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Art meets the Sea at Artipelag

On April 30, 2013, in Sweden, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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A respect for the land and a genuine sense of harmony between man and nature are two elements I’ve noticed to be strongly present in Sweden. A sense of balance and connectivity with the earth can be seen in architecture, art, education, family life and urban planning.

Artipelag— a one-year-old art gallery located just outside of Stockholm— is a living example of these values. The sweeping structure can barely be spotted from the seafront. This was done by design so as not to disturb the seamless coastline, according to owner and one of Sweden’s most successful entrepreneurs, Baby Björn founder Björn Jakobson.

In essence, the clean lines of the building both  accommodate and celebrate the rocky archipelago, dense pine forests and slinky birch trees encasing the eclectic exhibits of both contemporary and traditional international art. Even the capricious Baltic Sea, which last year nearly froze over parts of the dock where boats can come right up to the gallery’s waterfront, plays a role as a permanent exhibit overseeing what goes on inside through the scores of towering, floor-to-ceiling windows facing the water.

The name of the gallery, “Artipelag”, is a play on Sweden’s famed rocky archipelago, one of the largest in the world. This rocky topography is interwoven literally into the gallery. A huge rock sits square in the center of the café with lean, porcelain candles buttressing the back so little climbing children don’t fall off! The owners were so attached to this massive stone that they essentially built part of the gallery around the ancient rock.

Attention to detail and raw enthusiasm for the art that lives in nature as well as in man is personified by the owner of the gallery, Björn Jakobson and his wife Lillemor. We were met by the couple, and later their daughter Josefin, who passionately described the inspiration for the gallery as a place for children and parents to come together to appreciate a diverse array of art, go for a walk along the boardwalk which is wheel-chair accessible, attend a concert in the massive auditorium or eat in the restaurant which boasts fresh local fare and a chef who won an award on the culinary team for the Olympics.

The gallery is designed to pique all the senses. In additions to the eyes, the acoustics have been adjusted to near-perfection to the point that an 800-person dinner was convened there recently and no one had to shout over the din at their respective tables, Mr. Jakobson informed us. Even the nose is scintillated by the combination of tar—in homage to the way sailors and boat-makers would protect their boats by painting them with tar— to the cinnamon floating from the café where warm kanelbulle and fresh confections are made on-site.

Almost every aspect of the art process has been attended to and can be accommodated on the grounds, including acclimatized storage and a facility that can support the weight of a huge truck hauling in sculptures or rock. A graceful flow and movement is incorporated into the exhibition rooms that currently showcase artists Paul Gernes and Cosima von Bonin. The vision of the gallery is to have a flexible model that displays a variety of genres and styles of art and appeals to families, the 55-plus age group and those who may or may not be art connoisseurs. In May, Artipelag will feature American photographer William Wegman and his collection “Hello Nature”. Mark and I are especially excited about that since Mr. Wegman’s work is largely inspired by the Maine woods. My husband has been spending summers in the northernmost part of Maine for nearly 40 years, sailing, hiking, fishing and reveling in nature. Some of our fondest family memories are hiking through Acadia National Park with our newborn daughter strapped to Mark’s chest in a Baby Björn!

In this way, our worlds of family life, art and nature collide in Artipelag and we cannot wait to explore further exhibitions and bring our family there again!

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The Excellent Stockholm Butterfly Museum

On April 29, 2013, in Sweden, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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On Sunday I took my daughter Aurora and my visiting Mother to the Stockholm Butterfly Museum (Fjärilshuset).  Sweden is a nature-lover’s paradise.  Whether it is the sub-Arctic High North, where the remoteness and space and beauty is captivating, or the thousands of little islands in the Swedish Archipelago, or the sunsets on the West coast, it is a country of gorgeous topography, and a love of nature.

In the capital of Stockholm there is a Butterfly Museum consisting of a 3000 square meter big tropical rainforest exhibition.  Outside the museum there are places to sit, with tastefully arranged chairs and places for children to play.

In the enclosed structures, high air humidity and temperature allows 1000 butterflies of different species to fly around freely in the facility. There are presentations of flower bouquets for the butterflies, as well as little hangings upon which the butterfly’s cocoon hang, and where you can watch the butterflies hatch.  Bouquets are strategically positioned  to attract butterflies so people can see them.  There are also parrots, dart frogs, turtles, and a number of really impressively large fish swimming in indoor ponds.

Here are photos of our visit to the Butterfly museum, from which we took wonderful memories from this unique exhibition.  Thank you Sweden for yet another wonderful memory!

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U.S. Green Cities Delegation Confirms “All Politics is Local”

On April 20, 2012, in Mark, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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In the late 1970s/early 1980s, then-U.S. Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, coined the now-famous saying “all politics is local”. This holds particularly true in the United States where the federal system reserves to states and cities most authorities and decision-making powers, making America a “ground-up” society were local action and grass-roots enthusiasm leads the way.

Earlier this week Natalia and I hosted a breakfast for a group of mayors and city representatives from the U.S. National League of Cities to get a flavor of how they are developing and implementing environmentally sustainable solutions. The delegation – representing Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Dubuque, Iowa; and St Paul, Minnesota – also met with Swedish counterparts under the auspices of the Swedish American Green Alliance (SAGA) to exchange best practices on urban sustainability to make sure that local politics does not stay local, but that these great solutions spread internationally.

