Arts and culture are a central part of people’s lives, an irreplaceable way to piece together ourselves and the surrounding world, and a driving force that promotes a sense of community, dialogue and criticality. Arts and culture are significant also in terms of their benefits on people’s wellbeing and the national economy.
However, the level of state funding that secures the vitality and freedom of arts and culture is lagging behind. At the moment, the arts and culture sector accounts for 0.8% of the state budget, even though its share of gross domestic product, employment and consumption is 3–5%.
That is why we demand that the arts and culture budget is increased to 1 per cent in the state budget! In the government formation talks in spring 2019, the share allocated for arts and culture should be increased to 1 per cent in chapter 29.80 of the state budget during the 2019–2023 electoral term. This increase would translate to additional investments of about 110 million euros compared to the 2019 budget.
We also challenge all organisations in the arts and culture sector as well as individuals who understand the value of culture to participate in our social media campaign, share the campaign picture with the slogan “Increase the culture budget to 1 per cent” and describe the reasons for wanting to allocate more resources to the arts and culture. You can also use the hashtag #ifiwerethecultureminister to state how you would allocate additional resources if you had control over the use of a bigger culture budget.
You can find the pictures (unfortunately only in Finnish and Swedish) on the campaign’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/Kulttuuribudjettiprosenttiin, or you can download them on the page Osallistu! You can also sign the initiative on increasing the culture budget to 1 per cent either as an individual or on your organisation’s behalf by filling in the form on the page Osallistu!
The “Increase the culture budget to 1 per cent” campaign is coordinated by the University of the Arts Student Union and the Central Organization for Finnish Culture and Arts Associations KULTA. The goal of increasing the arts and culture budget to 1 per cent of the state budget has received wide support, and the list of the organisations and individuals who have signed the initiative can be found on the page Ketkä?