Corona supports Artists’ organizations complained to the National Audit Office about the distribution of corona subsidies: “Conventional promotion of the arts”

Three the artists’ association has complained about the distribution of corona subsidies to the State Audit Office.

The Finnish Musicians, the Finnish Musicians’ Association and the Finnish Actors’ Association consider that the Art Promotion Center Taike distributed EUR 18 million in grants in the sixth round of support without explaining the effects of the interest rate pandemic on the applicants’ situation.

According to the organizations, the grants have been used in this case for standard art promotion activities, and therefore the Arts Promotion Center has acted contrary to the parliamentary budget decision allocating the grant to the arts and culture sector to compensate for the losses caused by the pandemic.

“In all other rounds, applicants have been asked to estimate the income lost due to the corona, in the sixth round not,” the chairman of Suomen Musiikintekijöt Kaija Kärkinen says.

Last In the sixth round of applications, which was applied for at the end of the year, grants of EUR 12 000 were awarded for six months. Taike’s distribution criteria state that sixth-round grants are for “post-pandemic work”.

Taike leader Paula Tuovinen says that in the run – up to the sixth round of support at the end of 2021, the coronary situation seemed to ease and there were indications that restrictions would no longer come. Another 18 million in interest subsidy money could be distributed.

“The Ministry of Finance would certainly have been happy to take the money back into the state bag, but we agreed that the money would be channeled so that the field of art could be restarted,” says Tuovinen.

At the very end of the application period, however, the corona situation deteriorated and the restrictions came into force again.

Sixth In the round, the total distribution was about 18 million euros. EUR 14.3 million was distributed to individuals. 1,189 professional artists received the six-month grant. The largest group of them were music professionals, who numbered 429.

In addition, the round also distributed around € 4 million in support to art communities to reduce the impact of the pandemic and employ artists.

In the other rounds, the grants have been smaller and have been distributed to more applicants. For example, in the seventh round of this year, 6,610 people received a grant of € 4,600 for artistic work.

In all Since 2020, EUR 131 million in Korona grants has been distributed to artists and entrepreneurs in the field of art through Taike.

According to Paula Tuovinen, the complaint of the artists’ organizations reflects the idea that the grants should have been compensation for lost earnings in euros.

“The scholarships and grants distributed by Taike have been the fastest and practically the only way to distribute support to the free field in a situation where the business was banned,” says Tuovinen.

In their release, artists’ organizations say they have ended up complaining about the distribution of the sixth round of grants to the National Audit Office because they want to remind them of the importance of good governance and transparency. The organizations believe that it is important for the arts and culture sector to maintain confidence in the state authority.