Partner application is open 13 October – 30 November 2025.
We are seeking partners to supplement our art education portfolio, as our art education classes have room for more activities than we can provide on our own. Submit your suggestion and join us in providing group activities for our target groups in summer 2026 or the 2026–2027 school year.
Annantalo is an arts centre for children, young adults and families, right in the Helsinki city centre. In 2027 Annantalo celebrates its 40th anniversary. Our eleven classrooms provide an environment for making art professionally. Annantalo provides art education for groups.
We are seeking partners that share our principles in art education: professionalism, focus on art and children, accessibility, and equality.
You can suggest activities for summer 2026 (weeks 23–29) or the 2026–2027 term (weeks 34–50 and 3–21). Activities may also take place during school holidays, which are in weeks 42 and 8. Classroom attendance limits vary. Currently, our largest classroom accommodates 20 pupils.
For our partners, Annantalo provides:
- An inspirational facility in the arts centre, which is easily accessed by public transport
- Extensive opening hours: During the school year, we are open on Mon–Fri from 8 am to 8 pm, and in summer, on Mon–Fri from 8 am to 5 pm
- The subsidised price to use an art classroom is €20/h (incl. VAT 25.5%).
- Annantalo’s exhibitions, the surrounding yard and other common facilities that support education
- Cafeteria, cleaning and lobby services
- Access to our office, break rooms and changing rooms
- Limited storage space for materials and equipment. Storage may not be located next to your classroom.
Partners will be required to:
- Manage and organize their own activities, such as marketing, enrolment and teaching arrangements, customer relations, staff and financial management.
- Follow the usage instructions and occupancy limits of the classrooms.
- Strive for accessibility and equality in line with the recommendations of the More Accessible Hobbies Label (Saavutettavampi harrastus). See the website of The Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centers in Finnish for more information.
- Have a liability insurance.
- Ensure the qualifications of their art teachers: teachers have a university degree in art or art education or equivalent professional skills.
- Carry out a criminal background check of their art teachers and other personnel who encounter children and young people.
- Comply with an applicable collective agreement.
- Enroll the art teachers of the activities for an orientation session at Annantalo.
Annantalo will select its partners along the following criteria:
- The operators meet the abovementioned principles and requirements.
- The partner’s proposal fits Annantalo’s education portfolio.
- The operator provides arts education content that they must demonstrate a need for in Helsinki, such as in terms of teaching language, arts discipline or particular target group.
Schedule of the call for partners
- 13.10.2025 Call for Partners opens
- 30.11.2025 Call for Partners closes
- 16.1.2026 Applicants will be contacted by
- 19.2.2026 Summer season partner agreements finalized
- 1.3.2026 Descriptions of summer season partners' activities for communication purposes
- 21.3.2026 School year partner agreements finalized
- 1.4.2026 Descriptions of School year partners’ activities for communication purposes
If, for example, you are applying for a grant from foundations for an activity you have proposed to Annantalo, you can attach the letter of intent signed with Annantalo to your application. Please contact us well in advance of the grant application deadline.
We will organise three open events to visit the Annantalo premises and ask questions:
- Tuesday 21.10. at 14–16,
- Thursday 6.11. at 9–11 and
- Monday 17.11. at 17–19.
Just come to the information desk in the entrance hall of the Annantalo.
Please feel free to forward information about the partner search to the target group.
Contacts: Susanna Metsälä, Senior Planning Officer for Arts Education, susanna.metsala(at)hel.fi, +358 (0)40 631 8144
The Autumn Day is intended for teachers at educational institutions providing basic education in architecture, visual arts, crafts, and media arts.
Register by October 28.
The training day is organized in cooperation between the Association of Art Schools and Annantalo. The Autumn Day program has been specially designed to inspire teachers and their teaching work. The day's program includes a visit to the studio of Man Yuan, Young Artist of the Year, in Sörnäinen, a talk by Katri Jurvakainen, a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, on the role of art education in renewing and challenging an unsustainable social system, and the announcement of the 2025 Visual Arts Educator of the Year. In the afternoon, there will be workshops of your choice. The options are: Improvisation workshop, Task as a task / Uppgift som uppgift, The use of domestic red clay in basic art education: successes and pitfalls in a nutshell, Light painting and drawing with light, and Lumen print – images on photographic paper without a camera.
Workshops are selected on the registration form. Be quick! Group sizes are limited and will be filled in order of registration, so please also select a secondary workshop.
The Autumn Day events will be held at Artist Man Yun's studio, Sörnäisten rantatie 33 D, 00540 Helsinki, and Annantalo, Annankatu 30, 00100 Helsinki.
See the Autumn Day program and additional information. The link will take you to the Association's website. The page is available only in Finnish.
Register by October 28. The link will take you to a Webropol form. The form is available only in Finnish.