About Us

Kolibrí is a festival where the diversity and plurilingualism of contemporary children in Finland can be experienced. Every autumn, during the last week of September. We offer an artistic, cultural, recreational and educational programme with free access.

The Kolibrí Festivaali’s programme contains multidisciplinary workshops, theater and dance performances, concerts, a fair of children’s literature in Spanish and Portuguese, a biennial seminar on bilingualism for families, as well as debates and panels. These activities are facilitated by artists, scientists, experts and other culture workers of diverse origins residing in Finland.

The programme is selected and structured at the end of each spring. In January, we make an open call to submit proposals on art, literature, science, and recreation. Annually, and thanks to the support of ibero-american embassies, we invite a distinguished ibero-american artist to participate in Kolibrí. This artist will have a programme consisting of workshops for the families; magistral lectures and workshops for professionals, university students and experts; an exhibition and sales event open to the public; as well as the sales of his/her books in our Book Fair.

Kolibrí is made possible thanks to the co-production organized with the Cultural Centres and Libraries in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Each year, numerous local and ibero-american institutions trust and finance our work.

Essentially, our festival is made possible thanks to a vast team of people who volunteer their work all year round.

Kolibrí is a production of the Kultturikeskus Ninho ry association.

Support Kolibrí, become a member of Ninho!

Past editions


2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Our purpose

Our purposes are:

  • To enrich and make the children’s agenda and local cultural supply more representative.
  • To facilitate the access, active participation, and enjoyment of the diverse infancies and their families to education, science and culture, without any sort of discrimination.
  • To expand work spaces are make visible the diverse talents residing in Finland: artists, scientists and other culture workers.

Thus, Kolibrí contributes to the democratization of children’s culture in Finland.

History

Kolibrí Festivaali was born in the year 2011, at the heart of the Latin-American community of Helsinki. Initially, this project is the result of the collective and voluntary work of mothers, professionals, and culture and diversity activists. In 2013 we started with the first biennial seminar on bilingualism and in 2015 we organized the first spring Kolibrí in the libraries of Espoo and Malmitalo. We created our association Kultuurikeskus Ninho in 2016.

With time, and as we grew, we intentionally added fathers to the project, and other people, committed with voluntary work around contemporary infancies, got gradually in touch. They, as the forerunners, are convinced that Kolibrí offers a space for meeting and for the plurilingual dialogue, where the right of infants to an active participation in art, science and culture is promoted, as well as the enjoyment of quality time in the families. We understand families as representing all possibilities of love. We aim at facilitating the inclusion and integration of children and adults having a second language of inheritance, different to the nationals.

In 2020 we were distinguished with the Orden al Mérito by the Spanish government, for our work in the promotion of the culture and language.

If you want to know more details about our history and methodology, click here

Staff

Kolibrí Festivaali Staff 2022

Production Team 

Artistic Director: Laura Gazzotti
General Production Assistant: Sigryd Salmi
Concerts and Performances Assistant: Juliana Forli
Technical Infrastructure: Eduardo Acosta
Visual Image: Ina Fiebig
Image Kolibrí Festivaali 2022: Juan Palomino
Ninho Office Manager: Carlos Gaubert

Press and Communications

Manager: Adriana Minhoto 
Photography Coordinator: Camila Surakka
Photographers: Andrea Casalta, Agustín Garagorry, Bayram Ibrahim, Nalle Emlgren, Niki Strbian and Mariana Garcia 

Exhibition  

Curator and Designer: Ina Fiebig and Mariana Nuñez Sanchez
Casita Design and Build: Wood Program, Aalto University

Program Selection Committee 

Andréa Santos Brito, Adriana Minhoto, Laura Gazzotti, Maritere Vargas, and Javier Gauto 

Web Platform Team 

UX & UI: Maritere Vargas
Development: Joni Kaunismäki (Mediaani) 
UI and Art Direction: Ina Fiebig 
Technical support: Víctor Rincón & Eduardo Acosta
Volunteer: Carolina Gómez Tercero
3D Visualizations: Luis Rioyo 

Volunteers Coordination Team 

Claudia Herrera Rosales   

Feedback & Evaluation Team 

Daniela Centeno-Salo, Nathalia Katsivalis, Andréa Santos Brito & Javier Gauto  

Book Fair Coordination Team 

Ana Tamayo & Verónica Miranda 

Inclusion and Accessibility Coordinator

Andréa Santos Brito 

Accessibility Team 

Andréa Santos Brito, Verónica Miranda & Ruth Rubin 

Finance Team 

Andrea Botero, Laura Gazzotti and Javier Gauto  

Translation team  

Coordinator: Sigryd Salmi
Editors: Paula Hecq, Teija Potenze, Adriana Minhoto, Andréa Santos Brito, Claudia Herrera Rosales, Ruth Rubin, Victor Manuel Rincón
Swedish: Inka Pursiainen, Víctor Manuel Rincón, Joséphine Holmström, Mariana Jiménez, Thomas Edwartz 
Finnish: Inka Pursiainen, Elena Kolehmainen, Jaana Kanninen, Paula Hecq, Petri Piiroinen, Paula Kylmämaa
English: Andréa Santos Brito, Paula Hecq, Eveline Vandewalle, Rossina Sprout, Maria Luisa Lozano
Spanish Ruth Rubin, Martha Cecília Largaespada, Elena Kolehmainen, Mateo Pasos, Rossina Sprout, Iago Castro Pérez, Daniela Centeno-Salo, Isaac Vázquez Venegas, Núria Mascaró 
Portuguese: Adriana Minhoto, Andréa Santos Brito, Gidalte Lucio, Thaís Abuchalla, Rejane Figueiredo, Orlando Borges Botelho, Amanda Nakazato 

Special collaboration 

Maikki Kantola (Regional Artist of Cultural Diversity, TAIKE) 

Kulttuurikeskus Ninho ry 

Andrea Botero, Teija Potenze, Rosibel Huete, Javier Gauto, Maritere Vargas, Claudia Herrera Rosales and Mariana Nuñez Sanchez.