finnish cultural foundation
7
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2013–2014
A
n excellent historical overview of
the Finnish Cultural Foundation
celebrating its 75th anniversary
in 2014 is provided by
Teemu Keskisarja
in his recent book Suuri tammi (The Great
Oak). The histories of organisations often
make very dull reading, but the same
cannot be said of this lively, informative
account.
THE
reader of Keskisarja’s book is left
in no doubt of the changing nature of
the Foundation’s activities in the course
of seven-and-a-half decades. And this is
how it should be. It would be terrible if
an organisation such as this continued,
blinkered, along the same single track,
making no allowances for changes in
society and the needs of each particular
era.
ONE
of the basic missions of the Finnish
Cultural Foundation is to award grants.
Up to the middle of last decade, the total
awarded in grants rapidly multiplied.
The sum has since been augmented very
moderately, and instead, further funding
has been aimed at the most varied of
cultural initiatives. Although not all the
projects have yielded the hoped-for results,
the majority have, and some extremely
well. The All Finland Plays project is once
again a departure into a new domain.
THE
demand for grants has not abated;
every year the Cultural Foundation
receives more and more applications at
the end of October. The selection criteria
are stringent: only about 10 per cent of
the applicants are successful. Only few of
the organisations awarding grants have
such a low percentage. Since the grant
committees consist of top experts and
the chances of success are so small, there
is no doubt that grants very seldom go to
any but extremely good projects. And if
there were never any that misfired, the
SITTING
on the Cultural Foundation
Board is a privilege. What could be more
rewarding than a chance to discuss and
decide on important matters in the
company of persons wiser than oneself?
The fact that people who have excelled in
the arts and science regularly meet round
the same table to address such matters
together with representatives of finance
and administration is unique.
UNDER
the reform of the statutes carried
out in 2012 the tasks and administration
of the Foundation and the Patrons’
Association were reorganized. The idea
that mainly the same people should sit
on the administrative organs of both the
Patrons’ Association and the Foundation
no longer seemed natural. Since the split,
the Patrons’ Association has become more
active thanks to its new Board. Great
potential exists in an Association with
around 2,000 members.
I
have served on the Board of a number
of major cultural communities and it has
been interesting to observe that each
has its own way of working. The Finnish
Cultural Foundation is characterized
by processes and practices honed to
perfection over the decades.
IT
is uplifting to be able to resign from the
administration of a community when it is
in fine spiritual and financial fettle. Which
the Finnish Cultural Foundation is. I have
no doubt at all that the last quarter of its
first century will continue to be a success
story.
Timo Viherkenttä
Chairman of the Board
grant policy could be deemed too cautious.
THERE
is no absolute truth about how
the grants should be allocated to different
fields, trends, or applicants at different
stages in their careers. New solutions
to this have been developed, such as the
foundations’ joint professor and post doc
pools, in which the Cultural Foundation
has played a central role.
IN
its own grant policy, the Foundation
has been slightly handicapped by its size.
Cultural Foundation grants have in practice
become part of the basic funding of some
fields of the arts, and some sciences. Aware
of this responsibility, the Foundation is
reluctant to change course quickly.
THE
Cultural Foundation is not, however,
a big ship unable to set a new course. Its
inventive and repeatedly ground-breaking
projects have proved this. There may in
the future be cause for greater leeway in
its grant policy. It has, for example, been
the custom to alter the relative funding of
different branches of the arts and science
with great caution, mainly depending on
the pressure of applications. Would the
bolder weighting of certain fields be an
arbitrary move or, after all, true vision?
MEMBERS
of the Cultural Foundation
Board may serve for a maximum of three
three-year terms. This ensures a certain
turnover in Boardmembership. I have now
served the maximum nine years.
Even a big ship can be easy to steer
Timo Viherkenttä looks back over his nine-year term on the Board of the Finnish
Cultural Foundation and sees a suitable mix of change and tradition.
"It's unique that
people from various
fields meet round
the same table."
