A new board was elected in the meeting of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) at the end of November in Singapore. The Chairmanship is divided between Risto Ruohonen, Special Government Advisor at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Patricia Quinn from Ireland. Risto Ruohonen was previously the Chairman of the Arts Council of Finland and a member of the former board of IFACCA. Patricia Quinn is the Cultural Director of the Arts Council of Ireland, and has previously been the Cultural Director of Temple Bar Properties in Dublin.

IFACCA was established in 2000 to promote the work of arts councils on the behalf of artists, art organisations and communities. It provides an international meeting ground for bodies funding arts and culture nationally and internationally. There are some 80 arts council bodies in the world. The office of IFACCA is in Sydney, Australia in connection with Australia Council Offices. IFACCA organises global meetings every other year.
Roderick, can you begin from here Singapore simultaneously hosted the Second World Summit on the Arts and Culture was held in Singapore attracting 152 members of arts councils and corresponding bodies from 48 different countries. The theme of the meeting was the national support to enhance artistic creativity.

 Hannu Saha

The Government appointed the new members for the National Art Councils and the Arts Council of Finland for the next three-year term starting on 1 January 2004 and ending on 31 December 2006. Director of Folk Art Institute Hannu Saha is the new chairperson of the Arts Council of Finland.

Nine National Art Councils subordinate to the Ministry of Education operate in Finland. In their specific fields, the National Art Councils serve as expert bodies for the Ministry of Education and, for example, award state grants for artists. The Chairs of the new National Art Councils are Jukka-Pekka Laakso, Festival Director (National Council for Cinema); Jukka Parkkinen, author (National Council for Literature); Ilkka-Juhani Takalo-Eskola, Visual Artist (National Council for Visual Arts);  Pekka Saarela, Director of the Continuing Education and Development Centre of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (National Council for Design); Riitta Seppälä, Director (National Council for Theatre); Anna Brunow, Architect (National Council for Architecture); Pekka Nissilä, Musician (National Council for Music); Sanna Pohjonen, Producer, Kiasma Theatre (National Council for Dance) and Asko Mäkelä, Director, the Finnish Museum of Photography (National Council for Photography).

The Arts Council of Finland comprises the Chairs of the National Art Councils and six other members. From the beginning of 2004, the Chair of the Arts Council of Finland will be Hannu Saha, Artistic Director of Kaustinen Folk Arts Centre, the deputy Chair being Riitta Seppälä, Director of the Finnish Theatre Information Centre. Other members include Umayya Abu-Hanna, Author and Journalist; Tuija Leikkonen, Dance Artist; Vivian Lygdbäck, Director of Cultural Affairs; Markku Möttönen, Journalist and Anna Vilkuna, Director of Victor Barsokevitsch Photographic Centre.

Jarmo Malkavaara is the Secretary General of the Arts Council of Finland.

Hannu Saha is a Doctor of Philosophy and a docent/senior lecturer at the University of Tampere. He has worked as Educational Advisor (1980–1985) and Director (1985–2002) of the Folk Music Institute and as the Artistic Director (1997–2002) and Director (2003) of the Folk Arts Centre. He has also served as the Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Tampere (fixed-term professorship) and the Director of the Department of Music Anthropology 2002–2003. As a researcher, he specialises in research on creativity, an example of this being his doctoral dissertation Kansanmusiikin tyyli ja muuntelu on individual variation in folk music.

A composer and musician, Hannu Saha has given kantele performances in more than 20 countries and made more than 30 recordings. He was the Director of the ITE project (2000-2003) that brought contemporary Finnish visual folk art into the limelight.

Saha has been a member of arts councils from the mid 1980s (Provincial Arts Council of Vaasa 1986–1991, Provincial Arts Council of Ostrobothinia, 1998–2000, National Council for Music 1992–1997, 2001–2003). In addition, he has been in numerous positions of trust in culture and arts.

Further information: Jarmo Malkavaara, Secretary General
tel. +358 9 1607 7338, jarmo.malkavaara@minedu.fi

The research unit of the Arts Council of Finland has just published a new statistical report in Facts and Figures -series.

The publication includes information e.g. on the number of intake, as well as students and graduates in the arts training. In addition, it provides figures on the employment of art graduates.

According to these statistics in Finland professional training for the arts is being offered by 79 institutions in 2003. The majority of these (65 %) offer education in audio visual media. The intake of students has increased particularly in the fields of AV media and dance. In other degree programmes, the growth has stabilised or even dropped.  However, the number of applicants to the professional training in the arts and cultural sector is still rising (was about 12 000 applicants a year). For example, compared to the number of student places, there were four times more applicants to than vacant student places in the degree programmes in AV media & fine arts in 2003.

