities for young artists and developing collective action.

The new programme at the Lasnamäe pavilion will begin in October 2026.