Tanssistudio Jami received a grant from South Karelia Fund in 2020. Photo: Jani Kautto
The regional funds of the Finnish Cultural Foundation will provide EUR 15 million in grants for arts and academic disciplines this spring. On 15 March the foundation’s board decided to increase the sum by EUR 2 million from the original EUR 13 million. The additional funding will be handed out as full- and half-year grants to freelance artists.
The number of grant applications related to the arts grew significantly in the Foundation’s January round. The total number of applications received was 10,239 (compared to 9,549 last year), of which 7,539 related to the arts, i.e. 13% more than in the 2020 January round of applications. The biggest rise in the number of arts applications was in Uusimaa, with an increase of 600 applications or 30%. In Southwest Finland, the increase was 24 % and in Pirkanmaa, 21%.
Because the additional funding is directed specifically at full-year and half-year grants intended for giving artists peaceful time to work, applicants will not be prevented from receiving it if they have previously been granted short-term crisis grants by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, for example. The EUR 2 million will be distributed to the regional funds in proportion to the increases in number of arts applications. In practice, this means an increase of 50 full-year or 100 half-year grants for Uusimaa, for example.
– The world of culture continues to be punished by the coronavirus and freelancers are facing great difficulties. By directing our support specifically towards long-term academic and artistic work, we are supplementing other forms of funding that are available, explains the foundation’s chairman, Jari Sokka.
The January applications are currently being processed and applicants will mostly be informed of decisions during April.
Taking into account this new round, the Cultural Foundation will have provided EUR 4.5 million of extra funding for the arts due to the Covid-19 crisis. In spring 2020, EUR 0.5 million was distributed in additional grants via the regional funds, and the same amount as part of an additional funding package supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture and other foundations. In December 2020, the Cultural Foundation also granted EUR 1.5 million to non-institutional artistic communities. Overall, the Cultural Foundation’s support to the arts and academic disciplines in the ongoing financial period will total approximately EUR 50 million.
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