Application for the Art Testers Programme for the 2025–26 Academic Year

The Art Testers cultural education programme is once again seeking professionally produced, impressive, surprising, unusual, wonderful, fun, and thought-provoking art experiences for young people. Applications for arts practitioners to participate in the Art Testers programme for the 2025–2026 academic year will be open from 7th to 21st November 2024 in the electronic application service of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

The application is open to both performing and visual arts. In addition to the artistic content, the proposal should also include audience engagement work aimed at the target age group. The selection process will emphasise both artistic quality and the effectiveness and suitability of the audience engagement for eighth-grade students.

Application Information on Teams

We will hold an information session about the Art Testers programme on Teams in both Finnish and Swedish.

Finnish information: 28th October 2024, 14:00–14:30: Get in
Swedish information: 28th October 2024, 15:00–15:30: Get in

No prior registration is required to attend the information sessions. These sessions are open to all interested parties. The events will be recorded, and the recordings will be published on the Art Testers YouTube channel.

Ordinary is Not Enough

The Art Testers programme offers eighth-grade students an unforgettable art experience that can inspire a lifelong engagement with culture. How young people are received and looked after during their visit is crucial.

A standard museum tour, concert, or theatre performance is not sufficient; arts practitioners are expected to provide hospitality and thoughtfully planned audience engagement activities.

Audience Engagement

In addition to the artistic content, the proposal should include audience engagement activities tailored for young people, which prepare them for the art experience and provide tools for processing their experience and forming informed opinions about it. It is important to remember that the world of art can be quite unfamiliar to many secondary school students and their teachers. Therefore, the audience engagement should be pitched at an appropriate level for beginners and take into account that teachers may not be experts in the artistic content either.

Further information on planning audience engagement can be found here( (in Finnish).

Please note that materials prepared by selected arts practitioners for school groups must be produced and published no later than 1.5 months before the first Art Testers visit related to the specific art experience.

Evaluation

After the art visit, young people will be asked to evaluate their art experience using the Art Testers evaluation app. The results will be published on the Art Testers website. Arts practitioners can use the evaluation to develop their operations and content aimed at young people.

Capacity

Each event must accommodate at least one class of students. The organisation must be able to receive a significant number of eighth-grade students, that is, hundreds or even thousands of schoolchildren during an academic year. Visits should be arranged on school days and during daylight hours.

Legal Form of the Organisation

The organisation must be legally capable. Eligible applicants include registered associations and foundations, as well as municipal and state art institutions. Individual persons and working groups cannot participate in the application.

Cost Responsibilities

For the selected practitioners in the Art Testers programme, entrance tickets will be purchased based on the actual number of visitors. The preliminary amount will be negotiated with the selected organisations before the contract is drawn up.

Events must take place during school days and within the 2025–26 academic year. The prices for entrance tickets are as follows:

– Art museums, films, and other visual arts: €12 per ticket
– Concerts, theatres, and other performing arts: €18 per ticket
– Operas and similar large productions: €24 per ticket

The prices above include any applicable VAT.

Arrangements

Practical arrangements, such as scheduling visits and transporting schoolchildren, are managed by the Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centres. The arts practitioner is independently responsible for the planning and execution of the artistic content and audience engagement. Art Testers coordinators will assist arts practitioners in planning audience engagement and communicating with schools. For more information, see the guide “This is How It Works”!