For teachers

We invite all Finnish 8th graders to join the Art Testers! The Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centres will organise an art visit to all school classes that sign up to become Art Testers. The participants will be offered free entry tickets and transportation, as well as the materials for pre- and post-visit work (etkot and jatkot). With the materials, the students and the teachers can find information about the event, the art form in question and the individual artists behind the work. The pre- and post-visit materials will be published through the Art Testers web service about a month before the visit.

After the visit, the students can give an opinion on their experience through our browser-based review app created for the Art Testers program. The reviews given by the participants will be public to all viewers on the Art Testers’ web page.

The program matches well with the objectives of the new national curriculum by, for instance, supporting phenomenon-based learning and incorporating the outlines of cultural education into teaching. Moreover, Art Testers encourages the school subjects collaborate, and promotes broad development of the students’ skills. The participating cultural institutions are required to conduct youth-oriented audience development work that will offer 8th graders new experiences.

How to Sign Up

School art visits and travels will be tailored based on the information given by the school representatives at the sign-up phase. The schools that have participated previously will need to sign up for the next school year as well.

To be able to sign up classes for the new season, the school contact person needs to sign in to the Art Testers web service using his or her own username and password. The contact person shall add the details of the classes and their respective supervisors into the system and make sure that every supervising teacher fills in the information about their class during the sign-up period.

More specific instructions for sign-up are sent at the beginning of the sign-up period to the contact teachers of the schools by email.

Preparing for the Visit

Please find all the up-to-date details on your visit and transportation on the Art Testers system. Log in by clicking the link below. If you have forgotten your password, you can order a new one on the log in page.

Log in

Please download and read the Teacher’s Guide (in Finnish) – it will not take long to go through it but will be super useful. The guide will help you and your students to take the most out of your free art visit. Your role as a teacher is crucial for making the art experience successful!

The printable Art Testers Etiquette poster covers all the advice for how to prepare for the visit, how to conduct oneself there, and how to review your art experience: The Art Testers Etiquette (in Finnish).

Please have a look at the Art Testers <3 OPS poster (in Finnish) too: it will help you to plan how to connect the art experience with practically any school subject, with the emphasis on the students’ transversal competences.

Watch this video trailer (1:40 min) together with your class: youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4RufI5ReA (in English / no language). The video presents all the different art forms featured in the Art Testers program – can you spot six?

Development

With the help of development schools, cooperation between the Art Testers production team, schools, and art operators is supported with a future-oriented approach, and best practices are shared between all parties. The core expertise lies with an expert team made up of teachers and possibly principals, working together with Art Testers coordinators and various art operators.

From the development schools, student and teacher panels are formed to participate in the selection of art experiences chosen for the Art Testers. The development school team contributes ideas and feedback on the teaching materials created for the Art Testers program and provides valuable insights to the Art Testers team. The schools offer essential information about school life, the Art Testers visits from the school’s perspective, pedagogical materials, and other practices related to the visits.

If you are interested in the development activities of Art Testers or wish to provide feedback or development suggestions, feel free to contact us at info@taidetestaajat.fi.

Participating development schools for the 2024-2025 school year

Haukiputaan koulu, Oulu
Hetan koulu, Enontekiö
Jämsänkosken yhtenäiskoulu, Jämsä
Kastellin koulu, Oulu
Luolavuoren koulu, Turku
Paanan koulu, Jokioinen
Toivolanrannan yhtenäiskoulu, Seinäjoki
Utsjokisuun koulu, Utsjoki
Vaasan kristillinen koulu, Vaasa
Waltterin koulu, Varkaus