Ulla the Baker - Family Gallery

Meet Ulla the Baker!

In Ulla the Baker and Ulla the Baker Goes Skiing, Anders Suneson’s cheerful, illustrated children’s books, families are transported to winter in Östersund, Sweden. Here we meet Ulla, who has her own bakery. She loves to make cinnamon buns and have adventures.

Ulla and the books, available in both Swedish and English, have come to life in the American Swedish Institute’s new Turnblad Mansion’s family exhibition and in our outdoor courtyard. Step into Ulla’s world through Suneson’s charming and original wooden sculptures that he carved onsite with a chainsaw to enhance the exhibition. See Ulla and her cinnamon buns, meet the dog, see the chicken and climb onboard a snowmobile that Suneson carved

Go up to the Mansion’s third floor and in the Family Gallery’s intergenerational, imaginative play environment, you can immerse yourself in Ulla’s world and experience her bakery.

What’s the story behind Ulla?

In Ulla the Baker, we first meet Ulla in her bakery. One day, Ulla wakes up and is exceptionally tired. She mixes the dough for her cinnamon buns and sets them in the oven, only to fall asleep while they are baking. Ulla wakes up to the smell of burnt cinnamon buns! But Ulla is quite resourceful and decides to have a sale – of hockey pucks which are actually the burnt cinnamon buns!

In Ulla the Baker Goes Skiing, we meet Ulla who is baking cinnamon buns to sell up at her café on the ski slopes. Ulla’s challenge is not the baking, but rather the transporting of the cinnamon buns up the ski slope. Ulla encounters ski moguls, hungry reindeer and parachute mishaps before she resourcefully solves the problem and succeeds in serving fika and cinnamon buns to hungry skiers!

What Can You Do in the Family Gallery?

• Experience Ulla’s bakery and fika with friends and family.
• Perform puppet shows based upon Ulla’s picture books or a story of your own.
• Play knee hockey on a "frozen" pond.
• Learn about Anders Suneson’s studio and carving workshop while pretending to create chainsaw carvings.
• When families are ready for some quiet time, just cross the hallway and enter a reading nook that features Ulla the Baker and a variety of other children’s books focused upon baking good, tasty treats.

What Can You Do Outside in the Courtyard?

• Meet Ulla with her burnt cinnamon buns.
• Pretend to explore the snowy mountains on a snowmobile.
• You and a friend can get on a real life kicksled. Let’s hope for snow!
• Imagine what it would be like to live in the mountains in the winter while playing under the timber-framed structures.

How Can I find out more about the books?

• They are available for purchase in the ASI Museum Store.
• The books are dual language - in both Swedish and English.
• Anders Suneson wrote and illustrated them.
• The books and additional original Illustrations are featured in the exhibit
• Original chainsaw carvings by Anders Suneson enhance the exhibit

Who is Anders Suneson?

Anders Suneson is an author, illustrator, and wood sculpture artist from Östersund, Sweden. Suneson uses his illustrations as to enhance maps, curriculum materials and cartoons for government and business clients. He has published more than 10 children’s books including Ulla the Baker and Ulla the Baker Goes Skiing. His imaginative wood sculptures can be found on the ski slopes of Åre, Sweden, Lilla-Skansen in Stockholm, Train Museum in Gävle, and in numerous children’s hospitals and pre-schools throughout Sweden. For more information and to view Anders work, visit Anders Suneson Tecknade Bilder.

Youth & Family Exhibit Program serves as a conduit for the intergenerational understanding and appreciation for Scandinavian folk art and cultural practices.  Each year, ASI organizes a 600 square foot imaginative and immersive exhibit, often inspired by children's Swedish authors and storytellers.  This program is designed to offer hands-on engagement with exhibition content designed to bridge experiences for ages 9 months to 99 years.