The Writer’s House is an art nouveau wooden house in an old villa district, near to the university campus area in Jyväskylä. The Writer’s House offers rooms to writers and translators for overnight stays and for more permanent work. The University Library of Jyväskylä is located almost next door. The library provides good collections in the field of literary criticism, it is possible to read all of the most important Art and Literature Magazines, and there are also very good internet archives.
The Writer’s House was designed in 1906 by Wivi Lönn, a famous Finnish woman-architect. At first the House was designed for private use. Even though the house has been renovated several times, it has preserved its distinctive style and it is under the auspices of the state.
In 1980 the house was named "The Writer’s House" and became the meeting place and office of two writer’s associations: the Writer’s Union of Central Finland and the Amateur Writers of Central Finland. There are three rooms reserved for literary work, furthermore there is a kitchen, a sauna and premises for small-scale events (40-50 persons) as well as exibitions.
The Writer’s Union of Central Finland was founded in 1962 and now has 130 members representing writers for fiction and non-fiction, researchers, editors, journalists, translators and critics. The Union is very active – for example, it holds a critics service for amateur writers, organises literary evenings and discussions, etc.
Finnish is a smart language. "Kulttuurin tila" means "the condition of culture". However, "tila" does not only mean "condition" but also "place". For us Finnish, it seems self-evident and natural that when speaking of the condition of culture, one also means the place at which culture is at home.
It only makes sense to speak of the condition of culture if there is some place reserved for this culture. When examining the etymology of the word "tila", it becomes even more obvious: originally, "tila" not only means "condition", "place" or "space", but also "bed". In Estonian, which is closely related to Finnish, it furthermore means "road condition" and "weather situation", and makes us think of the climate and a nature with friendly intentions. The Germanic archetype of the word also describes the "place" or "ground", and is still included in the German word “Ziel” (aim, goal) and the Swedish preposition "till" ("to the", "towards"). This almost summarizes everything a house of literature can possibly mean for the culture of a town: It is a meeting place, where people gather around literature. There is a climate favourable to literature, we register a stable friendly weather situation. There is also a bed for a visiting writer to spend the night in. For others it is a resting place to revive the spirit.
The house of literature as a place radiates energy and creates something new. The Writer’s House of Central Finland – in translation of "Keski-Suomen kirjailijatalo" – is a place in the city of Jyväskylä, close to the university campus which was designed by Finland’s most famous architect, Alvar Aalto.
Art’s own reserved place is a womb in which art may safely develop and grow, protected and cared for by the mother town. It is of great interest for the audience of art to keep such places and to protect them, to conserve the room in which art emerges and develops.
In a protected space a robust child grows up which keeps renewing the town and the life in it. The small greenhouses of art, the rooms dedicated to literature and the visual arts, are the capillaries the town needs to breathe: New oxygen is transferred to deoxygenated blood, refreshing and reviving it.
The spaces dedicated to culture are places which distinctively manifest the life of a town. They create a city which can not be destroyed by recession or crisis.
Space, time and shape are some main terms when observing the many different aspects of life and the world. Space, time and shape relate to each other and depend on each other. When they are in an equilibrium, something accrues from it that you would probably call "flow" nowadays. Space and time influence the strength and the shape of the "flow". Each writer fortunate enough to have worked in a house of literature knows that. One has given her a room and some time. She has profited from the literary events in the house and met her readers there. On the other hand, the strength and shape of the "flow" has had some influence on the place. I hope for this to happen in Jyväskylä, as well. A smart town cherishes its spaces of culture.
During many readings abroad I proudly told people that the house of literature in Jyväskylä was the first one we ever had in Finland. Everywhere my writer colleagues understood what that meant. Before their inner eye the picture of a city of culture emerged, a city of education with a strong sense of self-worth. A space of their own is important to all writers alike, be that in Reykjavik, Teheran, Kopenhagen, Jurmala, Antwerpen, Berlin or Jyväskylä. And everywhere one knows, as well, what it would mean to take away from culture its own places, these meeting grounds of artists and their audience.
Hannele Huovi