Local thematic events featured in the CHERRY project’s cultural pilots

Eight cultural pilots were carried out during the summer and autumn seasons of 2025 as part of the Interreg Europe funded CHERRY project. Now we share yet another perspective on these cultural experiments: local thematic events. In this article, you can read about the ghost themed event held in Paltamo Local History Museum, as well as the local art event held in Ämmänsaari, Suomussalmi.

History Comes Alive in Paltamo

Paltamo-Seura ry, together with Kylän Koirat ry, organized an audiovisual event called The Haunted Museum at the Paltamo Local Heritage Museum on September 26–28, 2025. Paltamo-Seura ry is a local organization of the Finnish Homeland Association, which strives to preserve the cultural heritage of old Paltamo and create conditions for the future development. The decorated museum offered long-time visitors a new perspective and also attracted first-time guests.

Students from the local school were involved in brainstorming and implementing the event’s theme. They came up with the name and the theme for the event. The suspenseful atmosphere was created in the local heritage museum through new types of indoor lighting, themed exhibition items, and a haunting soundscape. The Haunted Museum attracted an audience full of brave children and young people, along with their parents.

During the event, unusual old photographs selected from the archives of Paltamo-Seura were also on display. The chosen photos were blurred, oddly exposed, smudged, or otherwise peculiar. However, they were perfectly fitting for the haunted theme, enhancing the eerie mood of the event. The audiovisual theme of The Haunted museum was also filled with live music. The program included a song performance by pupils from the local school and a musical performance by Kajaanin kesämuusikot, who are a violin and cello group from the Kainuu Music Institute. They accompanied the event with classical and folk music. This new collaboration between Paltamo-Seura and the music institute revealed an interesting opportunity: the upper floor of the museum building turned out to have excellent acoustics for this type of music.

Naturally, the haunted museum could not be left under its curse. During the event, participants were tasked with creating a spell to break the curse. The themed event proved to be an excellent experiment for attracting a new audience to visit the local heritage museum.

Riemurätke brought joy, color, and art to Ämmä

The association Luovan toiminnan tila Ränttälä Ry and the Municipality of Suomussalmi organized a family-friendly cultural event called Riemurätke on June 28, 2025, in Ämmänsaari as part of the CHERRY project’s cultural pilot activities. The purpose of Riemurätke was to support and strengthen diverse ways of being human in rural areas and to inspire people to explore new forms of self-expression and ways to enhance their well-being in a remote environment through art. The event highlighted how people experience the shared local culture and community in many different ways, and how varied self-expression can be. The event attracted a diverse local audience.

Riemurätke brought together a wide range of local people around an equally diverse showcase of local art. The art event offered something for everyone: musical, poetry and song performances, a pop-up exhibition featuring local ceramic and visual artists, car exhibition and a panel discussion was also held around the topic of small town community spirit. Tattoo artists and piercers who participated in cooperation with the event were fully booked throughout the day, demonstrating strong local interest in body art as a form of self-expression. The event also included a creative writing workshop, a graffiti wall, and a community art piece organized by MIELI Kainuu. Riemurätke highlighted the wide range of experiences people have of their shared local culture and community, as well as of self-expression.

The event culminated in a carnival parade. Riemurätke attracted a large audience to enjoy diverse forms of art, and the positive feedback from local residents together with the artists’ interest in continuing the collaboration has already sparked ideas for organizing the event again next year.