The President, on a proposal from the Arts Council, awards the title of Academician to an artist of outstanding merit.
The Ministry of Education and Culture will inform about this.
The President of the Republic awards the title of Academician to a highly meritorious artist on the recommendation of the Arts Council. The title is conferred for life and is not remunerated.
The Arts Council justifies the award of the title of Academician to Sirkku Peltola, among other things, on the basis of her long, rich and varied career.
The justifications also mention that Peltola has worked and is working extensively throughout Finland. He has directed performances for, among others, the city theaters of Jyväskylä, Lahti, Kuopio and Helsinki, KOM theater and Tampere Työväen Theatre.
Kaija Saariaho’s appointment is justified by the arts council, among other things, by her versatile and individual life’s work and by the topicality of her creative power. The justifications also emphasize that Saariaho is most widely known internationally as an opera composer and innovator of the genre, whose compositions have been performed and recorded in various parts of the world.
According to the council, the awarding of the title of academician to Roi Vaara is justified by the fact that he represents an art field connected to the visual arts, which has not been in academia before. The Arts Council calls Vaara a pioneer of performance art and mentions that the artist has made more than 500 performances and his art has been exhibited in more than 50 countries.