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1st October
Design prize for Stockholm New magazine
Visit Stockholm for Christmas and meet Santa in Mora!
Stockholm attracts world-class designers
Stockholm Film Festival � 7-16 November
Police and firefighters in competition
Good food in the museums
Roman autumn at Museum of National Antiquities
The Vasa warship � popular among modellers
Stockholm � Cultural Capital of Europe 1998
NEWS IN BRIEF
Inexpensive in Stockholm again
Big increase in tax-free sales
New Lithuania ferry service
What future for the wolf?
Focus on C�zanne
Autumn at Skansen
PRIVIOUS NEWS
News 3/97
News 2/97
News 1/97
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Design prize for Stockholm New magazine
Stockholm�s own international magazine � Stockholm New � has won the top Swedish design award (�Excellence in Swedish design�) by the design organisation Svensk Form. This prestigious prize is awarded every year for the best creative design, including industrial design. Eleven of the 89 nominees for the award, including Stockholm New, were also awarded a special prize by the jury. It is highly unusual for a graphic-design product to win an award of this kind. Stockholm New�s success has been praised in the Swedish press with headlines like �A glossy touch for Stockholm for an international public�. A writer in the design journal Form commented: �I know of no other major city that has received such an ambitious and attractive presentation as that which Stockholm New is now providing in its fifth issue.�
Lena Liin, Stockholm New (+46-8-716 91 81)
Visit Stockholm for Christmas and meet Santa in Mora!
Santa Claus is popular all over the world. But where Santa actually lives is a matter for debate, depending on where you are and who you are talking to. But one thing is certain: Santa lives somewhere with a cold climate and plenty of snow. In Sweden we know that Santa lives at Santaworld near Mora in Dalarna.
So a new Christmas package is being introduced to give everyone the chance for a Christmas trip with a difference in which Swedish traditions in Stockholm can be combined with a visit to Santaworld. The package includes accommodation in Stockholm close to the city�s main shopping area, with visits to the Christmas markets in Skansen and the Old Town. The trip ends in festive style with a lavish Swedish �julbord� Christmas buffet and a Christmas show with Swedish artists.
A special Santa Express train takes visitors from Stockholm to Mora and back, with entertainments laid on by Santa�s elves and helpers. Once in Mora there�s a chance to meet Santa, walk through the forest in search of the trolls, visit Santa�s house and workshops, and go on a sledge tour. There is also an opportunity to visit the nearby village of Nusn�s, where the famous wooden Dalarna horses are made.
Any profits made from this Santaworld programme will go towards various projects organised by the United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF).
Scandic Reservation & Customer Service (08-610 50 70, fax 08-610 52 65)
Stockholm attracts world-class designers
An increasing number of international designers are opening businesses in Stockholm. Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss and Donna Karen have all opened exclusive boutiques in the city centre. Shops stocking only one designer�s products have been established for a long time in cities like London, Paris and Milan, but now Stockholm has also become a centre for those who are interested in fashion and design. Swedes in general, and Stockholmers in particular, have a reputation for taste and an awareness of elegant design. It has now become a status symbol for companies in the fashion business to be represented in Scandinavia, and it seems that the leading designers are choosing Stockholm in preference to Copenhagen or Oslo.
NK department store (+46-8-762 80 00)
Stockholm Film Festival � 7-16 November
Every year for 10 days in November the Stockholm Film Festival offers a mix of films from both the established giants and energetic newcomers. In just seven years the festival has developed into one of the leading film festivals in Northern Europe. Today the event serves as a gateway to Sweden for current trends within film-making and also as a forum for introducing new films to the Nordic markets and audiences. The festival takes place right in the heart of Stockholm and features some of the most beautiful cinemas in the world. With 71 screens, Stockholm boasts the highest cinema ratio per capita in Europe. This year�s programme includes more than 100 premi�res, including �Eva Peron � the True Story� by Juan Carlos Desanzo, �Assassins� by Mathieu Kassovitz and �8 Heads in a Duffel Bag� by Tom Schulman.
Stockholm Film Festival www.filmfestivalen.se
Police and firefighters in competition
This summer�s World Police & Fire Games (WPFG), held in the Canadian city of Calgary, were a useful experience for a delegation from Stockholm, which is to be the next city to host this major international sporting event for police and firefighters from 16-24 July 1999. It is the world�s largest sporting competition, bigger even than the Olympic Games, in terms of the number of competitors and events.
The competition in Stockholm will be the first to be held in Europe. The organisers estimate that the event will attract some 12,000 competitors and a total of about 30,000-40,000 visitors.
