Tartu College Mural

About the Author

Arne Roosman
Lithographer, designer of books, stages and murals. Illustrator and painter. Born in Tallinn, Estonia. Studied art in Sweden. Came to Canada in 1957. He has exhibited in Canada and overseas. He is the winner of many awards. Arne has lived and worked in Bancroft, Ontario as a freelance artist for over 25 years.

About the Mural
In the spring of 2016, Tartu College commissioned a mural from Arne Roosman, which was installed on the Bloor St. facing facade in July of the same year.

Tartu College was built as a student residence as well as a centre for Toronto Estonian academic and cultural activities in 1970 by Tampõld & Wells architecture firm. The building was named after one of the oldest universities in Europe located in Tartu, Estonia. The University of Tartu was established by the Swedish king, Gustav II Adolf in 1632, and officially named Academia Gustaviana. The founder of the university, the original building from the 17th century, which no longer exists, as well as the current six columned university building, can all be seen on the mural. The current building was built in 1804-1809 by the university’s architect Johann Wilhelm Krause. The borders of the Estonian map can be seen as the background for the university.

Estonian culture is very language based. Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. Along with its sister language, Finnish, Estonian is one of the oldest languages in Europe and is spoken by just over 1 million people as a mother tongue. Estonian has been considered an official European Union language since 2004. It is thought that Estonian was created at the end of the prehistoric period (BC) as a result of two or three southern Finnish tribes combining their dialects. The dialects most likely began to differentiate from others around the beginning of the Common Era (AD). This differentiation also represents the two main Estonian dialects – the northern and southern dialects. In the 17th century, Baltic German Estophiles began to develop the written Estonian language.

Kristian Jaak Peterson (1801-1820) is considered to be the first Estonian author. He wrote poetry and essays. On March 14th, Peterson’s birthday, Estonia celebrates Mother Language Day. The tall and lean figure of the author can be found on the mural. There is a similar monument dedicated to the author in Tartu on Toomemägi (Toome Hill). A copy of Peterson’s handwritten manuscript of his ode “Moon” can also be found on the mural. He praises the beauty of the Estonian language and asks rhetorically, why our language could not be considered equal among the larger cultural languages.

One of the first Estonian written language developers was Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798-1850). He was a practicing doctor, but also taught Estonian at the University of Tartu. Faehlmann started the long process of compiling the Estonian national epic “Kalevipoeg” and is also represented on the mural.

Although Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald completed “Kalevipoeg,” he is not on the Tartu College mural. However, one of his comtemporaries, the first Estonian poetess, Lydia Koidula is depicted on the mural. Many Estonian composers have used Koidula’s poetry in their compositions. Not a single song festival takes place without the sound of at least one song using Koidula’s words.

The manuscript heritage left behind by all three of these cultural figures and more are held at the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu. This building, built at the end of the 19th century has also found a place on the mural.

The song festival tradition, which has now been declared UNESCO cultural property, began in Tartu, Estonia in 1869 with the first Estonian Song Festival. The initiator and one of the general directors was Lydia Koidula’s father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen. He was a school master, a national activist, and publisher of the newspapers Pärnu Postimees and the Eesti Postimees. The mural shows the high arch of the current song festival stage in Tartu.

Tartu is also a city of science. There are multiple hints detailed in Roosman’s mural, among them is the old University of Tartu anatomical theatre (built in 1803-1805 by Johann Wilhelm Krause), which is still in use by the university today, but no longer for anatomical studies. Currently, it is being used as a centre for educational advancement.

The Tartu College mural, created in 2016, tells stories to passersby about Estonia’s history and culture. In the future, we hope to add stories about Estonians living in Canada. The image of the Estonian blue, black, and white flag depicted on the mural, ties there two communities together.