Grants based on ethnic origin leave artists confused

Ministry does not believe that positive discrimination would label grant recipients

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The multiculturalism division of the Arts Council of Finland and the grants that are to be distributed on the basis of the division’s recommendations have aroused conflicting feelings among artists with an immigrant background, forming national ethnic minorities.
      Uma-yya Abu-Hanna, the chair of the division, reported in Tuesday’s edition of Helsingin Sanomat that she finds it problematic that ethnic origin is one of the criteria by which artistic grants are to be awarded. She feels that a grant that is partly based on the origin of the recipient could label and marginalise artists and their work.
      Adel Abidin, an Iraq-born Finnish artist, also regards the grant system as problematic, even though it could give many artists vital livelihood opportunities.
     
However, a grant that is based on multiculturalism may also hamper their integration into Finnish society and strengthen the feeling of marginalisation from which many immigrants already suffer.
      Abidin fears that once an artist has received a grant based on multiculturalism, he or she will also be labelled as a multiculutral artist in the future, being segregated from other applicants even in the grant system.
      Suvi West, a Sámi director of documentary films, says that it is good to have more opportunities for minority artists to apply for grants.
      ”Compared with most other grants, this could be an easier way for many artists”, West notes, while wondering why the Sámi artists - belonging to Finland's indigenous minority and living in Lapland - are bunched together with immigrants.
      ”I can understand the minority aspect, but the Sami people belong to the original population of Finland”, West argues.
     
Neil Hardwick, a British-born theatre and TV director and writer, has frequently dealt with cultural encounters between different nationalities.
      Thanks to his British origins, Hardwick would also be qualified for a multiculturalism grant, even though he has been living in the country for 40 years.
      ”The purpose of this grant means well, but I think that everybody should be able to apply for all grants. It is wrong to divide people into two groups based on their origin”, Hardwick notes.
     
Director General Riitta Kaivosoja of the Ministry of Education stresses that the decision on setting up a multiculturalism division was made by the Arts Council of Finland, but the Ministry of Education has allocated a new EUR 100,000 appropriation for art projects promoting multiculturalism and intercultural interaction.
      Kaivosoja does not see how the grant, which she calls ”positively discriminative”, would label artists. She believes that many applicants would be given grants for their art projects even without the new appropriation.
     
The application criteria have been made in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, says Secretary General Esa Rantanen from the Arts Council of Finland.
      Rantanen points out that those artists who do not belong to any minorities can also apply for these grants for art projects which promote multiculturalism and cultural interaction, while the works by artists of some ethnic origin do not necessarily have to have such a connection.
     
Rantanen feels that it would be premature to say whether or not the new grant system based on multiculturalism actually could label artists the way Abu-Hanna fears.
      ”I think that it would be good to have some experience of applications first. I would give the multiculturalism division more time to get together and contemplate these issues”, Rantanen concludes.


Links:
  Arts Council of Finland
  Abel Abidin

Helsingin Sanomat