Finnish Assitej Speaks Out in Support of the Continuation of Art Testers

Finland mentioned! On the significance of Art Testers in an international context

Statement by Suomen Assitej ry, April 21, 2026

Suomen Assitej ry, an organization dedicated to the performing arts for children and young people, takes a stand in favor of continuing the Art Testers cultural education program. Suomen Assitej is part of the international ASSITEJ International organization, which has members in nearly 100 countries.

Taidetestaajat is Finland’s only nationwide cultural education program and is completely unique from an international perspective. Since 2017, the program has offered art field trips to all eighth-graders in Finland as part of the school day. The program covers the cost of admission tickets for the art visits and transportation to and from school. The core objective of the initiative is to provide young people with art experiences and the tools to form well-founded opinions based on their experiences.

Over the past 10 years, this form of arts education and method of bringing young people into contact with art has evolved into an ingenious way of integrating art and culture into the experiential world of young people. When we, the representatives of Assitej Finland, meet our colleagues from around the world, the conversation always turns at some point to the structures that enable children and young people to have artistic experiences. As a cultural education program covering an entire age group, Art Testers invariably garners admiration and respect from all professionals and stakeholders in the field who hear about it. Finland is seen as a positive, exemplary society that invests in young people in a completely new way.

Other international programs, such as Norway’s Cultural Backpack (den kulturelle skolesekken) and Latvia’s School Bag (Latvijas skolas soma), are similarly excellent examples of art accessibility and availability from around the world. With Taidetestaajat, Finland has its own, completely unique, and exceptionally well-developed cultural education program that other countries can only envy and that all societies could model themselves after.

If Taidetestaajat didn’t exist, it would need to be invented immediately. It is hard to imagine a more positive promoter of Finland’s image. It would be a truly great loss if we were to lose this well-developed model now.

A decision on state funding is needed as early as 2026, or Art Testers will end in the summer of 2027.

Read more:

https://taidetestaajat.fi/paattajille

On behalf of Suomen Assitej ry

Tanja Turpeinen
Executive Director

Pisko Aunola
Project Manager

Iivo Baric
Chair of the Board of Assitej Finland