Moomin Characters has revealed its plans to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin story – The Moomins and the Great Flood – which was originally published in 1945 by Tove Jansson.
Under the theme ‘The Door is Always Open’ – referring to the door of the Moominhouse, which offers shelter, comfort and security to all who seek it – fans are being invited to join in celebrations which will include charitable fundraisers, fan competitions, new books, a film, product launches and more.
In the UK, the brand is partnering with Counterpoints Arts and Refugee Week to commission four artists to create four public artworks inspired by The Moomins and the Great Flood.
Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. It is run by Counterpoints Arts, a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change which produces a range of programmes in the UK and internationally.
The four artworks have been co-commissioned and will be co-produced by Counterpoints Arts and partners around the UK: Southbank Centre in London and Woodland Tribe, with Nabil Amini; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead with Henna Asikainen; Gloucester Guildhall with Dana Olărescu; and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture with Basel Zaraa.
The artworks will appear in May and June 2025 and will be supported by a range of community programming, Refugee Week resources and activations.
“The shelter, comfort and security that the Moominhouse provides are all universal needs, as relevant today as they were 80 years ago when Tove Jansson penned the first Moomin story,” commented James Zambra, creative director at Moomin Characters. “We couldn’t think of a better partner with which to celebrate the importance of a warm welcome and a sense of belonging than Refugee Week.”
In addition, Moomin Characters, publisher Sort Of Books and retailer Waterstones are partnering on a collaboration to raise funds for the British Red Cross. Sort Of Books will publish a special anniversary edition of The Moomins and the Great Flood which will include a full-colour cut-out Moomin house designed by Tove Jansson in the 1950s plus her notes on the Moomins. The book will be priced at £9.99 with a £7.50 donation from each copy sold by Waterstones going to support the British Red Cross’ work in the UK and overseas, including support for refugees and people in need of protection.
The anniversary edition will also include a foreword by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate.
Other Moomin80 celebrations around the world will include major exhibitions in Finland, Sweden, Poland, China and South Korea; a raft of new publishing and special anniversary editions; and new product lines across high-end fashion, homeware, gifting and more.
Fans can look forward to director Charlie McDowell’s adaptation of Tove Jansson’s novel The Summer Book, which stars eight-times Academy Award nominee Glenn Close and had its global premiere at BFI London Film Festival earlier this month, as well as the fourth series of award-winning animation Moominvalley, which will be available on Sky On Demand on 26 October and will launch on the Sky Kids channel from 28 October.
Other anniversary publishing in the first half of the campaign year includes The World of Moominvalley Anniversary Edition written by Philip Ardagh; Moominpappa and the Great Flood, a picture book retelling of the original story from Moominpappa’s point of view, to be published in January 2025 by Puffin; and The Moomins Find a Home Pop-Up Book by Elena Selena, based on The Moomins and the Great Flood, published in February 2025 by Macmillan Children’s Books.
Paperback reissues of the eight classic Moomin novels will also be available in February 2025 from Puffin.
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