Rationale

Text available in

The status of the minority artists in the work market is special. How to determine unemployment in the case of those artists who have no employer or client and no orders/contracts or regular income?

In Finland the statements regarding employment policy, the artists are often interpreted to be selfemployed and therefore self-employment is seen as an obstacle for reporting in as an unemployed job-seeker and thus receiving unemployment security. Also hidden umemployment is considered to be a problem for the artists.

The obstacles the disabled artists have to face are a great deal more formidable than what the other artists have to deal with. Also prejudices, conventionality and ignorance impose limits which can be hard to overcome for a minority artists.

The minority artists have, on average, very little information on how to turn works of art into products or how to market them. They have a limited number of contacts and lacking information about the players of the cultural field. More information is needed, for example on culture houses, exhibition venues, events or performance/practise locations as well as art funding.

The artists must be provided – along with training – also personal production guidance. They must receive advice on project planning and management, funding, marketing as well as taxation and copyright issues.

The central goals of the co-operation must be to decrease marginalisation and inequality in the working life by using new and innovative employment strategies.

Objective

Text available in

The purpose of the TARU II Project is to establish a modern art and information centre for the unemployed minority artists. Project's beneficiaries are immigrant, disabled and young artists, under graduated or just graduated students. The art and information centre will provide high quality education to give information and concrete advises on marketing and to promote artists and their products. TARU II will create innovative employment strategies to employ artists also outside traditional art field.

TARU II's goal is to empower beneficiaries to employ themselves in their own art field. The purpose is to prevent social exclusion and integrate different artists and art forms together. TARU II will also promote tolerance and equality. It will bring minority artists to the public eye in purpose of sending a message to political decision-makers and cultural sector players: minority artists must attain equal status. This will happen for example through tight co-operation with media as well as cultural and employment organisations. The project will also work closely with the actors outside the traditional art field.

When the TARU II Project ends the art and information centre will be an economically independent organisation.

Innovation

Budget Action 2

1 000 000 – 1 500 000 €

Beneficiaries

Empowerment

 With beneficiaries

Text available in

The intention of the DP is to establish a modern art information centre that will provide education, information and services for marketing and promoting artists and their products. The DP will create innovative employment strategies to promote artists employment also outside the traditional art field.

The objective of the DP is to prevent social exclusion and integrate different artists and art forms. It will also promote tolerance and equality.

 Between national partners

Text available in

Promoting individual empowerment: The DP develops a working model which will encourage the beneficiaries to participate in education. Through education they´ll be provided with tools which are essential in artistic productions. In production work the DP will support the artists in regard to their special needs.

Developing collective capacity for action: The DP will strenghten the capabilities for self-management of all three target groups in production work. Special emphasis will be in co-productions with well-known festivals and art organisations which will be a path to mainstreaming. The integration will also cover trade unions for professional artists.

Participation in project design: The target groups and their representative organisations will be active operators in the steering committee as well as in the project acitivities.

Participation in running and evaluating activities: The DP will employ 3 producers - one from it’s each beneficiarie groups – who will produce DP’s events. The DP partners represent beneficiaries in steering committee and thus take part also in the evaluation process.

Changing attitudes and behavior of key actors: The DP’s key actors are immigrant, disabled and young artists, students about to graduate or recently graduated, who will develop their skills to enable employment in the art field as well as in the third sector. Also, we expect to develop the attitudes of our new collaborators in the art and business circles.

Transnationality

 Linguistic skills

• suomi
• English
• Deutsch
• dansk

 Percentage of the budget for transnational activities

• 15.0%

 Transnational Co-operation Partnerships

Background

 Involvment in previous EU programmes

• Two and more partners involved in A&E

National Partners

Agreement Summary

Text available in

TARU II has 2 TCA's:

1. Added Value Creativity (AVC)

AVC consists about TCA Management Meetings, Research / External Evaluation Working Groups, Exchange Visits, Information Exchange, E-zines, Staff Placement Scheme, Beneficiary Placement Scheme, Thematic Workshops and Beneficiary Performance Roadshow.

Partners are UK-Great Britain, The Last Mile, UKgb-124, Germany, Berlin, Veranstaltet Arbeit, DE-XB4-76051-20-BE/209, Italy, VOUCHER ON STAGE, IT-IT-S2-MDL-019 and TARU II.

2. Minority artists cooperation

Minority artists cooperation consists about TCA Management Meetings, Research / External Evaluation, Exchange Visits/ Staff Placement Scheme, Information Exchange and Beneficiary Theatre Tour. TCA focuses on disabled artists.

Partners are Sweden, Tillgänglighet och professionell integrerad scenkonst, SE-72 and TARU II.

