Conferment dinner speeches and lyrics

Published 25.6.2024 | Updated 16.8.2024

Welcome address

Elina Saloranta, chief marshal

Dear conferred graduates, honorary doctors, officiants and guests

Welcome to the Old Student House, where people have celebrated conferment balls since 1873. We will also enjoy a ball later in the evening, but before that, we will get to have a festive dinner and hear celebratory speeches. To set the mood, I will cite a text that describes a conferment ball in 1886. The text is written by reporter J.W. Miesmaa, and it was published in his book Vuosien varrelta (1916).

“The entire ceiling of the ballroom was covered with a light blue curtain, and thick pine garlands and rose vines arched below it. – – Electric lights shone their light over everything for the first time on such a large scale in Helsinki. From the ceiling hung 4 large arc lamps, each with a luminous intensity of 500 candles. In addition, the hall was illuminated by 300 small light bulbs. In curved lines they threaded along the domes of the arcades and lumped together into sparkling rosettes.”

“Two tables were arranged under the balcony, where some punch mix, ice cream, fruit, confections, etc. were served – – Tents and arbours had been set up in the yard to serve refreshments in, mostly of a very different kind than those up in the fairytale castle.”

“At 9 o’clock, an audience in formal attire began pouring into the Student House.  Women’s dresses shone in the bright light of electric lamps, and an intoxicating fragrance emanated from the corsages. It is self-evident what the customary polonaise turned into in this suffocating predicament. But everywhere – in the hall, in the library rooms, in the music hall and on the balcony – the same carefree joy, youth, beauty, grace and roses – roses endlessly – could be found.”

With these words, I wish you a happy evening and propose that we raise a toast to the second conferment ceremony in the history of Uniarts Helsinki.

Speech for Uniarts Helsinki

Annika Lyytikäinen, master’s promovendus

Dear guests, honorary doctors and rector,

Dear conferred doctors and masters,

Tradition is often defined as an inherited custom, practice or notion. On the one hand, in the context of the centuries-old tradition of academic conferment ceremonies, and on the other hand, in the second conferment ceremony in the history of Uniarts Helsinki, I would like to highlight another characterisation that perhaps better reflects many of our own relationships with academic traditions: tradition might rather be an experiment that has proved successful. The strength of the Finnish education system is that our learning path does not have to be based on inherited customs, practices or notions, but that it is possible for everyone to pursue their dreams, at least in principle.

I dare say that for many of us promovendi, Uniarts Helsinki has been an important guiding force in the journey of fulfilling our dreams. Regardless of whether our childhood dream was called the Academy of Fine Arts, Theatre Academy, Sibelius Academy or the renamed and merged Uniarts Helsinki, I believe that we here today form a large group of people for whom top education in the arts has been a childhood dream. We have been united by a conviction that art is one of the most important things we have, or that we actually cannot even cope without it.

According to the Universities Act, the mission of the universities is to promote artistic education, to provide research-based higher education and to educate students to serve their country and humanity at large. When discussing the social significance of art, I think it is important for us to remember that Uniarts Helsinki also educates students to serve their country and humanity.

Alongside its noble missions, the duty of Uniarts Helsinki is also to take care of its students on their journey towards their dreams. It is difficult for a broken person to achieve their dreams, let alone serve their homeland and the humanity.

Dear Uniarts Helsinki,

Uniarts Helsinki’s inexhaustible natural resource is creativity and the constant ability to reinvent itself. The ability to pass on tradition and cultural heritage while experimenting, failing, experimenting, and ultimately succeeding. To liberate art as the conscience of the homeland and humanity, to let art pick up where words end. May our beloved Alma Mater continue to live up to the dreams of new generations in the decades to come; a safe community where people can try out their wings and grow into artists who are constantly reinventing himself.

Response by Uniarts Helsinki

Kaarlo Hildén, rector

Dear guests, honorary doctors, conferred doctors and masters,

Master’s promovendus Annika Lyytikäinen, thank you for your speech that highlighted several interesting polarities. You suggested the possibility of re-interpreting heritage as experimentation, embracing the inherent tension between preserving the old and creating the new. Tradition can – and should! – be seen as a dynamic process between conservation and innovation, connecting the past to the present. A tradition that is not able to reinvent itself through time is broken and becomes history. It’s also difficult to create something genuinely new out of nothing, without a living relationship with the tradition from which it wishes to distance itself. The tension between opposites is an evolutionary driving force in our culture.

In her speech, Lyytikäinen also highlighted the contrast between individuality and community – our university is both a tool for realising individual dreams and for serving the country and humanity. Again, the connection between these perspectives is important: our personal ambitions are worth striving for if they are also significant to others. In the same way, we serve the country and humanity best when we ourselves feel good and focus on something we are really passionate about.

