NEWSLETTER 2/2023
Dear Reader
This is the second newsletter of Valge Kuup Studio. Indeed, a lot has happened since the previous one. In the world, as well as in the art world. For the past three years, it seemed that everything else was more important and urgent than a newsletter. But to our surprise, suddenly the time came to celebrate our anniversary. Ten years of Valge Kuup! This is a major milestone for a small company, and we would like to share some of our joy with you. VALGE KUUP 10 Valge Kuup was established on 23 August 2012. At the very beginning, we helped artists and curators without us having a permanent studio or workshop, just using temporary spaces. In 2013, together with friends from Lugemik – an independent publishing initiative, who needed a bookshop, we built a small “studio cube” from an old garage next to the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia. In 2015, we turned another garage space into a workshop and replaced a rented trailer with a van. In 2019, we moved into a larger studio a bit further away from the city centre, where we are located today – and added ‘studio’ to our name, becoming Valge Kuup Studio. 
Top row: The “garage cubes” under construction – insulation of the common space shared by Valge Kuup and Lugemik and a view from the yard of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia in spring 2013. Photos: Lugemik
Bottom row: Our first exhibition design and installation job – “Romeo and Juliet” curated by Anneli Porri at the Y-Gallery in Tartu in February 2013; and arriving in Venice in April 2015 to prepare Jaanus Samma’s “NSFW. A Chairman’s Tale” at the biennial (in the photo: Tõnu Narro, Villem Säre and Neeme Külm).
Over the past ten years, around 30 artists, art installers, conservators, architects, interior architects, carpenters, and other skilled professionals have worked as part of our team on specific projects. Around a dozen students from the Estonian Academy of Arts have spent their internships with us. For the past five years, we have taught the basics of exhibition design and installation to students of curatorial studies and the photography department at the art academy. We hope they flourish in their chosen careers and perhaps find their way back to us some day. Read more >>
Dear Reader
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the first ever newsletter produced by the team at Valge Kuup. This is a new undertaking for us but something that we plan to continue on a regular basis to keep our partners and clients up-to-date on the major events in our studio. As those of you who have worked with us recently will know, 2019 has been a year of great changes for us. It has included: the opening of an additional larger studio with 300 m2 of space, greatly enhancing our capability for large-scale artwork fabrication and storage; the continued development of important international collaborations; not to mention all artists, museums and galleries for whom we have been privileged to have hosted or designed and built exhibitions for in the past year. 
Painting installation by Kristi Kongi “Shades of Pink and Green. A piece of Violet – Peace” in progress at the Valge Kuup Studio. Photo: Kristi Kongi
In this first edition newsletter we review these important achievements in more detail whilst also reporting on some recent news. We very much hope that you like the format and, of course, we welcome any comments, suggestions or questions you may have.
NEW STUDIO Some time ago, with our increasing collaboration with artists and growing demand for large-scale art fabrication projects, it became clear that we needed more space. As it was not possible to expand in our 60m2 workshop near the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum (EKKM), in May 2019 we took the step of expanding into a freshly renovated space in an up-and-coming neighbourhood of Northern Tallinn, where we opened the Valge Kuup Studio. Read more>> |