Last Friday, the Finnish Ministry of Finances published its proposal for next year’s state budget. The Ministry proposes a cut of €65 million to discretionary state subsidies distributed by the Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM).
Of this amount, €50 million is still to be allocated within the ministry’s administrative sectors since OKM’s proposal contained cuts of only €15 million. Negotiations on the allocation of the remaining cuts will take place in the government’s budget session on 3–4 September. In any case, the cultural sector will face cuts of millions of euros, which will have a significant negative impact on the sector.
For example, the visual arts sector will be affected by a proposed cut of €4.75 million in state funding for museums, which would mean a reduction of up to around 9%. Discretionary state subsidies for arts and culture would be cut by €11.4 million. The exact breakdown between the different funding types is not clear from the proposal. This subsection in the state budget includes, among other things, the Arts Promotion Centre’s discretionary grants for projects and arts organisations, community and festival grants of the Ministry of Education and Culture, state funding for cultural exports and international cooperation, and grants for exhibition payments (näyttelypalkkio).
In addition, the compensation for private copying is proposed to be halved to €5.5 million. The cut would represent a severe effect on the grants provided by AVEK, which supports film and media arts with compensation funds, and to the whole audiovisual sector. Cuts are also proposed in the operating expenditure of the Finnish Heritage Agency and the Arts Promotion Centre.
The proposed cuts would inevitably have a devastating impact on the employment of cultural professionals and access to the arts, and would significantly undermine the exports, growth and prosperity generated by the cultural sector. In June, the Finnish Artists’ Association published an impact assessment of the effects of possible cuts on the visual arts sector. A diverse and vibrant arts and culture scene benefits Finland, even in a challenging economic situation. The cuts are also in contradiction with the cultural policy objectives of the government programme.
Visual arts operators will organise a joint march against the cuts on the Night of the Arts on Thursday, 15 August 2024. Read more here.
The government’s proposal for the 2025 state budget, based on the September budget session, will be published on 23 September.