The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Danila Rygovskiy has been awarded the 2026-2027 Baumanis Grant for Creative Projects in Baltic Studies to support his Baltic Typographic Identity project.
The Baumanis Grant is an award made to honor Velta Marija Baumanis of Mount Brydges, Ontario, who left a generous bequest to AABS at the end of her career as an architect. An award of up to $7,000 is available for any creative project (e.g., book, film, exhibit, etc.) that promotes Baltic studies. Preference is given to topics with a pan-Baltic or comparative aspect. Applicants must be members of the AABS at the time of application.
The 2026 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2025-2026 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Jörg Hackmann, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Dovilė Budrytė. Learn about the other 2026-2027 recipients here.
Danila Rygovskiy is an anthropologist and researcher of minorities based in Tartu and Tallinn. In 2023, he defended his PhD dissertation Women in Russian Old Belief: Religious Practices and Public Imagination on the Example of Siberian and Estonian Old Believer Communities. During his more than ten-year academic career, Rygovskiy has authored over twenty research papers, book chapters and other publications. His current research at Tallinn University focuses on political inclusion of the Russian minority in Estonia. Rygovskiy is a collections manager at TYPA printing and paper art centre, which houses the last major collection of printing presses and other typographic equipment in Estonia, including a large collection of metal type. He has contributed to creative research projects combining the anthropology of technology, history, and industrial archaeology, and has also developed exhibitions as part of these projects, including The Newfound type and Artistic Rediscovery of Hot Metal Typesetting.
Project Overview
The goal of the Baltic Typographic Identity project is to shed light on the little-known topic of the typographic heritage of Estonia and Latvia between 1918 and the first Soviet occupation in 1940. To achieve this, an exhibition and an accompanying educational program will be organised on the basis of creative and historical research. Both will be hosted by the TYPA printing and paper art centre.
The exhibition will allow visitors both to learn the basics of type founding and typesetting, such as what a typographic typeface is, how it is produced, what a type specimen consists of, and how text is set, and to immerse themselves in the history of printing in the Baltic countries during the first half of the twentieth century. The educational program includes an advanced international workshop on type revival intended for type designers and students of related disciplines, as well as a series of workshops designed for a broader audience, including schoolchildren. Notably, the exhibition will feature a new physical typeface inspired by the topic of Baltic typographic identity.
The central theme of the exhibition is the production and use of typographic typefaces in the Baltic countries. Printing in local languages and the development of literature in Estonian and Latvian would not have been possible without a widespread typographic culture. This culture developed alongside the emergence of the first printing houses in Riga, Tartu, and Tallinn during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the nineteenth century, the printed word became an important factor in the expression of national self-awareness in both countries and laid the foundation for a literary boom and, more broadly, for the development of a typographic culture encompassing many different kinds of texts. Since the use of native languages in written form is deeply important for Baltic identity, this project draws attention to the typographic culture of the past from which contemporary textual practices emerged.
The exhibition will be based on typographic collections preserved in Estonia today. These include the metal type collections of the TYPA printing and paper art centre and the Estonian Academy of Arts, as well as TYPA’s collection of specimen books from Estonian printing houses. Latvian material will be represented through the history of the Gutenberg type foundry in Riga. Founded in the late nineteenth century, Gutenberg became the only independent type foundry operating in Latvia and Estonia during the interwar period. Its typefaces, such as Baltika, could be found in almost every Baltic printshop.
The history of Baltic typography between 1918 and 1940 has not yet been systematically documented and remains little known to the wider public. Yet this period is highly significant for the cultural identities of Estonia and Latvia, as typographic choices reflected the self-definition and cultural aspirations of these young states. The exhibition and educational programme will bring this heritage to a broader audience and establish a connection between historical research and contemporary creative practice.