Origins of the Finnish Lyceum Clubs

There are three Lyceum clubs in Finland: in Helsinki, Turku and Oulu

                                                                        Helsinki

The Lyceum club in Helsinki was founded in 1932 and thus it is the oldest club in Finland with about 140 members. As Finland is a bilingual country, the Helsinki club is also bilingual with Finnish and Swedish as its languages. During autumn and spring the club arranges programs for its members every Tuesday. The programs include mostly lectures on various topics, but visits to museums and other places of interest are also arranged. In December there is a Christmas party and in May a one-day trip is made to interesting spots outside the city. The club owns an apartment in the centre of Helsinki where the meetings are held.

Mrs Carin Kahlson, a Helsinki Lyceum Club member, was president of the IALC 1989-1995. The club hosted the international congress of the IALC twice, in 1968 and 1995.

In 2010, the Helsinki Lyceum Club published a book on its history.

                                                                        Turku

Turku Lyceum Club – Åbo Lyceumclubb r.y., or ILC Turku was founded in 1971. The club is officially bilingual, because it has both Finnish and Swedish-speaking members. The club has a total of 105 members. Our program consists of lectures given by experts in various fields. Art, literature and environmental issues all play a major role in our program.

In autumn and springtime we usually have an excursion to places of cultural or historic interest.

We also participate in IALC events.

In 2006, Turku organized special “culture days” for IALC members.

Our club member Maj-Britt Varpe was the vice president of IALC’s northern region in 2007-2010.

A major part of our functions is the co-operation with our new friendship club ILC Cologne. In November 2010, we made a trip to Cologne.

Our website is www.turunlyceumklubi.org.

                                                                       Oulu

Oulu Lyceum Club was founded in 1988. With its 40 members the Club is small, but very active with almost half its members present at each monthly meeting. Members also eagerly suggest new themes for seminars or visits; founding members (still 16) and new members organize interesting presentations. It is a tradition of Oulu Lyceum Club to make cultural trips to neighboring areas. Using their members’ contacts, it has also created networks with Finnish women’s and cultural organizations.

Our website is www.ouka.fi/yhdistykset/lyceum.