Access to Arts and Culture for All programme encourages cross-sectoral cooperation

Tanja Karpela, Minister of Culture, Finland

A Ministry of Education committee looking into accessibility in the art and culture field published its report towards the end of 2005. The report paints a vision of an ideal society where all people have equal opportunities to enjoy arts and culture and to express their own creativity.

In the vision, art and cultural services are accessible to different publics both physically and terms of content. In this society, cultural service providers are aware of the different ways in which art consumers move, act, use their senses and process information, and arrange their services accordingly.

In fact, what is needed to improve access to culture is largely information, attitudes and facility for adopting new procedures. The necessary measures are often fairly simple and do not necessarily require overwhelming economic input. What is important is to work in cooperation with different organisations and interest groups. In addition, it requires the commitment of the cultural administration and their economic input into removing obstacles to participation.

Accessibility increasingly important

In recent years the accessibility of arts and culture has become an increasingly important priority in cultural policy, and it is also recorded in the Government Programme.

In the Ministry of Education, the work has progressed through three stages: the first step was taken in 2002, when the accessibility committee reviewed the opportunities for special-needs groups to participate in culture and the action taken by the administration to facilitate access in Finland.

A longer stride was taken in autumn 2004, when the accessibility committee published its proposals for an action programme. At that point, the project moved on from theory to practice: practical guidelines and tools were compiled into one document with a view to helping art and cultural institutions to make their services more accessible. The same autumn saw the opening of a Culture for All web service coordinated by the Finnish National Gallery's Art Museum Development Department.

Launch of Access to Arts and Culture programme

Now we have reached the third phase. The Ministry of Education has published its Access to Arts and Culture for All programme, outlining its measures for a five-year period 2006 - 2010. By devising this action programme, we want to affirm our commitment to a matter we consider extremely important.

The programme contains measures to be taken by the Ministry's Department for Cultural, Sport and Youth Policy and the administration subordinate to it and matters which the Ministry of Education can influence by means of performance management, resource allocation and information-based guidance.

The programme is based on the Ministry's immigrant policy and the Ministry's equality plan, as well as the report of the accessibility committee. In the programme, the accessibility viewpoint has been enlarged to include not only those with disabilities, but also other minorities and special groups, such as immigrants, cultural and language minorities, and the elderly.

Additional funding needed - extra resources for 2006 already granted

The programme lists measures which the Ministry seeks to put into practice by 2010. Some of them can be implemented through reallocation of resources, while others require a rise in the Ministry's appropriations. We have estimated that the programme will require additional funding of some 1.7 million euros by 2010.

This is naturally a rough estimate at this point, but it is fairly realistic and achievable. A recent decision by Parliament to transfer statutory library grants from lottery funding to budgetary funding will give more latitude for investing in major priorities, such as children's culture, regional cultural provision, cultural export, and especially access to arts and culture.

We have managed to get extra funding already for this year. Celia - Library for the Visually Impaired received an additional appropriation of 200,000 euros for accelerating the digitisation of talking books. The Ministry of Education has also granted extra resources to disability organisations for their cultural activities and accessibility projects; for the digitisation of cultural heritage; and to the Culture for All web service.

Cultural institutions encouraged to make accessibility plans

The Access to Arts and Culture for All programme has got off to a good start in other respects as well. The Ministry is paying special attention to the accessibility of services in the currently ongoing performance discussions with the art and cultural institutions and with the Arts Council of Finland. It is to be hoped that each institution will review accessibility, make a relevant plan and appoint a person responsible for access.

Some cultural institutions have already taken their first steps in this direction. Good examples are the Culture for All service attached to the National Gallery, which has appointed a minority culture coordinator, and the National Board of Antiquities, which started to draft its accessibility plan last autumn.

Another important matter this year will be to appoint the Arts Council of Finland and the national art councils for the next three-year term 2007- 2009. In this context, special care must be taken to ensure sufficient expertise in accessibility.

Our intention is to grant an appropriation in 2007 to the Arts Council to be allocated to projects which are based on cooperation between the mainstream and minority cultures and those which improve the opportunities of disabled to gain artistic merits. The decision on the amount of this appropriation will be made when the allocation plan for lottery funds is made towards the end of this year.

Sign-language culture is a particular focus area for the Ministry of Education. We have allocated a special discretionary grant to Teatteri Totti. The aim is to enable it to operate as a high-standard sign-language theatre and to stage a sufficient number of productions and performances annually both in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and elsewhere in the country.

A few weeks ago we launched a study in cooperation with the Finnish Association of the Deaf to find an operational model for a sign-language library and to outline its role as a producer of sign-language materials.

Change of attitudes and cross-sectoral cooperation needed

All these are important measures, but we do well to bear in mind that the accessibility of arts and culture cannot be improved by the Ministry's action alone. Progress in this matter entails that the art and cultural institutions and the regional and local art administrations scrutinise their own practices from the accessibility point of view. Above all, we need a change of attitudes and cross-sectoral cooperation.

The Finnish Design for All network has been doing important work in disseminating information about user-friendly practices, accessibility and availability for several years. The network is in fact one of the key partners mentioned in the Ministry's Access to Arts and Culture for All action programme.

I hope that the Forum held today will create contacts which will lead to new kind of cooperation between different sectors. I also look forward to possible new openings towards the Ministry of Education.

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Tanja Karpela's personal details: http://www.valtioneuvosto.fi/hallitus/jasenet/kulttuuriministeri/henkilotiedot/en.jsp

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