The Spring Lecture Meetings.

The March-April meetings are often on an art or literature topic.

March 29, 2003 (Saturday). Winter meeting and a video: “The Swedes in Chicago”, Iowa City Public Library. Refreshments and a business meeting.

April 27, 2003 (Sunday). Celebration of Walpurgis night, w/o bonfire (Valborgsmässoafton) at the Home of Niles and Carol Ross, Cedar Rapids. Potluck dinner with Svensk Sild from Erickson’s in Andersonsville, Chicago.

March 23, 2006 (Thursday) “The Swedesburg Museum: History, Contents and Programs”, by Jane Wickham and Louise Unkrich of the Swedish Heritage Society, Swedesburg, IA. Followed by coffee, refreshments and conversation.

April 4, 2007 (Wednesday). The Swedish Club hosted a foreign exchange student at our April meeting. Jenny Dahlin is a high school student at Clear Creek, Amana and is from Klintshamn, Sweden. We enjoyed her discussion of her experiences in Amana and comparisons with her school life in Sweden.

April 30, 2007 (Monday). The Swedish Craft Group sponsored a trip to Swedesburg to visit the Swedish American Museum there and enjoy an open-faced sandwich luncheon. There was a guided tour of the museum and gift shop.

April 17, 2008 (Thursday). “Swedish Art, Kringler and Coffee”, by Jana Johnson Schnoor, a Swedish-American Artist. Jana produces a line of artwork including cards, prints, notepaper, recipe cards and gift tags.

April 15, 2009 (Wednesday). “An Evening with Carl and Karin Larsson at Sundborn”. Presented by Mary Lynn Eckert. A slide presentation in two parts: the first part was on the art of Carl Larsson from an Art Historian’s point of view. The second part was a review of Carl Larsson’s watercolors of his home at Sundborn, his family and his two farms. Technical assistance by Bob Coffman.

April 7, 2010. (Wednesday). “Scandinavian Literature”, presented by Paul Ingram, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City. Paul, the book buyer for Prairie Lights Book Store talked about classical and modern Scandinavian authors. His range of authors ran from Henrik Ibsen to Stieg Larson. A 90 minute presentation that left us spell-bound!

March 23, 2011 (Wednesday). “Uppsala: A Medieval Town with a Modern Pace”, presented by Dr. Adriana Mendez Rodenas, Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Literatures, University of Iowa.

April 11, 2012. (Wednesday). Selma Lagerlöf Meeting. Lecture and slide show on the life of Selma Lagerlof at Mårbacka and a review of her most famous books particularly The Saga of Jösta Berling and the Adventures of Nils Holgersson. Several episodes of the Mauritz Stiller B/W film of 1924 featuring Greta Garbo were also shown. Research and presentation by R. E. Coffman

May 9, 2012 (Wednesday). Swedish Film Meeting. We viewed “Maria Larsson’s Eternal Moment”, 106 minutes. Coffee and Kringle were served afterwards. The film was in Swedish with English subtext . Presented by R. E. Coffman

April 17, 2013 (Wednesday). Anders Zorn meeting. Presnted by Mary Lynn Eckert. A slide presentation on the Life and Art of the Swedish artist Anders Zorn. The meeting was held in meeting room A of the Coralville Public Library. Starbucks provided us with 50 cups of de-caffeinated coffee and Birgit Coffman prepared a batch of mini-Semlar to go with the coffee. Several You-Tube videos were shown, during coffee, of Zorn's home and museum in Mora. About 25 members and guests were in attendance and about another 10 were unable to make it to the meeting due to prior obligations.

April 23, 2014 (Wednesday) Swedish Film Meeting. Swedish Club members interested in Film viewed "Så som I Himmelen", a film by director Kay Pollak and starring Michael Nyquist and Frida Hallgren. Released in 2004 with English sub-text. 132 minutes. Described as a "beautiful and engaging film", this film was a box office hit in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. It was also a hit for our viewers!