Mobility in Estonia

On 6th of june 2026 we participated in workshop held on Muhu island of Estonia, organized by the Estonian academy of arts (EKA). We came a day earlier and had dinner arranged for us in the evening in a local potato restaurant owned and managed by EKA alumni. The next day we traveled to the port with a van, and crossed the sea with a ferry for about 30 minutes, after which we traveled for another 30 min through the island to the house at which we were staying.

While the weather at home was reaching up to 35 degrees Celsius, our time in Tallinn and on the island was spent in light jackets and long sleeves, which was wonderfully refreshing. The island is quite small, quiet and green, and in typical Estonian fashion, we were immediately instructed to make our way outside, and do a nature bonding exercise – walking barefoot around the yard, in silence and solitarily. After this we sat around on the ground and talked about the sensation we experienced. The house was big and had an atelier where we proceeded to work on our workshop projects the next couple of days.

Before with commencing with the workshop itself, there was an interesting learning experience on how to use gel plates in order to make prints, held by the EKA’s head of the animation department, who is a printmaker. We were provided with materials and free to experiment however much we wanted with whichever materials we wanted to.

While we were playing with our newly acquired skill of gel plate printmaking, the hosts arranged groups by mixing the students up after which we were told our tasks. We had to come up with an animation using any materials but preferable natural materials we find outside, and morph them into one another. It was a very fun exercise and I worked really well with my team. We took teamwork to a literal level and made all our animation parts dependent on each other so we had to work together simultaneously, which I was quite happy about as it made this active and less stressful, in comparison with other groups who worked person by person, leaving each member of their group alone, and call them when finished.

After the workshop we had a screening of our animations, a bonfire where we told folk stories from our countries of origin, and the sauna was free for use every night that week where people were interchanging going throughout the majority of the night.

The night, of course, was never a true night compared to ours, as the sun never fully sets. The sky is always a bit light, and we could watch the sunset and sunrise in a span of 3 ours between each other. When we returned back to Tallinn, we had another day and a half to explore, and we ended the experience by watching the sunset on a beach at around 00:30.

Overall, experiencing Estonia is definitely an experience on its own that I would recommend to anyone, but out of the animation workshops this was definitely one that stands out as a unique learning experience in not only animation but other interesting opportunities!

Author: Neda Ivanović, School of Arts