For art and education professionals

Current news for professionals 

Call for partners 2026-2027: Annantalo Arts Centre is seeking again partners to supplement its art education portfolio

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 our 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.  

Arts education partner application is open during 13 October –30 November 2025. During the application period, you will find a link to the Webropol application form here.


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


Developing together – Annantalo as an expertise centre 

We want to develop children's culture and arts education with arts, arts education and arts training professionals. 

Annantalo is being developed into an expertise centre for children's culture in Helsinki. Annantalo's expertise centre involves operations between arts professionals to support and develop arts and art pedagogy for children and young people. It involves professional meetings, peer training, networking, knowledge production and knowledge sharing. It is a multidisciplinary platform, the activities of which mainly take place in Annantalo. The idea of the operations is to share expertise between actors of children's and young people's arts and in the field of art pedagogy.  

The activities of the Annantalo expertise centre include:  

  • Children's culture service network survey  
  • Maintenance of the Kultus.hel.fi website 
  • Knowledge production and knowledge sharing 
  • Joint meetings of arts and education professionals 
  • Membership of children's and young people's arts and art pedagogy networks and organisations  


Helsinki Cultural Education Plan 

In Helsinki, the Cultural Education Plan is used as a common tool between early childhood education, basic education, upper secondary education, and cultural and artistic actors, the implementation of which is promoted through networks and various measures. 

Learn more about the Cultural Education Plan. The link will take you to the Helsinki Learns website. 


Kultus.hel.fi event search

The Kultus.hel.fi online service is intended for teachers and early childhood educators, and it brings together the learning subjects of culture, arts and sport in one place.   

The online service offers tours, workshops, performances and exhibitions suitable for daycare and school groups, as well as upper secondary school students, from different areas in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Kultus also provides information about events aimed at teachers. The service allows you to browse and register for events.   

There are also educational materials and assignment packages that support cultural education, and they are freely available to all educators.   

Kultus has its own newsletter, which contains excerpts from the contents of Kultus and other topical issues in cultural education. Subscribe to the Kultus newsletter. The link will take you to the City of Helsinki's culture and activity calendar. 

Learn more about Kultus. The link will take you to the City of Helsinki's culture and activity calendar. 

 
Contacts

Coordinator Anjuli Korhonen, anjuli.korhonen(at)hel.fi, +358 (0)40 4837386


Cultural Education Forum – educators and people from the field of culture meet 

The City of Helsinki organises the Cultural Education Forum twice a year. This is an event where people from the fields of arts and culture meet teachers and educators. They can discuss, learn about and develop cultural education together. 

The event involves discussion of current topics and lectures by experts, as well as speeches by educators and artists. You can also network and meet new people at the event. 

Read more about the topic on the cultural education forum page

Contacts 

Senior Planning Officer for Children's Culture Laura Arala, laura.arala (at)hel.fi, +358 (0)40 162 6388 


School culture coordinators 

Each school in Helsinki has its own teacher entrusted with cultural services, a cultural coordinator. They are the liaison between their school and the cultural services of the cultural centre. 

The school's cultural coordinator acts as a contact person and initiator for cultural services. The cultural coordinator receives information about offers of cultural services for children and young people and communicates it to their colleagues. The coordinator will familiarise themselves with the Helsinki Cultural Education Plan and their colleagues with the content of the plan. The cultural coordinator informs their school about the 5×2 arts education so that all the school’s 3rd–6th graders can participate in it once during primary school.  

The coordinator shares information regularly about cultural offerings at school meetings and on planning days. It is recommended to use the Kultus.hel.fi online service and the websites of various cultural institutions as design tools. 

Coordinators are rewarded with an annual Kulke card, which provides free admission to the aforementioned cultural centres' performances. We also arrange meetings for coordinators in cooperation with other city actors. 

Contacts 

Senior Planning Officer for Children's Culture Laura Arala, laura.arala (at)hel.fi, +358 (0)40 162 6388 


Publications on the activities of Annantalo 

Annantalo produces publications that document Annantalo's operations. Pedagogical assignment materials can be found under the Arts education and teaching tab.   

Several theses have been undertaken at Annantalo. Annantalo welcomes initiatives for research projects in the fields of children's and youth art, as well as art pedagogy.  
 
Annantalo's anniversary publication (2022): 
Leikkivä Picasso ja koira, joka kuoli - Taidekasvatustarinoita Annantalon historiasta  

Methodological guide to cultural youth work (2018): 
KENT – kulttuurinen erityisnuorityö - Taiteen äärellä vahvistumista​​​​​​​ 

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Contacts

Team leader Mirka Nokka, mirka.nokka (at)hel.fi, +358 (0)40 662 3795