Sari Salovaara will retire
Our longest-serving employee, Sari Salovaara, is retiring on December 1, 2024. Sari was involved in founding the Culture for All Service in 2003 and has worked for us ever since.
Here are Sari’s greetings:
The future of the Culture for All Service
“I’m moving a bit side from the row, but the mission of the Culture for All Service is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. Exclusion from cultural services is more likely in Finland at the time of writing this than it has been for a long time, despite the efforts of the cultural sector to act more equally and more accessible. This is the case, even though culture is not something extra in our society that can easily be cut when the economy is struggling. We live from culture, culture is the foundation on which we stand.
Why do I think the Culture for All Service is important? First of all, we strongly emphasize cooperation. Our staff has expertise in the perspectives of those who are easily excluded, and we join forces with experts and stakeholders from different directions. We are thus stronger developing the entire arts and culture sector.
Secondly, we build paths to equality through information and services. We offer both a view to the aims and tools for achieving the goals. Help is available tailored to a specific art field or individually to a specific actor.
Thirdly, all of this has led to the work of the Culture for All Service having an impact. In the long term, the change is visible. Our service alone cannot make Finland more equal for cultural consumers, artists and other cultural actors, but we have been strongly pushing development in a better direction. In international contexts, the Culture for All Service appears as an interesting model example of an actor that people visit from afar.”
My own future prospects
“Now that I am retiring, I will not leave the spotlight. I have been able to work on things that are important to me, so you can still see me around in art events. Maybe I will do a job gig for the Culture for All Service sometime, for example. Or I can write something. However, I am generally going to take a break from NGO work. My beloved animals have always been a part of my life and being close to nature. It is good to continue from there, even if it is just home life."