The connection between opposites can also be broken, as has happened in the polarisation of politics and social debate. As realities diverge, the dynamic force that moves us forward fades. We end up in paralysing stagnation, where nothing moves or evolves.

Dichotomous Western either/or thinking that seeks to categorise reality in binary terms can prevent us from understanding the inherent paradoxical nature of world phenomena. A mind that seeks black-and-white unambiguity finds it difficult to accept the multitude of contradictory perspectives that are ever-present in our increasingly complex world. In this age of wicked problems, we are in dire need of both/and thinking in which polarities can co-exist in a dynamic relationship. Thankfully, we have the arts! For what would drama, music, dance, visual arts or literature be without tensions, contradictions and complexity that gives room for many different interpretations? You, dear alumni and honorary doctors, have unique capacities to highlight, deal with and process the paradoxes of our time through your art and research.

This moment we’re sharing is also a celebration of paradoxes. The conferment event is a noble and boisterous ceremony, and we treat its centuries-old tradition with appreciation and attention to detail, but at the same time with amusement by this adult play of dress-up that we have embarked on together. And good play doesn’t happen if you don’t take it seriously, throwing yourself in it with a childlike attitude with no restraints.

Here’s to art and the paradoxes of life: Let’s enjoy a solemnly relaxed evening! I wish you all a serenely boisterous evening! Cheers!

Speech for the honorary doctors

Ville Sandqvist, doctoral promovendus, ultimus

Dear esteemed, wonderful, highly appreciated, distinguished and distinctly hand-picked honorary doctors, dear guests.

This is the second time that Uniarts Helsinki has awarded honorary doctorates. At the last conferment ceremony, in 2018, 13 honorary doctors were selected. Now there are eight of you. This is a testament to the fact that our university is increasingly safeguarding quality over quantity. Even if we include the conferment ceremonies organised by the academies before the establishment of Uniarts Helsinki, you belong to the group of the chosen ones. We are sincerely proud to have you in our community.

We are a small, new and slightly different university within the university system. The research we mostly carry out is artistic research. We find that the niche and the mission our university fulfils in education and research is meaningful and often complementary to traditional scientific research. We can read about the importance of artistic research and artistic thinking in the interviews you have given before the conferment ceremony. We can see it in the work and contributions you have made during your career. The impression and the difference you have made and the mark you have left are in line with our values.

Now a few words of the aforementioned artistic thinking. The way I see it, artistic thinking differs from creativity and creative thinking in the sense that artistic thinking wants to make us take a pause at something – to see, observe and to take in, be impressed. If there’s something that artistic creativity creates, it’s meaningfulness. The most descriptive essence of artistic thinking is perhaps its ability to contextualise and to build relations, our world view and concept of humanity.

Creativity and creative thinking are active and productive creation processes, whereas artistic thinking halts, shows, illustrates, exposes – and, what it creates is meaning, significance, a new viewpoint, a prospect of hope and change. This is why we all are sitting here both honouring you, and being humble and proud facing our tasks and our mission, and having a good time in this happy get-together.

So dear Alex (absent), Heikki, Susanna, Tacita, Lia, Hilja, Hito and Hanna, I now propose that we raise a toast for you.

Cheers!

Response by an honorary doctor

Hanna Helavuori, honorary doctor

Dear Ville, thank you for your beautiful words. Dear guests. It’s an honour and a privilege to stand here. 

If I were a stage poet, I would formulate my speech as an ode to the fragile beauty of art and artistic research in this distinguished moment of celebration.

Now I just offer some thoughts.

I

The arts and research take place in a world. In a time out of joint, we need to reflect upon our responsibility

Palestinian-American provocative thinker and literary scholar Edward Said will be my companion. Throughout his life, he was concerned with knowledge and freedom. For Said, freedom required independence, particularly in relation to power and institutional pressures. This kind of freedom combined with responsibility enabled speaking truth to power. Said embraced an interdisciplinary approach moving on border territories, simultaneously and constantly acknowledging the limits of one’s own thinking. This applies to artistic research.

My thinking goes along the paths of professor Tuija Kokkonen’s pioneering ecocritical artistic research and of philosopher and feminist theoretician Rosi Braidotti. They call attention to the responsibility of the arts to seek for answers to questions about how to think and live on this precarious planet.

II

 It is all about framing

Researcher artists residing in border territories resembles the way German writer G.W. Sebald in his oeuvre frames his observations. His framing invites into the frame also those who often have fallen outside the frame. Who are we inviting into the frame or leaving outside the frame?

III

This is a celebration of recognition

Uniarts Helsinki as an institution forms a public space in the sense meant by Hannah Arendt. Artistic research is only meaningful if the research community and the world outside the community hear the voice of the artist-researcher.

