Design Forum Finland is to terminate exhibitions

Cause is reduction in state grants

Mikko Kalhama

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Design Forum Finland, established to actively promote the competitiveness and development of Finnish industry and culture through the means of design, has decided to terminate its current exhibition activities by the summer.
      According to Managing Director Mikko Kalhama , the situation is a consequence of a decision made by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy to reduce their subsidy to Design Forum Finland by 26 per cent, from EUR 685,000 to EUR 505,000.
      ”In addition to the termination of exhibitions, we will have to dismiss two or three employees, while the entire personnel will be laid off at various times next year”, Kalhama reports.
     
The decision of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy coincided with the news of Helsinki’s designation as the World Design Capital of the year 2012.
      Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs, did not reply to the phone call request made by Helsingin Sanomat in order to ask for the grounds for the cutback.
      According to Kalhama, the Ministry of Finance had ordered the Ministry of Employment and the Economy to save a certain sum, which was then divided between various organisations. No deficiencies had been detected in the activities of Design Forum.
     
The state subsidy has accounted for a good 30 per cent of the budget of Design Forum, which amounts to slightly more than EUR 2 million. The subsidy has been used for projects promoting the use of design in Finland.
      Design Forum has organised Road Show events in Finnish cities, trying to arrange communication between representatives from small and medium enterprises and designers.
     
Last spring, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy commissioned a survey on the performance of Design Forum.
      According to the assessment report, the performance in domestic projects had been good for the most part.
      The plan is not to reduce any activities relating to domestic projects. Neither will the ongoing international projects be touched.
      Design Forum’s ongoing international projects include for example an exhibition and export project to Tokyo in 2010. Currently, efforts are made to find Finnish companies to participate in the venture.
     
Design Forum has organised annually around 20 exhibitions in its permanent premises on Helsinki’s Erottajankatu. Some of them have also been taken on tours abroad.
      The exhibitions have offered foreign visitors a window into Finnish contemporary design.
      Design Forum hands out annual awards, including the Young Designer of the Year award and the Kaj Franck Design Prize, as well as the Fennia Prize  given once in two years to companies for the innovative, responsible, and economically successful use of design.
      ”The aim is that exhibitions linked with the awards will also be organised in the future, but not in the premises of Design Forum”, Kalhama notes.
      Design Forum has a 5-year lease on the premises on Erottajankatu.
      The plan is to expand the operation of the on-site design shop into the premises now occupied by the exhibition space.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki wins title of World Design Capital 2012 (26.11.2009)
  Rivals by design: Helsinki vs. Eindhoven (24.11.2009)

Links:
  Design Forum Finland

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