Statement on the development of Arts Council of Finland

The Finnish Media Art Network made a statement on the Government's plan to replace the Arts Council of Finland with a Centre for the Promotion of the Arts. The network joined the general opinion of Finnish art operators in recommending, that the Arts Council continues its operations within the current model of a wider base of committees and expertise.

A key proposal in the plan was to form a new committee for visual arts, including the fields of film, visual art, photography, media art and comics. The network especially expressed its concerns on how the planned new committee would secure expertise on relatively new fields such as media art. In the worst case, decision-making would be centralized in the hands of a few officials, which presents big risks compared to the Council's current model of peer-based evaluation and arms-length policy.