Artistic research has often only been depicted in a scandalous light through the media. Even oppressive specificity or simply silence are ways of sidelining.

Money is one tangible expression of respect, recognition and appreciation. The result-driven funding and instrumentalised project world of neoliberal society pose a serious threat. 

IV

Failures, flukes, and mother bears

The essence of contemporary art and artistic research includes failure and fluke.   “Aesthetics of failure” is a revolt against obsessive control and mistake avoidance in our societies. However, the realm of freedom and non-systematic messiness does not exclude theoretical frameworks necessary for research.

Situationists advised us to wander around, to linger, and be led by impulses and sudden ideas. Hopefully, there is still space and time also for this.

Art practice and reflections upon it should not be pigeonholed, as we cannot make instrumentalised orders and expect tailor-made results.

Dean of the Theatre Academy Otso Huopaniemi has, in his artistic research, shown how digital media can, through their algorithmic propositions, play a productive part in reading and writing. While preparing this speech, I wrote key words on my mobile phone. Thanks to the autocorrection functionality, suddenly, a mysterious word ´mother bear´- ´emokarhu´ in Finnish appeared and chased away my original word ´empathy´.

The fierce fighting mood is also needed when fighting against a populist mindset and its negative world-view and general pessimism – fighting against supremacy, subjugation and oppression – against microfascism and racism.

Speech for the conferment event

Olli-Pekka Martikainen, chair of the conferment committee

It’s the week of conferment, entering its final stretch
In a way we’ll never forget, so now a glass you should fetch

To raise a toast for this rare event, conferment
It requires most thorough schemes

Preparations have been made by teams,
of people so excellent, so competent

Everyone’s contribution so irreplaceable, refined
they’ve aimed for quality of the highest kind

* “All the work, all the effort so big,
I wanted to help out others with the gig,
to noble hearts it extends,
what I feel, to humans, to friends
Thanks should be given
when someone to the occasion has risen
and to others let thanks be known
also the one who self worth has shown.”

My thanks now to all I express, in this moment unique, no less

So a shared thank you to each, it’s the reason for my speech, 
And now join us in singing in this simple task, 

**  “… for you to sit in our circle and sing and drink we ask! Hey´
:,: Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on, rollin’, rollin, rollin’ on :,:

The heart of our event is you after all, dressed up, ready for the ball
All your abilities you had to demonstrate, they’re the reason we celebrate

And it’s not just anybody here, can’t buy your career with money, I hear.

* “it requires resilience, it requires passion,
a spirit that asks questions and takes action,
that stays true and stands its ground,
makes its own way even after the masses frowned;”

You’re now part of a continuum sacred, dazzling us with art you created,
You feel and know so much I must say, and in the end build a better Milky Way
I wish you well in your mission grand, hoping your work helps to improve the land!

And now let’s raise a toast to OUR conferment,
even if it’s beer in the glass, we can just enjoy with no judgement

*** “Raise your voice high, join the singing in delight
Let memories of this moment the same spark in you ignite.”

(* Leino, ** trad., *** Jalkanen)

Speech for art

Katja Tukiainen, doctoral promovendus, ultimus

Small speech for Art

Dear friends, friends of art. Cari amici, amanti del’arte. Thank you for having the opportunity to be here, to be talking to you, Art, on behalf of all of us. I won’t say anything that you haven’t already thought and felt in your souls. I thank you for inviting me here to speak for all of us to you, Art, our Alma Mater.

I dare to address you informally using the second-person pronoun in Finnish, you, who are distinct for all of us, but still one.

The artist talks to art through a song, words, a brush stroke on canvas, a middle finger, a dance step, a camera shutter flick, video footage of a sewer. 

You are a flicker of light, a touch, the scent of the forest, you can be born from a small movement in the soul.

You can be found in museums, theatre stages, concert halls, galleries, but also at campfires, in bookshelves, grandmother’s workshop, grandfather’s desk drawer and everyone’s pocket. You are in our conversations with friends, colleagues, you.

We have spoken to you and in your languages, Art, by continuing our artistic work in different life situations, many of our friends and colleagues until the very end of their lives.

Our works can be cool, anarchistic, humorous, angry, beautiful, ugly, wonder-filled, intellectual, funny, romantic and cute. However, our works wouldn’t say anything if they didn’t have your soulfulness in them, Art.  

One of us shared the good they had received with future creators and listeners in the form of an organ, so that the music could be echoed through future musicians and talents to us and our children.

Many of us will continue our conversation with you, Art, by teaching, researching and painting as long as we can walk to our studio. My dear colleague continued even after that in their imagination, painting in the air with their hands.

Our widely touching images, words, melody and movements are a devotion to you, Art, until the very end.

One of us brought to the theatre stage a historical presentation about Finnish democracy and the birth of our state governed by the rule of law. They presented us with historic turning points so that we would not forget and so that we would know. 