Lasipalatsi Media Centre Ltd

Text available in

The Lasipalatsi Film and Media Centre is a building owned by the City of Helsinki and maintained by the Lasipalatsi Media Centre Ltd.

Its pulse beats in the very heart of Helsinki, making the spirit of openness and modernity that its creators strove for already in the 1930’s come alive.
Within the walls of this Functionalist palace, which was renovated in 1998, there is room for a lot of urban culture presented in an approachable way.
Lasipalatsi brings the services of modern technology and IT close to people. In Lasipalatsi you will find free access to the Internet, web services and information about culture and society. European cinema, changing exhibitions, city studios and many kinds of cultural events have found a home in Lasipalatsi.

Lasipalatsi is also a shopping centre for the multimedia business and a European meeting point with its cafés, restaurant and library. Within its walls there are more than 20 companies and associations.

Contact person(s)

Caisa - International Cultural Centre

Text available in

Caisa is the International Cultural Centre in the heart of Helsinki. Its aim is to support the multicultural development of the city by promoting the interaction of people from different countries, and by providing information about various cultures and about Finnish society.

Contact person(s)

Kynnys ry

Text available in

Kynnys ry on eri tavoin vammaisten ihmisten perus- ja ihmisoikeusjärjestö. Sen perustivat vammaiset opiskelijat vuonna 1973.

Kynnys ry:llä on toimipisteitä Helsingin lisäksi viidellä muulla paikkakunnalla Joensuussa, Jyväskylässä, Oulussa, Tampereella ja Turussa.
Tämän lisäksi toimintaryhmiä on pääkaupunkiseudulla, Kymenlaaksossa, Mikkelissä, Etelä-Karjalassa, Porissa, Kajaanissa ja Rovaniemellä.
Tavoitteet ja toiminta
Kynnys ry

* työskentelee vammaisten henkilöiden yhdenvertaisten oikeuksien toteutumiseksi sekä suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa että kansainvälisellä tasolla
* tukee ja aktivoi vammaisia henkilöitä toimimaan itse omien oikeuksiensa puolesta
* vaikuttaa viranomaisiin ja muihin päättäjiin niin, että vammaisten kansalaisten tarpeet tulevat huomioitua päätöksiä tehtäessä
* toimii asiantuntijan vammaisuuteen liittyvissä kysymyksissä

Eri tavoin vammaiset henkilöt vastaavat yhdistyksen toiminnasta päätöksestä toimeenpanoon. Tähän luodaan edellytykset palkkaamalla tilaisuuksiin avustaja, tulkkeja ja oppaita.
Kansainvälinen yhteistyö

Kynnys ry on osa kansainvälistä vammaisten itsenäisen elämän (independent living) liikettä ja tekee yhteistyötä esimerkiksi Maailman vammaisliiton DPI:n kanssa.
Itsenäinen elämä

Itsenäinen elämä ei tarkoita sitä, että ihmisen olisi tehtävä kaikki itse tai yksin. Itsenäinen elämä tarkoittaa sitä, että ihmisellä on vapaus valita, ja että hän voi päättää omasta puolestaan

"Kaikki ihmiset – olivatpa he kuinka vaikeavammaisia tahansa pystyvät tekemään päätöksiä."

Judy Heuman
independent living –liikkeen perustaja USA:sta.

Contact person(s)

Muu ry

Text available in

Artist Association MUU is an artist run, Finnish interdisciplinary artist association, founded in 1987 to represent and promote new and experimental forms of art. These are such as media art, performance, video, environmental, space and conceptual art, sound and other experimental modes of cultural production.
The aims of Muu are to develop the collaboration and interchange of artists working within different fields, to produce projects, events, seminars and exhibitions of the Muu ("the Other") art fields and to arouse cultural political discussion. Muu operates with Finnish and international cultural and educational organizations.
Muu Media Base was opened in 1995. It is a Mcintosh platform for artists working with cd-rom, Internet, digital image processing, sound and video. Media Base offers artists independent computer access, a variety of workshops and a possibility to do their own projects. There are also courses and workshops to provide both basic and specialized computer skills.
Muu Gallery is a non-commercial gallery in the centre of Helsinki. Exhibitions are chosen by an Exhibition group which is named by the Board of Muu. An important criteria when choosing exhibitions is that chosen ones probably not would not find another gallery because of their artistic nature. Muu members are accepted by the board of Muu and they come from different fields of art. Members are informed about exhibitions, projects, festivals etc. [Application form for Muu Membership]
The membership card offers discounts in various museums and artist stores. Members can get very cheap courses and they have permission to work in Muu Media Base. Muu ry become members of Artists' Associations of Finland, so now members have access to the services of this organization, for example expert assistance in legal matters concerning artists.

Contact person(s)

TARU II