Advocacy

Visual arts field in Finland

The Finnish visual arts field is broad: we have nearly 70 art museums, over 120 art galleries and 40 visual art events or festivals all over Finland.

Visual art is very popular among the audience: over 5 million visits are made to visual arts exhibitions and events annually (Frame 2023). The Finnish visual arts sector employs a large number of creative professionals: artists, curators, as well as art professionals and audience personnel in galleries, art museums, artist associations and other visual arts organisations.

The main actors in the Finnish visual arts field are art museums, galleries and third-sector art organisations. They are key actors in presenting and selling visual art to audiences.

Structural development

Studies by the Cultural Policy Research Centre Cupore show that public funding for the visual arts in Finland is low compared to other art forms. (Cupore 2023). The public funding for visual arts is only 1 % (15,6 MEUR) of total state funding for arts and culture. Even when including art museums, the visual arts funding forms less than 4 % of the state culture budget.

This funding gap challenges the development of the field and art market, creating jobs, and international art export. Between the different art fields, the income of visual artists is the lowest.

Investing in Finnish visual art

Our aim is to strengthen the public funding and thus the visual arts field in Finland. The additional funding would support the creating of high-quality visual art, strengthen the audience’s access to visual art regionally and support employment in the sector. It would also enable investments in art sales, marketing and digital operations in the visual arts.

Strengthening the visual arts organisations

According to recent studies, public funding for visual arts organisations, such as galleries and art associations, is lower that other art forms. (Cupore 2023). Increasing organisational funding would create job opportunities for visual arts professionals and bring art regionally more available for audiences. Investments in art sales, marketing and digitalisation would create also commercial opportunities for the visual arts sector.

Supporting international activities of contemporary art

The Finnish contemporary art is of high-quality and has gained strong international interest. Supporting international activities promotes the visibility of Finnish contemporary art as well as sales and work opportunities for artists abroad. The international operations of Finnish contemporary art should be promoted by supporting organisations involved in international exhibitions, art fairs and networking opportunities. Increasing the support for artists’ residency activities and the mobility of contemporary art professionals in Finland and abroad is equally important.

Additional materials

Joint cultural policy objectives for 2023–2027 by Frame, Artists’ Association of Finland and Kuvasto – Copyright society for artists.