We study you by doing, working with you, by experimenting and arguing, because even though you are an obvious acquaintance for us, we want to share our experiences about you, Art.

And how do we recognise you with whom we speak? We recognise you by the touch of the soul, the soulfulness of the work, song and performance.

You move us in different places, maybe at different times, and when you do, we know who we’re dealing with – with you, Art. 

You challenge us intellectually, emotionally and through what we can’t find words for, and we don’t have to, either. We may fumble for words and you won’t mind if we don’t always hear, see, or feel your touch, because you keep appearing again.

At the same time, you make us both forget our egos and be perfectly present. You make us both be exactly ourselves and be a part of universal existence.

This is a reach towards you, Art, that is constantly running away, avoiding definitions, but still towards you, in all your ordinariness. 

You know how to be a bridge builder, a thought provoker, a target of censorship, a divider of opinions. You have to be all of them, because only by changing our point of view can we see more perspectives on our world, reflect on the questions of our existence and find solutions. Yet you are so strongly your own intrinsic value, Art, that you will not be ruined, even if we humans harness you for our own purposes. 

And here to conclude, in this moment of magic and togetherness, jingling of bells.

(Shall we eat dessert now?)

Ceremonial words for releasing marshals from their duties

Dear guests,

As we know, the conferment event involves many kinds of traditions, and one of them is the release of the marshals from their duties. This happens by saying the words: “Barabbas is on the loose”. After this, the marshals take off their blue-and-white ribbons and place them on the chief marshal. We will soon act out this performance, but before that, I want to remind you of one more conferment tradition that anyone can choose to practise during this evening. After the ball, it has been a custom to go out and deliver speeches to statues and finally, to the rising sun. I suggest that we all contribute to reviving this tradition when we later make our ways home. But before that: Barabbas is on the loose!”

Other programme taking place during the dinner

Saki Kono, Lotta Pylkäs, Sakari Topi

Finnish husbandry, no. 2 – A quick pie crust (I. Kuusisto, text H. Vuorenjuuri, eng. L. Pylkäs)

Four desilitres of wheat flour.
One and one third desilitres of oil.
Three fourths of a desilitres of milk.
Half a teaspoon of salt.
The dough is amazingly easy to prepare.
Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a spoon. The dough is immediately ready to be baked.
Roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper.
The dough can be used for almost any kind of savoury pie.
Without the salt, of course, also for sweet pies.

Finnish husbandry, no. 4 – A recipe for a mushroom pie filling for autumn (I. Kuusisto, text H. Vuorenjuuri, eng. L. Pylkäs)

Prepare a mushroom stew using fresh or hermetically preserved mushrooms.
Champignons will also do, of course.
Fry bacon cubes, diced onions and the mushrooms with butter.
Let it simmer slowly under a lid and add cream,
Preferably sour cream.
For spice, add salt, pepper, parsley and dill.
This is grandmother’s mushroom stew.

Sakari: I really think that during these important, traditional events, there should be traditional food served. Why are there no pies on the menu? My grandmother always said, that if it’s a proper party, there should always be pie!

Finnish husbandry, no. 1 – A pie (I. Kuusisto, text H. Vuorenjuuri, eng. L. Pylkäs)

The roots of the Finnish pie are probably in Russia,
From where we have also gained the baking oven.
But the pie is very old, it’s older than bread.
The very first bread might have been a very thin pie crust.
Pies have been baked for thousands of years already.

Lotta: There, there, Sakari. These people are having a fine dinner with a spectacular menu, and they aren’t in need of any pie. But I know you would be missing a pie, so I brought you one!
Sakari: How does this taste so good?

Finnish husbandry, no. 3 – A meat pie like our grandma in Lahti used to make (I. Kuusisto, text H. Vuorenjuuri, eng. L. Pylkäs)

There’s no gimmick with spices,
Because it is a completely ordinary meat pie to be made on Saturday.
So that on Sunday, there’s a lovely, filling pie to be fetched from the cupboard.
Inside the puff pastry there is: one desilitre of rice, three hard-boiled eggs, boiled meat, and
three tablespoons of butter.
This was the recipe that our grandma from Lahti usually used.

Là ci darem la mano (W.A. Mozart, text. Lorenzo da Ponte, eng. Jennifer Rushworth)

There we will hold hands,
There you will say yes to me:
You see, it’s not far,
Let’s go, my dear, from here.
I would like to and I would not like to,
My heart trembles a little,
It’s true that I would be happy,
But he can mock me still!
Come, my lovely delight!
Masetto takes pity on me.
I will change your fate.
Quickly… I cannot resist any longer.
Let’s go!
Let’s go!
Let’s go, let’s go, my love,
To redeem the sufferings
Of an innocent love.