The facilities are handed over to cultural operators for a period of 1–6 months through an open call. The application period started on Monday.
The city of Turku is piloting an operating model in which the city’s vacant premises are given to cultural and art operators for a limited period of time through an open call.
According to the press release of the city of Turku, the currently piloted cultural space model responds to the need to find a light and transparent way to offer temporarily vacant spaces for cultural use.
Suitable spaces are, for example, sites that await demolition, a new site plan or purpose of use. At the same time, the pilot explores the possibility of opening up the facilities of the city of Turku’s own cultural institutions, such as the library and the museum center, to wider use than at present. The trial of the intermediate space model is financed by the Turku 2029 foundation.
There are five spaces available in the pilot phase: Kivipaino’s courtyard storage building on Linnankatu, two spaces in the warehouses on Amiraalistonkatu, the brick building that used to be a chapel in Luostarinmäki’s museum quarter, and Pansion’s library study.
The facilities are handed over to cultural operators for a period of 1–6 months through an open call. The search, which started on Monday, March 27, is ongoing until April 24 at 4 p.m. In the selections, the appropriateness of the proposed activity for the space, the interestingness of the content and the added value created by the activity for the citizens of the city are valued, among other things. The decisions on the selections will be published at the beginning of May at the latest.
You can do artistic work in the premises, organize events, workshops, performances, exhibitions or other cultural activities.
After the pilot, the goal is to get the interim model into a permanent operating model in the city, and to expand it to commercial operators as well, says the city of Turku.