The statistics also show that the unemployment rate is highest among the graduates of AV media and fine arts, 18 %. On the whole, the unemployment proved to be higher among the art graduates than among graduates from other educational sectors. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Labour, 3172 artists were unemployed job-seekers in Finland in April 2003. If the membership in artists' associations is used as a criterion, the unemploy-ment rate of artists is about 18–19 %.

The publication is part of the project which examines the professional training in the arts in Finland. The statistics present data on professional training in the arts at the secondary and polytechnic levels. Because of the lack of specific statistics on the arts, the information has been picked out from statistics in the broader sector of cultural education and partly reclassified in order to clear up the situation particularly in the field of arts.

The publication is bilingual (Finnish/English) and it is available at the Arts Council's net page (www.artscouncil.fi –> publications).

Mikko Niininen:
Tilastotietoa taidealan ammatillisesta koulutuksesta ja työllisyydestä – Statistics on professional training and employment in the arts.
Tilastotiedote – Facts and Figures 1/2003

More information: researcher Paula Karhunen
tel. + 358 9 1607 7202

On behalf of the Art Committee for The New Opera House in Oslo, the National Foundation for Art in Public Buildings hereby invites visual artists and those working within the field of applied art, to submit projects to an open competition connected to the laying of the foundation stone of The New Opera House.

More  information: www.operautsmykking.no

A new publication on Finnish artists working in various fields of art has come out. Unlike former studies focusing on a single branch of artists, the data in Kaija Rensujeff's research was gathered by a post inquiry. The mail questionnaire was sent to a total of 3 795 artists and the response rate was 58 per cent.  The survey results provide us with information about the artists' sources of income (for example, what share of their income comes from artistic work), artists' situation on the labour market, working abroad and the significance of grants.

The objective of the study was to get a versatile and current picture of the situation of Finnish artists in 2000 by mapping elements affecting income formation and the labour market situation. The research covers artists from the following art forms: Cinema, Literature, Visual Arts, Theatre, Music, Crafts & Design, Architecture, Photographic art, Dance, Critique and others (media art, etc.). This research also includes artists working in several art forms (multidisciplinary art).

Kaija RENSUJEFF: The Status of the Artist in Finland. Report on Employment  and Income Formation in Different Fields of Art. English Summary. Nykypaino Oy. Helsinki 2003. ISBN 952-5253-47-3

Contact
Kaija Rensujeff, e-mail address: @minedu.fi
p. +358 (0)9 1607 6977

Grants and Subsidies for cinema projects for children and youth during year 2004. For cost of labour (not production costs), showing and release costs. The projects must be interesting both qualitywise and contentwise.

The applications must be handed in by 15 November  (following Monday's mail stamp is adequate). This grant is available only if the parlament approves the appropriations for it in budget for year 2004. 
Further information: mari.karikoski@minedu.fi

The first theme issue of ARSIS 2003 handles Internationalizing Visual Arts. ARSIS is a quarterly of cultural politics with one issue a year in English. You can order ARSIS from tktinfo@minedu.fi or download a pdf-file from Publications.

1. Public Lending Right Grants for year 2003 have been publicised. For further information contact esa.rantanen@minedu.fi

2. Compensation Grants to Visual Artists for year 2003 have been publicised. For further information contact seppo.kauhanen@minedu.fi

3. Public Lending Right Grants for Music for year 2003 have been publicised. For further information contact marja-leena.petas@minedu.fi

4.  Travel Grants for year 2003, third round (applications before 2 June), have been publicised. For further information contact seppo.kauhanen@minedu.fi

5. Grants for multidiciplinary atrts, media arts and circus art for year 2003, second round (applications before 31 April), have been publicised. For further information contact seppo.kauhanen@minedu.fi


6. Artists Grants for 2004 will be publicised in September (more detailed timetables available later)

We do not give out information of the decisions before dates listed above.

Ms Tanja Karpela (Centre), Bachelor of Social Services, Member of Parliament, has been appointed Minister of Culture and Ms Tuula Haatainen (SDP), Master of Social Science, Member of Parliament, nurse, has been appointed Minister of Education and Science for the newly elected government at the presidential session of the Council of State on Thursday.

At the Ministry of Education, Tanja Karpela, Minister of Culture, will be in charge of matters related to culture, copyright, sports, young people, student aid and the church.
Tuula Haatainen, Minister of Education and Science, will be responsible for matters related to education, training and science.

Risto Ruohonen, who has chaired the Central Arts Council since 1998, will transfer to another post on 1 March 2003. Mr Ruohonen has been appointed Special Government Advisor at the Ministry of Education, where he will work at the Department for Cultural, Sport and Youth Policy as Director of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Division.

The Government has appoint PhD Jarmo Malkavaara as the new chair to the Central Arts Council for the remainder of its present term (untill end of year 2003). Esa Rantanen was appointed the new Secretary General.