Date: October 2, 2025
Time: 13:00 – 16:00
Location: Uniarts Theatre Building (Haapaniemenkatu 6, 00530 Helsinki) / online
Venue: Event space is Auditorium 1 (mingle in front of the library)
Organisers: Theatre Academy International Alumni Network (TIAN), Globe Art Point (GAP), Think Africa
Registration link: https://forms.office.com/e/aX1Uah1cD5
How do international artists and cultural workers navigate identity, belonging, and professional life within the structures of Finnish society? Shaping Futures is a gathering that centres cultural perspectives on work, identity, and heritage, asking how these can be embraced as superpowers in today’s shifting landscape.
The event opens with a keynote by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), exploring how changes in the policy landscape impact the art and culture field. Doctoral researcher and performing artist Camila Rosa Ribeiro follows with a second keynote, inviting participants to imagine fractal futures shaped by multiplicity, resistance, and creativity. Presentations by Leena Marsio (Finnish Heritage Agency) and Hanna Kosonen (Forum Artis) offer insights into cultural policy, living heritage, and the structural realities of the arts field.
Commentary by visual artist Özgü Gündeşlioğlu from Catalysti will bring forward lived experience and grassroots perspectives. The event closes with a participatory discussion offering collective reflection on the conditions and challenges of building a life in art today from questions of economic precarity and entrepreneurship to identity, agency, and cultural visibility.
Curated for artists, cultural workers, and civic society actors, the event is a platform to connect, question, and reimagine the structures we shape and those that shape us.
13:00 Event Opening
13:10 Keynote: How do Changes in the Policy Landscape Impact the Art and Culture Field by Johannes Hirvelä / Director of Development, Finnish Immigration Service
13:30 Keynote: Fractal Futures by Camila Rosa Ribeiro / Performing artist & doctoral researcher
13:50 Presentation: Living Heritage – Tools for Resilience by Leena Marsio / Senior Adviser, Finnish Heritage Agency
14:10 Presentation by Hanna Kosonen / General Secretary, Forum Artis
14:30 Commentary by Özgü Gündeşlioğlu / Visual artist, board member of Catalysti
14:40 Open discussion
15:20-16:00 Coffee & mingle
About the speakers:
Johannes Hirvelä – Director of Development, Information Services and Performance Guidance Unit at the Finnish Immigration Service
Camila Rosa – Research artistic practices in pedagogical contexts. Experienced Performance Artist / Educator, with a demonstrated history of working in the motion pictures education and cultural industry. Skills range from research, event planning and coordination. Strong operations professional with a Master of Arts in Theatre/Theater from Teatterikorkeakoulu – Teaterhögskolan.
Leena Marsio is a seasoned professional in the field of cultural heritage and arts management, currently serving as a Senior Advisor at Museovirasto – Finnish Heritage Agency since June 2014.
Hanna Kosonen – Secretary General at Forum Artis ry
Özgü Gündeşlioğlu is a visual artist based in Helsinki. Her practice centers on clay, with a particular focus on process, impermanence, and improvisation. She also explores collective ways of making and sharing art within community contexts, especially through her work as a board member of Catalysti, the association of transcultural artists in Finland.
Image by Rong