Art Testers
In its largest support project in the history of Suomen Kulttuurirahasto (Finnish Cultural Foundation) offers three age groups of eight graders, a total of 180 000 youths and their instructors an opportunity to visit two pre-agreed cultural locations: opera, theater, consert, art exhibition etc. Svenska kulturfonden (Swedish Cultural Foundation) participates in the funding of this bilingual project as well. The project is co-ordinated by Suomen lastenkulttuurikeskusten liitto (Finnish children’s cultural centers association). The project is part of Finlands hundred years of independence program.
The goal of the project is to get finnish youths to experience art. Students will be informed in advance about the exhibitions, artists and art forms. After having experienced art the youths can have conversations not only between each other but with artists and compare and evaluate their experiences in social media. Channels are open for youths thoughts, insights, feelings and opinions.
The project will be implemented with finnish children’s cultural centers association, who is responsible for co-ordination, arranging transportation and administration. Each 8. grade class will be offered a chance for two pre-agreed visits. One will be in their own municipality or nearby municipalities and the other will be to Helsinki or somewhere else in Finland. Finnish Cultural Foundation will pay for both the trips and the tickets.
Schools will receive a letter about the project in spring 2017 and can register as art tester after that. Art institutions can apply for the project first time 2.5.-10.6.2016. Art establishments for the years 2017 and 2018 will be selected in early autumn 2016.
The art facilities included in the project from South Karelia are Lappeenrannan citytheater and Lappeenrannan artmuseum.
For more inquiries you can ask the South Karelia’s regional co-ordinator Anni-Stiina Hujala (etela-karjala@taidetestaajat.fi) by e-mail, by telephone 040 502 7597 or come visit. Anni-Stiina’s office is located in South Karelia Children’s Cultural Metku office at Snellmaninkatu 2, 53100 Lappeenranta.
