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Finland has been sometimes called a promised land of voluntary associations and citizen's civic action, in reference to the fact that there are 70 000 registered and operative associations which have about 15 million individual members, or three times the population. About 75% of the population is a member of one association, about 30% belong to one association and 8% belong to more than five associations. The present annual aggregate turnover of the associations and related civic actions has been estimated to be five billion EUR, with public support of 1.6 billion EUR. The associations offer employment to 82 000 employees; of... read more →

Amateur arts and folk culture Table 23 in  chapter 6.2 opens up a preliminary view of the Finnish amateur art scene. This scene is rather lively when the amateur activity is measured in a simple manner, asking whether the respondent pursues certain listed artistic / creative activities. The preferences and level of activity are very much in consonance with the wider scene of Finnish art world. The traditional top three, music (playing a music instrument), visual arts and amateur authorship have high positive rates of 14%, 14% and 13% respectively. Yet they are surpassed in popularity by photography, pursued by... read more →

The Finnish system of basic education in the arts offers extracurricular arts education primarily to children and young people. It is provided in music institutes, art schools for children and youth, dance institutes, arts and crafts schools, circus schools and in many other institutes maintained by local authorities or municipal consortia, registered associations, foundations or private businesses. The network of art education institutes in Finland comprises 88 music institutes and 41 schools in the other arts. The 1992 Act on Basic Arts Education united private and municipal art and music schools into the system of general arts education, which financially... read more →

In 2012, there were 710 Bachelor or Master's level graduates from the three art universities (University of Arts: Sibelius Academy, Theatre Academy, Academy of Fine Arts) and the Aalto University's art and design studies.  The number of graduates from the cultural and media programmes of the polytechnics (applied universities) grew from 420 in 1999 to 2 002 in 2012. The Finnish art universities have adapted well to the grade and credit systems pre-supposed by the Bologna process. In the polytechnics, the majority of the professional degrees correspond to the bachelor-level university degree. Master's level programmes and degrees have been offered... read more →

There are no standard programmes for intercultural education in the curricula of the main Finnish education system. In practice, "internationalisation" means student exchange or transversal introduction of special international themes, courses and teaching material to regular study programmes. University education in general and in the social sciences and humanities (including art universities) in particular is unavoidably international both in terms of content and international contacts. Also, the business schools on all levels and public and private schools alike organise special courses on learning about foreign cultures as part and parcel of modern global business strategies. Art schools, universities and cultural... read more →

The government decides on the allocation of hours between subjects in basic education. The core subjects taught in comprehensive schools are laid down in the Basic Education Act (628/1998). These subjects include physical education, music, visual arts, and arts and crafts over the nine years of basic education, is 56 weekly lessons per year (one weekly lesson means a module of 38 hours of instruction, and 56 weekly lessons per year means that the number of lesson hours dedicated to art and skill subjects is 2 128 over the nine years of basic education). The minimum number of single subjects in... read more →

For the legislative basis of arts and cultural education, see Table 18 in chapter 1.3.1. The institutions of professional education and training are administratively separated from the rest of the cultural and arts administration because they are within the jurisdiction of the Department of Education and Science of the Ministry of Education and Culture (see chapter 1.2.1). These institutions forms a hierarchical structure built upon nine year comprehensive compulsory school and post-compulsory secondary academic or vocational education which have as a dual top of higher education consisting of art universities (N=4) and polytechnics (N=29). The four art universities are Sibelius... read more →

In recent years many cultural institutions have introduced audience education programmes and have increased co-operation between schools, cultural institutions and artists. Some examples are the audience education programme of the National Opera and the composer- in - residence programmes of the Finnish Symphony Orchestras. The extra-curricular general arts education system is, however, the vantage point that provides the basis both for the continued professional training of artists and the creation of competent, interested audiences. See also chapter 5.1 and chapter 5.4 for the description of the system. The opportunities created for children to participate in cultural life - production of... read more →

There are at least five ways to measure and assess participation in cultural life: household expenditure resulting from the purchase of cultural goods and services, level of participation (how often people visit cultural and art institutions and events), pursuit of amateur activity (yes / no), domestic leisure time use, time used for listening to music, reading etc., and audiences / sales / box office figures in terms of how many visitors different cultural and art institutions attract. The problem is, that statistical information is lacking from 2009 onwards. Household consumption of culture Statistics Finland delineates from household consumption survey data... read more →

The Ministry of Education and Culture supports national art associations and cultural organisations with discretionary subsidies. The total amount of these subsidies is approximately 40-45 million EUR, which covers approximately 35% of their operating costs. Furthermore, the state supports associations and organisations indirectly by subsidising events, festivals and exhibitions they organise. Municipalities also support these associations and organisations directly from their own budgets and from the funds transferred by the state to municipalities for non-institutional cultural activities. Some occupations of professional artistic and cultural work, like actors and musicians, have strong unions for collective bargaining.