Sweden won about 60 medals in Calgary and came fourth in the international ratings. Among the most impressive victories was that of the policeman Richard Larsson, who won the most spectacular event: Toughest Competitor Alive, a demanding and highly popular octathlon.
�sa �hrstr�m, World Police & Fire Games (+46-8-612 66 85)
Good food in the museums
It�s a sign of the times: more and more of Stockholm�s museums have found that a pleasant restaurant attracts visitors and offers an enjoyable gastronomic experience in an attractive museum setting. Sweden�s new Financial Museum opened in June and is one of the new generation of museums which no longer just show sad-looking objects in glass cabinets without stimulating the senses of the visitor. So it was only natural to make food part of the museum experience. The Royal Coin Cabinet�s �Myntkrogen� restaurant serves specialities like Baltic herring, pumpkin soup and pesto with carrot cake for dessert, followed by a cup of strong Swedish coffee.
The National Museum�s Atrium restaurant serves a choice of hot dishes with a Swedish accent or an Italian-style salad buffet. The enclosed restaurant is located in the museum�s attractive inner courtyard in a setting similar to that of a Venetian piazza.
Skansen, Stockholm�s open-air museum, which tops the city�s museum-visitor league table, has the Stora Gungan restaurant, located in an 18th century building. Visitors sit on period chairs and eat off wooden tables, enjoying specialities like lamb steak with potato gratin, followed by a fresh rhubarb mousse and strawberries for dessert.
Stockholm Museums at www.stoinfo.se
Roman autumn at Museum of National Antiquities
All roads lead to Rome � but this autumn they take a diversion through the National Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. A new exhibition, �Roman Reflections�, opens on 10 October, depicting the meeting between the Rome of antiquity and the people from the north, the German Barbarians. The Danube and Rhine rivers formed the northern boundary of the Roman Empire, and a lot of trading took place along this frontier among itinerant traders and soldiers from the Roman Empire and Scandinavia, so there was a spread of cross-cultural influences between north and south. The results of these meetings can still be traced in the Scandinavian culture of today.
The 700-odd exhibits give a dramatic and exciting picture of the living conditions of people in Europe at the start of our own epoch. The finds of silver chalices, glass, coins and bronze kettles imported from the Roman Empire show that, even then, Scandinavians appreciated a touch of luxury. The Roman lifestyle also provided inspiration for creativity within the fields of handicrafts and architecture. Exquisite gold artefacts like charms, bracelets and necklaces are perhaps the best examples of the way that Roman design has influenced Scandinavian goldsmiths. �Roman Reflections� continues until January 1998.
Museum of National Antiquities (Historiska Museet), ( +46-8-783 94 00)
The Vasa warship � popular among modellers
The Vasa warship, with its unique history, is a popular choice for model-builders worldwide. On 31 October the Vasa Museum in Stockholm will open a major exhibition in which 80 models of Vasa will be on show. They have been created by both professional and amateur modellers and it has taken anything between 500 and 15,000 hours to build them. They have been made in a number of countries, including Sweden, Hungary, Cuba and Mauritius. The largest model, seven metres long, comes from the Maritime Museum in Stockholm, and the smallest, from Texas, is housed in a light bulb. The exhibition of Vasa models runs from 31 October till 10 May 1998.
Vasa Museum information department ( +46-8-666 48 00 www.vasamuseet.se)
Cultural Capital year just round the corner
Stockholm�s year as Cultural Capital of Europe is approaching rapidly, and the organisers are hoping that the city will become an even more popular destination during 1998. In 1996, when Copenhagen was Cultural Capital, its guest-night figures increased by 12%. If Stockholm increases its guest-nights by just 10% in 1998 it would mean an additional 500,000 guest-nights for the city.
300-page general programme
On 21 October the definitive general programme will be launched, with more than 1,000 projects on the so-called orange pages. At the same time an Internet version linked to the Cultural Capital database will come on line on: www.kultur98.stockholm.se From the end of the year the �K �98� information newsletter will be changed into a monthly newspaper, �98�, available on free subscription.
Fax number for free subscriptions to �98�: +46-8-698 19 99
Information centre open
The K �98 information centre in the Cultural Centre (Kulturhuset) is now open. It offers a ticket-booking service and has full information on the programme, as well as being the venue for various events like poetry readings. Abroad, K �98 co-operates with agents linked to the Global Ticketing System.
For more information contact the information centre via: [email protected]
Swedish design marks Cultural Capital year
A specially-selected design collection produced specially for the Cultural Capital year will be on sale from the New Year at the K �98 information centre and at �hl�ns department stores around Sweden. Young designers and manufacturers have co-operated to produce a range of Swedish functional everyday items. Unlike previous Cultural Capitals, Sweden has chosen not to mark the year by producing typical tourist souvenirs.
