Kai Art Center is the cultural heart of the seaside Noblessner harbor complex – a fascinating mix of regional history, period-tinged architecture, and modern art and culture. In a century-old former secret submarine plant, visitors will encounter captivating and thought-provoking exhibitions, art, and cinema, four cafés and restaurants, a joint office for cultural organizations, and various venues for hosting events both in Kai’s interior spaces and outdoor sea view areas.
Kai Art Center aims to create an experience-filled cultural quarter that brings the contemporary art experience even closer to the public. Kai brings together artists, art and culture professionals, guests, and aficionados. We consider it important to promote Estonian contemporary art both at home and abroad, and we create ways to expand Estonian artists’ horizons by providing working and exhibition space as well as through international artist-in-residence programs.
Kai is open to everyone – four cafés and restaurants on the ground floor offer culinary experiences from Estonia to Japan, and the cinema program likewise features the vanguard of world film. Just as the name Kai means “dock” in Estonian, the center is both a point of departure and the final destination for many a journey.
Kai Art Center was founded by the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC), a nonprofit contemporary art organization that supports contemporary Estonian art and helps to make it more internationally visible. In cooperation with Civitta, ECADC is the initiator of the Estonian art market index, and a founding member of the philanthropic organization Outset Estonia.
