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Cool contrasts

Oulu2026 valo ja hahmo

Oulu is the kingdom of great contrasts – positive, but also challenging. Contrasts such as the nightless nights of the midnight sun and sunless days in the heart of winter. Contrasts have the power both to connect and disconnect, but also to create something new.

Cool Contrasts is about rebalancing our communities. There is already a recognised European need to use culture as a means to help reduce health inequalities. Oulu2026 will work with our citizens and with European partners to develop cultural practices that promote positive engagement to re-balance these inequalities. People are literally dying of loneliness in parts of Europe, both in big cities and in struggling rural hinterlands.

Oulu2026 wants to help Europe to reconnect with itself, promoting community life and face-to-face connection and exploring mental wellbeing  through sensitive and thoughtful projects.

How do we learn to better understand each other? What new and surprising connections can we create and nourish? We can listen, appreciate, be curious, supportive and interested in each other. Let’s celebrate our differences in the city of contrasts!

Programme Lines

Each of the three programme themes include programme lines which enable us to group connected projects together to maximise synergy and impact.

Art <3 Tech

Every day, nearly three billion people use mobile technology developed in Oulu. The city has long been a pioneer in technology research, product development and start-ups – and now it wants to take over Art&Tech. The models used to produce the culture of the future will increasingly utilise a hybrid strategy, a combination of virtual and physical experiences.

Dark Matters

No one has such an intimate relationship with light as us northerners. Acknowledging the dark and harvesting the light for health
and well-being.

Oulu Calling!

Celebrating the city’s resilience and power of reinvention as an inspiration for the future. We want to explore our local identities through outsiders’ eyes, and be surprised by what we discover about ourselves.

Latest

Exhibition: Peace Machine Through the Eyes of Children

Exhibition: Peace Machine Through the Eyes of Children

Café - Restaurant Valve Paljetti Hallituskatu 7, Oulu 17th Feb 2023 (13:00) – 12th March 2023 (20:00) How do children envision the Peace Machine? How does it work? What does it do? In Spring 2022 Oulu Culture Foundation invited schools in the area to make their own...

Northern Lights

Northern Lights

Finland is one of the best places in the world for viewing Northern Lights (aurora borealis). The probability of catching them is highest in Lapland but Oulu is not far behind. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, we can see Northern Lights about 25% of...

Take part in a survey focusing on stories and places in Oulu

Take part in a survey focusing on stories and places in Oulu

What kind of postcard would you send from Oulu? What is the heart of your neighbourhood? Take part in a survey! We are looking for interesting, intriguing, or even forgotten stories and places to bring up through arts and culture. Share your stories by taking part in...

Nearly 300 projects submitted in the Oulu2026 Open Call

Nearly 300 projects submitted in the Oulu2026 Open Call

Oulu is a 2026 European Capital of Culture. The Oulu2026 cultural programme is mainly built through a series of Open Calls, the second of which closed on 9 December. In total, 274 applications from Finland and 20 other countries were received. Oulu and the entire...

Oulu: the world’s tar capital

Oulu: the world’s tar capital

Today Oulu is internationally renowned as a high tech city: a major centre of competence and innovation in information and health technology. Two hundred years ago Oulu had a very different reputation. It was known as the tar capital of the world. “Whenever people ask...

Health and wellbeing – naturally

Health and wellbeing – naturally

The Arctic Food Lab community keeps growing and has most recently been joined by the farm Linnunradan tila (Milky way's farm) from Tyrnävä. The farm specialises in growing hemp and raising alpacas. Among its Arctic Food Lab products are food products homemade in...

Final Open Call webinar 22nd Nov – Frequently Asked Questions

Final Open Call webinar 22nd Nov – Frequently Asked Questions

The last Open Call 2022 webinar focuses on Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Open Call process, the application system, funding, and activities related to the Capital of Culture. During the webinar, applicants are encouraged to ask questions from the Oulu2026...