Central Arts Council allocates 30,000 euros to Art as Meeting Place project

The Cross-art Collective Piste from Rovaniemi plans to use the special subsidy to finance a project aimed at promoting the inclusion of artists with migrant backgrounds and improving their employment and participation in the local professional artists’ association and network.

As part of the project, peer training events will be organised for artists who have recently settled in Rovaniemi and Lapland. These events will cover the topics of living as an artist in Finland and working as a professional artist. In addition, customers and artists at the “Asiakastupa” residents’ centre in Rovaniemi will carry out community art productions. The project will culminate in summer 2017 with an exhibition at Galleria Napa presenting the project’s documented works, as well as talks by participating artists.

The project is being carried out by the Cross-art Collective Piste, the Multicultural Centre Moninet, the Artists’ Association of Lapland, Arctic Immigrants ry, the City of Rovaniemi, and Kauppatorin asukastupa in Rovaniemi.

“The Central Arts Council wanted to allocate the available development funds to promote interaction between artists in Finland and artists arriving in Finland. In today’s Finland we need a common dialogue, and art can help bring to light stories related to the fundamental questions of humanity,” says Tiina Rosenberg, Chair of the Central Arts Council.

The Central Arts Council received 28 applications for the special state subsidy.

Each year the Central Arts Council makes decisions regarding special subsidies to support new ways of participating in the social debate by means of the arts. The Central Arts Council decides the theme and recipient of the development funds on an annual basis. In 2015 the development funds were awarded to the Visible Climate Change campaign.

Further information: Minna Sirnö, Director, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, t. +358 295 330 719, [email protected]