Helsinki Art Institutions for Equality

With a backdrop of deepening inequality and the rise of nationalism in the political landscape,  art institutions worldwide are now pressured to embody and defend the values they speak for in their programming. Major Helsinki art institutions have responded to this moment by coming together to build strategies for ensuring diversity, anti-racism, gender equality, sustainability and labor rights in their practices. Through this joint effort the participating institutions share knowledge, tighten their networks and commit to building long term road maps for equality, decolonization and sustainability in their organizational practices.  

The participating institutions have agreed to articulate strategies on this platform that function as working papers for their future development. The strategies grow from the structures and needs of each organization, and show a spectrum of approaches and levels of detail. Realistic paradox and complexity is welcomed by including open questions and reflecting different starting points and foregrounding ethical issues embedded in the practices of art making and curation. Although these questions don’t have easy answers,  collectively addressing them has become essential.

Participating institutions Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Goethe-Institut Finnland, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, Helsinki Art Museum HAM, IHME Contemporary Art Festival, Kone Foundation, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art / National Gallery, Upeart and PUBLICS publish their strategies on this platform jointly 14.5.2018 in accordance with the anti-racist event #StopHateredNow

Gallery Huuto, Helsinki Festival, Photographic Artists’ Association / Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Dance House Helsinki, Cupore and Zodiak – Center for New Dance will publish their work on a later date.

 

Helsinki Art Institutions for Equality calls for other art and culture institutions to join the challenge.