Each of these elected officials displayed an impressive breadth of knowledge and determination to implement effective sustainability programs in their respective cities, each with very distinct and individual challenges and opportunities. Natalia and I were so inspired by the level of commitment and imagination in the room.  Whether it was tackling issues of transportation in Baltimore, spreading knowledge through early education on sustainability in Cleveland, or high-speed rail and an emphasis on public-private partnerships in St. Paul,  each of these city representatives were finding creative solutions to make improve the quality of life for their citizens. By utilizing his years of experience at John Deere Co.  and a dedication to improving the lives of his nine grandchildren, Mayor Boul of Dubuque, Iowa has helped make Dubuque one of the best small cities to raise a family, according to Forbes.

The delegation visited Hammarby Sjöstad together with Natalia. Hammarby has gone from being a former industrial site in the late 1980s to a sustainable neighborhood with cutting-edge holistic solutions that help its nearly 26,000 residents make significant energy savings while also saving money. The goal of the “Hammarby Model” is to integrate energy, water and waste to make the most efficient system possible.  What was once a polluted area populated by squatters, has now become a coveted residential areas for young families and professionals due to its vast and family-friendly “green areas”, efficient garbage sorting system, district heating and goal of making it the first completely electric car area by 2020. Hammarby Sjostad has become a global example of sustainability, and has over 13,000 visitors per year. Our city representatives, along with Natalia, were able to place a peg on a map of the world for all visitors. The map depicted visitors from Canada to China, Norway to Saudi Arabia.

In a similar fashion, the U.S. cities we met have adopted a number of sustainable initiatives. Council member Kraft of Baltimore told us that a 2.25% tax increase on downtown parking has allowed the city to offer free public transport in the city center which has encouraged residents to leave their cars at home.  Mayor Coleman of St Paul informed us about his city’s district heating grid which is run on biomass. Considering St Paul was one of the main destinations for Swedish emigrants in the late 19th century, it is not too surprising that it was two Swedes who constructed the city’s district heating system a couple of decades back

Both Natalia and I were pleased to see how Swedish and U.S. cities are uniting to take the lead in urban sustainability. This goes for both large and small cities. Dubuque, a town of 60 000, and its mayor, Roy Buol, has shown how a small city can serve as a small scale test pilot for bigger cities. As an example, Dubuque recently teamed up with IBM to launch a brand new smart metering system that will allow the town’s residents to keep a close eye on their energy and water consumption as part of Dubuque being IBM’s test bed for its “Smarter Cities” initiative. The overall goal is for this system to be spread around the United States and around the world.

All politics truly is local – sustainability is no exception.

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We’re all in this together

On December 7, 2011, in Mark, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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Today marks the arrival in Stockholm of a person who personifies American leadership and great science:  Dr. Steven Chu, US Secretary of Energy. We at the U.S. Embassy are thrilled that Dr. Chu has come to Sweden for Nobel week.  Dr. Chu is a former Nobel Laureate, sharing the prize for physics in 1997.  He has run a national laboratory, is the holder of ten patents, and has published nearly 250 scientific papers — a background that spans invention, scientific collaboration, and real results on turning new ideas into action.

In announcing Dr. Chu’s selection as U.S. Secretary of Energy in 2009, President Obama said, “The future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge:  energy.  Steven has blazed new trails as a scientist, teacher, and administrator, and has recently led the Berkeley National Laboratory in pursuit of new alternative and renewable energies.”

While I am not a scientist, I am passionate about the environment and where our world is going.  I feel most at home in the calm and stillness of nature.  There’s a place in Virginia where my family has gone for years, in the Blue Ridge mountains, for hiking and hunting, where the changing of the leaves marks the passage of time — and where every once in a while if one is very lucky one can see a black bear or wild bobcat.  When my family first moved to Washington DC in the 1970′s, the Potomac River used to freeze practically every year.  Now it rarely freezes at all.  I want my daughter and all of our children and grandchildren to live in a safe, prosperous and healthy world.  And I am very happy that the person in the United States leading our pursuit of alternative and renewable energy brings a genuine and accomplished scientific background to this challenge we all share.

I’ve been in Sweden as Ambassador for 19 days now.  One thing I hear from practically everyone is how important it is that we strive to find new solutions to energy challenges and global climate change.  It’s widely recognized that this is a challenge that does not recognize borders and national boundaries.  To make sure that we get the resources and technology to the countries that really need it, without losses through bureaucracy and corruption, the United States at this moment is collaborating with other nations, including Sweden, to put the essential mechanisms and governance in place to actually implement the important international agreements already made in Copenhagen and Cancun.

Here at the U.S. Embassy, we are working hard every day through the Swedish American Green Alliance (SAGA) to do things that make a difference — sharing technology, ideas and approaches and facilitating dynamic partnerships between Americans and Swedes.  And we want to welcome you to take part — please visit the SAGA website to see the best of what is happening on sustainability – in Sweden, in the United States, and more and more in partnership between our countries.  If you see something already happening in which you would like to be a partner, or have your own story to share so those who many want to partner with, or learn from, you can see it: send it to saga@state.gov.  Change starts with an idea, which by working together we can make reality.  But it means you need to share that project you are working on, or that “light bulb” idea in your head with the SAGA network so that we can all work together to tactically implement it.  We are all in this together.

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