Cultural packages in 1998
The Stockholm Package will include some Cultural Capital events in 1998. All the museums and new exhibition rooms connected with the Cultural Capital year will also be included in the popular money-saving Stockholm Card. The card includes free entry to around 70 museums and attractions, free sightseeing by boat during the summer, special offers connected with various events and a guidebook in English. Concerts, opera, ballet and theatre are not included in the card but can be booked through Destination Stockholm.
Ola Balke, Destination Stockholm fax +46-8-21 28 90
Royal palaces to reopen closed rooms in 1998
Members of the public will be able to experience the atmosphere of a royal banquet at Stockholm�s palaces next year, when some of the doors which are normally tightly closed will be reopened to mark the Cultural Capital year.
Throughout the year the 40-metre-long banqueting table in Karl XI�s gallery at the Royal Palace will be set as it would be for a gala banquet during a State visit, with silver service and flower arrangements.
The palaces have always been at the centre of Swedish culture. All nine royal palaces in the Stockholm area will be participating in the 1998 celebrations with exhibitions built around common themes showing how their furnishings and d�cor provide a picture of Sweden�s contacts with the rest of Europe.
The opening-up of many rooms will mean that the Bernadotte Library at Stockholm�s Royal Palace, which has been closed to the public since 1906, will be reopened for visitors. The Cavaliers� Wing at Gripsholm Castle, with seven almost unchanged rooms from the time of Gustav III, will also be open for the first time.
The most important royal event will be the exhibition �Karl XIV Johan � a European career�, which opens at the Royal Palace in May. The career of the former French marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte transcended many national frontiers, and the exhibition will go on show later in France and Norway.
www.royalcourt.se
NEWS IN BRIEF
Big increase in tax-free sales
Foreign visitors spent 381 million kronor on tax-free shopping in Sweden between January and August this year, an increase of 12% on the same period in 1996, according to statistics produced by Sweden Tax-free Shopping. American visitors were among the keenest shoppers, spending some 20 million kronor during August alone. Swedish glass, gold and silver, as well as souvenirs, are the most popular buys for Americans, while Russian visitors prefer ready-made clothing, particularly furs and leather clothing.
Inexpensive in Stockholm again
A major Swiss study regularly compares costs for foreign visitors in various major cities worldwide. The figures are based on accommodation and about 200 frequently-purchased goods and services. Stockholm has now dropped to 59th place on the list of the world�s most expensive cities from its position in 17th place in 1992. At the top of the list is Tokyo, followed by Hong Kong and Moscow. The 12 most expensive cities are all in Asia or Russia.
New Lithuania ferry service
A new ferry service between Lithuania and Stockholm started during the summer. The ferry Palanga arrives in Stockholm on Wednesday and Friday mornings and returns to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda the same afternoon. The ferry carries about 100 passengers, as well as freight.All the major cities in the Baltic region now have direct air or sea links to Stockholm.
What future for the wolf?
For many centuries, the wolf has had a bad image as a cruel, wild and bloodthirsty creature, so it is always regarded as an animal to be feared. Today in Sweden there are now only 47 wolves still living in the wild. The Nordic Museum�s latest exhibition, �The wolf � outlawed or protected?�, tells the story of the traditional fear of the wolf in mythology and folklore, of the fight against the wolf and the project to rescue one of our most threatened wild animals.
Nordic Museum (Nordiska museet) (+46-8-666 46 48 www.nordm.se)
Focus on C�zanne
Between 17 October and 11 January 1998 the National Museum in Stockholm will be staging a collection of works by Paul C�zanne, one of the key figures of modernism. The aim of the exhibition is to throw light on C�zanne�s work process and increase understanding of his artistic skills. The richness and complexity of C�zanne�s work became a decisive starting point for both Matisse and Picasso. Works by Swedish artists who were influenced by these great masters will also be on show during the exhibition.
National Museum (+46-8-666 42 50 www.nationalmuseum.se)
Autumn at Skansen
Skansen�s traditional handicraft days are taking place on Sundays 5, 12, 19 and 26 October between 11.00 and 16.00. It will be open house in the Skansen town quarter, with bakers, book printers, glassblowers, upholsterers, metal-workers and many more. Visitors are welcome in the various workshops, where they can see master craftsmen and women, apprentices and journeymen demonstrating their traditional skills.
Skansen � Open air museum (+46-8-442 80 00)
Redaktör: Charlotta Lorentz
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