The Northern Voices — Nordic and Baltic stories, people, and gatherings across North America

More than 550 people from 20 countries met in Oslo for the 19th International Sauna Congress. The North American Sauna Society and Finlandia Foundation National were there as sponsors, and they say the gathering matters more as sauna spreads across North America.

The Election Authority's final count is in: turnout 84.9 percent, the bloc margin unchanged at 176–173, and a record 91,789 votes cast from abroad — 56,132 at 289 embassies and consulates, 35,657 by post. Just over a thousand never reached a Swedish municipality. And three figures in our own election-night coverage were wrong, including the size of the overseas electoral roll. We correct them here.

Tallinn is deciding the fate of a building it has never inventoried. Linnahall holds 37,221 square metres across four floors, more than a hundred interior spaces, a bowling alley, a judo club, 120 kilometres of pipework and a recording studio that has never stopped working. Its walls lift so the hall opens into the foyers. Its stage machinery was never installed. Every body qualified to judge says the structure is sound.

Estonia spent about €10 million on e-Residency in 2025 and returned €124.9 million to the treasury. It spent €47,471.75 helping Estonians move home, means-tested at half the subsistence threshold. Estonian citizens are not eligible for e-Residency at all. The country closed its consulates general in New York and San Francisco in 2024, opened five new embassies elsewhere in 2025, and the grant round that has preserved diaspora archives since 2011 ends this year.

The Tallinn Architecture Biennale runs to 30 November on the theme “Palju maksab?” — how much does it cost, and who ends up paying. Its main exhibition is installed in Linnahall, the 1980 Olympic hall Estonia has spent more than three decades failing to afford to restore. The venue is not a backdrop. It is the argument.

The Finnish artist Marianne Huotari makes wall works that look like the long-pile ryijy rugs of Finnish farmhouses — except every tuft is a hand-sculpted ceramic bead, wired one at a time onto a steel armature. Her first solo show with HB381 in Tribeca runs to 31 October.

The Foundation for Estonian Arts and Letters is accepting applications for its 2026 Young Artist Grant — a $2,000 award for an emerging artist of Estonian heritage in the United States, aged 18 to 35, working in music, performing arts, folk art and culture, literature, or visual and applied arts. Applications close on 1 December.