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1. Governance

2. Cross-sectorial cooperation

Governance

The Ministry of Education and Culture is the main governmental authority responsible for national cultural policy, including national-level measures targeting youth. 

The Finnish National Agency for Education is responsible for creating the national-level core curriculum for basic education in the arts, and is therefore a central actor in policy developments regarding formal education. The core curriculum is currently being renewed (see YouthWiki/Finland 8.10 Current debates and reforms).

The Arts and Culture Agency (KUVI) is the Ministry’s main administrative agency, which was established after the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI) and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) merged in 2026. Its responsibilities include:

• The legal duty to promote media education, realised by the Department for Media Education and Audiovisual Media (MEKU)
• Coordination of the Finnish Media Literacy Week and the National Game Week
• KAVI participates in the Art Testers in 2026–2027 by offering interactive cinema concerts and experimental sound workshops. 

The Finnish Heritage Agency

The Finnish Heritage Agency is a national agency that operates under the Ministry of Education and Culture. The functions of the Agency are governed by the Act on the Finnish Heritage Agency (Laki Museovirastosta (510/2025)). Its main responsibilities include the National Museum of Finland, the overall protection and collection of Finnish cultural heritage, and the promotion and development of the Finnish museum field. 

The National Museum, which comprises eight museums and two castles, offers guided tours and workshops for school groups. However, neither the Act (510/2025) nor the Museum’s current strategy includes measures that would specifically target young people. 

The Finnish Heritage Agency, together with the Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland, created the website Opi lisää elävästä perinnöstä! (Learn more about living heritage!, in English). The Agency also uses its platforms to raise questions regarding cultural heritage and young people. In 2022, Tuominen, Lämsä, and Salmela wrote the blog post Rakennussuojelu nyt: Nuoret, kestävyys ja rakennussuojelu – mahdollinen yhtälö? (Building protection now: Young people, sustainability and building protection – a possible equation, in English), discussing how young people’s engagement with cultural heritage, and especially architectural conservation, could be improved. 

In addition to national agencies, organisations such as Young Culture receive public funding. The organisation supports young people’s participation in art and cultural activities. The Youth Association of Finland manages its funding. 

In addition, various state-supported foundations and institutions promote young people’s engagement with culture and creativity. 

• The National Gallery hosts ‘Ateneum Late’ events, during which students and under-25-year-olds get free admission to the Ateneum Art Museum. In addition to the exhibition, the museum organises a special programme as part of the ‘Ateneum Late’ evening (see an example of the 2025 programme).
• The Finnish National Opera offers dance education at basic and upper-secondary vocational education levels. 
• The Finnish National Theatre has a separate theatre group for young actors aged 14–24. The theatre group includes performers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Finland, Kurdistan, Somalia, and Syria. The group’s most recent performance is called ‘If you ask us’. 

The above-mentioned institutions are based in Helsinki, and therefore their on-site events mainly reach young people living in the region. In addition to these activities, the Ministry of Education and Culture allocates funding for children’s culture centres and events targeted at children and youth taking place across the country. More information about the actors that received support can be found on the government grants website (in Finnish). 

Cross-sectorial cooperation

The general distribution of responsibilities is outlined in the Cultural Policy Report (see also YouthWiki/Finland 8.3 National strategy on creativity and culture for young people). In general, the accessibility of art and cultural services for young people is promoted by national-level agencies, municipalities, wellbeing services counties, and cities. National-level programmes, such as the National Literacy Programme, which implements the National Literacy Strategy 2030, are realised and monitored jointly with municipalities, libraries, educational institutions, youth sector organisations, and trade unions. 

The Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for allocating funding and preparing strategies at the national level. The Arts and Culture Agency, the Finnish National Agency for Education, the Finnish Heritage Agency, and the National Archives of Finland are the agencies responsible for implementing the strategies. 

Regional council 

The regional council (see Glossary) is the region’s statutory joint municipal authority obligated to promote culture together with municipalities, based on §2 of the Act (567/2021) on Regional Development and the Implementation of the European Union's Regional and Structural Policy (in Finnish). However, there is variation in whether and how the cultural promotion work considers young people. Specific actors can also assume national-level special tasks. For example, the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia has a separate cultural strategy (in Finnish) for the years 2026–2035, which outlines that the Seinäjoki City Library has been assigned the national special task of promoting reading among young people.

Municipalities

Municipalities promote culture as a public service, for example, by securing library services, financially supporting the cultural sector, and providing cultural activities. They may also support performing arts, museums, and basic education in the arts. The organisation of cultural activities is outlined in the Municipal Cultural Activities Act (166/2019) (Laki kuntien kulttuuritoiminnasta, in Finnish). The Act does not include specific measures targeting young people. The Ministry of Education and Culture allocates funding for municipalities. Jalonen et al. (2026) (source in Finnish) note that cultural services remained the responsibility of municipalities when the wellbeing services counties were established in 2023. However, according to Huhtikangas, Ylisirniö & Laukka, both municipalities and wellbeing services counties contribute to providing arts and cultural services (pp. 103–112).

Wellbeing services counties 

Wellbeing services counties and municipalities are jointly responsible for promoting cultural wellbeing. According to the Cultural Policy Report 2025, ‘multidisciplinary expertise related to the utilisation of the wellbeing impacts of culture will be strengthened and made part of the operations of all wellbeing services counties.’ The Cultural Policy Report emphasises the development of cooperative models to promote children’s and young people’s media and literacy skills, culture and art education, as well as participation in the development of art and cultural services. These cooperative models include, for example, cultural education plans.