Luckan – the Finland-Swedish Information and Cultural Centre in Helsinki – is a private operator serving the population of the capital region of Finland and representing the Finland-Swedish culture and society within the region.
Luckan is a business card for the Swedish-speaking minority and an all activity centre for the capital region’s residents, newcomers and visitors. The Finnish-Swedish-room Luckan works not only as an information point and meeting place but also offers the public a wide range of activities (cultural and social) in Swedish and other languages, locally, regionally and throughout Finland and beyond.
You can find Luckan at twelve locations in Finland, from Borgå (Porvoo) in the east to Uleåborg (Oulu) in the northwest. At Luckan.fi you can choose your location.
If you are new to Finland, please visit our welcome page here.
If you are here to find fast information on who the Finland-Swedes were and are, visit our web Svenskfinland.fi.
Luckan™ in Helsinki is the Finland-Swedish information and cultural centre for the population of the metropolitan area of Finland. Luckan offers the public a wide range of citizen services and activities in Swedish in cooperation with other language and cultural groups. Locally, regionally and nationally.
As a cross-border operator from the third sector Luckan has a natural mandate to contribute in various ways to profile the Swedish public face of Finland and improve the Swedish services in the region. The association also serves as project launcher and principal for many public utilities. As a cultural center Luckan offers artists the space and opportunity to implement cultural events for the public.
In Luckan you will find:
- A Finland-Swedish room for anyone
- Cultural events, theme days, press conferences and more
- Free usage of Internet, in most Luckan offices you may use modern computers for information search and emailing
- Information on the Finland-Swedish society
- Read Finland-Swedish news papers from all over Finland and over sixty branch magazines
Luckan offers information on:
- Events with Finland-Swedish elements
- Education, courses and general funding
- Finno-Swedish organisations and societies
- social welfare, day care and language care
- possibilities for staying abroad, voluntary work
- help in society sectors, social help andwelfare
History
The Finland-Swedish information centre LUCKAN was founded in April 1992 on Nylands svenska landskapsförbund’s and Mellannylandsprojektet’s initiative. The aim was to create a Finland-Swedish service- and meeting point that could serve the around 70.000 Swedish speaking and bilingual citizens of Mellannyland (Middle Newland*).
In November 1998 LUCKAN moved into The Glass Palace and by the year 2000 LUCKAN was registered as an independent association. Organisations behind Luckan are Sydkustens Landskapsförbund, Svenska Studieförbundet, Samfundet Folkhälsan, Föreningen Konstsamfundet and Understödsföreningen för Svenska Kulturfonden.
By March 2004 Luckan obtained new favourable premises in the Forum block, were the activity continues.
The name LUCKAN has perplexed many, and means window (ticket window), it comes from when LUCKAN started its business giving social- and cultural information through a ticket window in the Swedish Theatre of Helsinki. At that time LUCKAN was an information window similar in size to the ticket windows around it.
* Middle Newland, part of Uusimaa province of Southern Finland, main city is the capital Helsingfors.