Photo: Emma Suominen
How can Frame better serve both as a supporter of international collaborations and as an information centre if resources for both are diminishing? In his blog text, Frame’s CEO Juha Huuskonen writes about Frame’s role and mission now and in the future.
I started as Director of Frame just over six months ago, in August 2024. During this time, we have had good discussions with the Board and staff about Frame’s role and mission now and in the future. Frame has two main tasks: to promote international cooperation and to act as an information centre for the visual art sector. How can Frame best contribute to both of these tasks?
Distributing grants is a very concrete way of promoting international exchange. I act as the chair in the Frame Grant Committee meetings, and in this role, it has been inspiring to read the applications we receive. The applications are mostly of high quality and well-founded, and there are great opportunities for artists to have their work presented around the world. Compared to this, the amount of state subsidy allocated to Frame from the Ministry of Education and Culture for grants seems disproportionately small, as many excellent projects end up being declined funding.
Frame’s biggest international project is the Finnish Pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Although the exhibition takes place every two years, the production is ongoing practically all the time. Our main focus is currently on the 2026 Biennale, but the search for partners for 2028 will start soon. Jenna Sutela, the artist for the upcoming Venice Biennale, was selected through an open call. Frame’s Board of Directors has decided that, in principle, an open call for the Finnish Pavilion will be held for every other edition, and for every other edition the artist will be selected by invitation. The main partner of the 2026 exhibition is the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture, and Jenna Sutela’s exhibition will also be shown in Oulu later on. Frame is also working closely with Kiasma, which will produce the exhibition for the Nordic Pavilion.
This blog is a platform for reflecting work, current issues and discussions in arts by Frame staff members and other contributors. This blog post is published in English.The tasks of the information centres include collecting statistics and other relevant information on their respective art field, liaising with the authorities and making statements on the sector, bringing actors together and encouraging discussion on issues relevant to the sector. Under normal circumstances, Frame’s main resources have been devoted to promoting international cooperation, with a lesser role as an information centre. However, we are not in a normal situation, but in the midst of great turbulence. Important ongoing processes for the cultural sector are the Cultural Policy Report and the Ministry of Education and Culture’s agency reform, which have been accompanied by significant cuts in cultural funding. There is a lot of uncertainty and small arts organisations in particular are currently in a vulnerable position. We have therefore devoted more resources in recent months to monitoring and communicating these processes.
How can Frame better serve both as a supporter of international collaborations and as an information centre if resources for both are diminishing? One answer is more active cooperation. Instead of Frame trying to do everything itself, we can rely on cooperation with other organisations, and hopefully strengthen the Finnish visual arts scene in the process. New collaborations are already underway. Frame is working more closely with the Helsinki Biennial, and we will continue to organise study trips in cooperation with the Finnish Cultural Foundation. It is more difficult to share the responsibilities of the information centre, but at least we can work towards even tighter cohesion and joint efforts in development and advocacy in the future.
It is clear that increased cooperation must go hand in hand with the development of the economy and funding of the visual arts sector. In terms of public funding, the visual arts are still clearly underfunded – the sector receives for only about 1% of state cultural funding. Private funding is very likely to play an increasingly important role in the future. In this context, Futuarts will carry out a study on the visual arts market commissioned by Frame in the spring, and the Artists’ Association of Finland is also currently exploring the role of private supporters. In Finland, a plan to allow donations for arts and culture to be tax deductible is one important step in the development of private funding for the arts. Frame has also been appointed as a member of the Advisory Board for Creative Economy, which promotes international operations and economic growth in the creative industries.
Despite the challenges, I am optimistic about the future. A recent plenary session in the Finnish Parliament saw dozens of MPs highlighting the importance of arts and culture and their positive impact. This gives me confidence that there will continue to be a belief in this country that the relatively small investment in culture will pay off many times over. Fortunately, this is not just a matter of faith; there is also a great deal of data on the subject.
– Juha Huuskonen, CEO
This blog is a platform for reflecting work, current issues and discussions in arts by Frame staff members and other contributors. This blog post is published in Finnish and English.