Taike’s commitment to promoting non-discrimination
We recognise the need to consult more openly with actors within the fields of the arts and culture in order to promote non-discrimination and artistic diversity. To ensure a more open dialogue, we develop our own expertise through networking and maintaining an ongoing discussion with actors in the arts and culture sector.
Promoting equality is a key part of our ongoing vision work. We identify discriminatory structures within the fields of the arts and culture and are committed to dismantling them in our work and to actively promoting non-discrimination and diversity as a fundamental principle that is applied across all areas of our operations.
Non-discrimination in Taike’s core operations
Taike grants for individuals and subsidies for communities are intended for all professional artists and communities in the arts, regardless of their background.
In addition, we award grants for promoting cultural diversity to individual artists. The purpose of these grants is to enhance the opportunities of artists with immigrant backgrounds or who belong to other cultural minorities to carry out artistic activities and to participate in Finnish art life on an equal basis. These grants also support art and cultural projects in Finland that promote cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue and combat racism.
We also award subsidies for promoting cultural diversity and combating racism to communities. These subsidies are intended to support the artistic activities and cultural projects of immigrants and cultural minorities, to support activities and projects that combat racism, and to promote interaction between cultural minorities and the general population. We also award subsidies to special groups, such as subsidies for promoting the cultural activities of disability communities.
Members of the arts councils that decide on individual grants are selected on the basis of hundreds of proposals received from actors within the arts and culture sector. Taike and the Central Arts Council ensure that the members of these arts committees have expertise in cultural and linguistic diversity. In 2018, six percent of Taike’s grant applicants and five percent of grant recipients were foreign speakers.
When arts communities apply for operational subsidies, we assess the quality of their operations by asking how gender equality, fairness (non-discrimination) and occupational wellbeing are implemented. We also require that communities comply with the Act on Equality between Women and Men and the Non-discrimination Act.
This year, a total of 795,000 euros has been awarded in the form of subsidies and grants for promoting cultural diversity and combating racism to 53 communities and 33 artists or artist groups.
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Taike as a non-discriminatory employer
Non-discrimination and equality are also embedded in the goals and structures of Taike’s organisation. Our current statutory equality and non-discrimination plan is valid until the end of 2020. The plan is updated annually. According to the plan, Taike considers diversity an enriching factor that strengthens the work community. A non-discriminatory and equal work community is the right and duty of all its members. The Arts Promotion Centre Finland does not condone any form of inappropriate treatment, discrimination or harassment.
In 2018, we participated in the Avaus project, which examined our readiness to recruit foreign artists. In addition, job shadowing observations examined how we implement cultural diversity. We continue to look for new ways to internalise non-discrimination work as an everyday development approach.
One example of this is Taike’s non-discrimination club, which is a self-directed critical voice within Taike made up of our employees. The club serves as a platform for discussing Taike’s non-discrimination structures, sparring with our colleagues and making development proposals related to non-discrimination and accessibility to Taike’s management.
Diversity and minorities are also taken into account in Taike's recruitment activities. Taike’s regional artists currently include a regional artist for Sámi culture, a regional artist for urban Sámi, a regional artist for outsider art, and a regional artist for cultural diversity who is an expert in Romani culture.
Development needs
We recognise development needs in our own operations. Taike's operations are based on openness and trust. In line with our values, we strive to further develop Taike's operations to be clear, transparent and non-discriminatory.
We are increasing dialogue with the broad field of the arts in order to increase diversity and promote the hearing of all voices. We are improving the accessibility of our communications by increasing translation work and by participating in the preparation and implementation of the Government’s new state aid system. The future system will be more accessible and smoother, while also enabling the use of three languages. We also recognise the need to increase diversity and the specific expertise of special teams when evaluating grant and subsidy applications, for example.
Our goal is to identify marginalised groups in the fields of the arts and culture, as well as their needs, and to create operating models for including them in the art sector. We are learning to see the barriers to identifying and recognising the merits of individual artists in order to better take into account the diversity of professionalism. When hiring staff, Taike could use, for example, anonymous recruitment in the future.
We are aware of the long-term nature of combatting racism and discrimination. We still have a lot of work to do. Our goal is for our anti-racist approach to cover all aspects of our operations.
Contact us
We want to encourage actors in the fields of the arts and culture to engage in open dialogue with us. Please feel free to contact us regarding any issues related to non-discrimination and equality: Director Paula Tuovinen, tel. +358 40 5838549.