Last week four Finnish creative ageing experts & contributors toured the UK and Ireland to share their work. This short Creative Ageing tour stopped for discussion events in Dublin, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and London. The focus of the events will be culture, arts and creativity in care homes, including how the social care and arts sectors can work together.

The four speakers all contributed to the 2021 report “Love in a cold climate” by the Baring Foundation. It profiled inspiring examples of arts and creativity with older people in Finland. The discussion events of this short tour were aimed at sharing these findings and examples with those who work in and with care homes, in arts organisations, and with arts and social policy-making in the UK and Ireland.

The four Finnish speakers were:

Raisa Karttunen (Producer at The Cable Factory cultural centre; founder and director of Armas Festival)
Raisa works both as a producer in the biggest cultural centre in Finland, The Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas) in Helsinki and as a founder and director of the Finnish creative ageing festival, Armas. Raisa is interested in developing both national and international networks for the art sector and health care professionals working with older people. She is also one of the editors of the Love in a Cold Climate report.

Sara Kuusi (Special planning officer, City of Helsinki)
Sara works on city strategies and with grants aimed at promoting availability and accessibility of cultural activities to older people.  She is the developer of the Helsinki Model which is a joint initiative between the Helsinki social affairs and health departments.

Silva Siponkoski (Consultant)
Silva is interested in the creative and cultural aspects of elderly care and how they can allow older people to live their lives to the fullest. She is an expert in and a developer of cultural profiling, and as an Independent Consultant she helps organisations and municipalities to build their capacity and develop their processes.

Matti Selin (Cultural manager, City of Rovaniemi)
The role of a Cultural manager at the City of Rovaniemi is a shared post between social & health and culture departments. He has a background as an artist and art teacher and has now for a number of years been developing cultural services for older people in Rovaniemi.