Active networks of change making.
Collaboration and impact on many fronts
TAKU is active in a range of collaborative and stakeholder networks, as well as in project working groups. This allows us to pursue our goals broadly and form good links with the surrounding field, both as an influencer and a communicator and gatherer of information.
Important collaboration partners include third-level institutes in the sector, other trade unions, art and culture organizations, central and local government, and politicians. Collaboration may range from meetings to joint opinion pieces, organizing large events, collaboration projects and contributing to various working groups.
In recent years, TAKU has collaborated closely with Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike), the Artists’ Association of Finland, Globe Art Point and various educational institutes. TAKU has collaborated regularly with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and these ministries’ agencies.
Collaboration in art and culture sectoral advocacy
Two of the most important collaboration groups in advocacy are ITSET, a group pursuing the improvement of self-employed people’s labour market status, and the Culture Sector Committee (Finnish: Kulttuurialojen neuvottelukunta).
The ITSET group consists of TAKU, the trade unions Akava, JHL, PAM and SAK, the Association of Freelance Journalists in Finland (AFJ), the Union of Journalists in Finland, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK), the Trade Union for Theatre and Media Finland (TEME), the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT), and the Union of Private Sector Professionals (ERTO). The group’s aims include achieving self-employed people’s negotiating power regarding conditions and pay and securing the recognition of the self-employed in employment legislation.
The members of the Culture Sector Committee are TAKU, the Finnish actors’ union (Näyttelijäliitto), the Musicians’ Union, TEME and the Union of Journalists in Finland. SAK leads the work of the Committee.
Promoting well-being, participation and innovation
TAKU is involved in several projects which bolster employment, expert competence and the status of the art and culture sectors:
TOSI project (from the Finnish words for “art, participation and social innovations”) Goal: promoting artists’ employment in various sectors and strengthening regional cultural welfare services.
EEVI (from the Finnish words for “recovery, vitality and networks in the creative sectors”). The project aims to 1) strengthen and support entrepreneurs and business owners in the creative sector in their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, 2) strengthen the use of networks in business, and 3) develop practical and agile tools to secure resilience and financial shock-proofing, as well as for the use of information on the operating environment.
Lookout – new directions of expertise. Coaching for creative professionals to cope with the corona crisis. The project's main goal is to find new employment opportunities for graduating and final-time students both a) outside their own field and b) in new companies, cooperatives and communities created by networking across student institutions.
Future Artpreneurship project is a collobaration project between a wide and international group pf expert partners. Project will map the current state of competence, and the creative industries’ future needs. The objective is to generate change for the creative industries to enhance the sector's talent and skills as part of a vibrant and multidisciplinary society.
ELOISA-project's main goal is to support work communities' and employees's wellbeing at work and to develop personnel by offering creative tools for organisations and for employees for their everyday work life.
Read more about the project (for now available only in Finnish)
The University of Eastern Finland’s Evolving Working Life and the Humanities initiative develops model solutions for interactions between humanities education and the business world. The three-year project began in autumn 2019.
Vevent, Boosting the Virtual Event Industry 2021–22, which promotes the production of virtual events in the culture sector.
Long-term work and campaigning
Alongside the forms of cooperation above, TAKU pursues its goals thematically in targeted campaigns.
