The cultural scene of Oulu, the artists, made becoming the European Capital of Culture possible for the city, and realising what came first and what came second seems useful for developing this year’s cultural legacies in sustainable ways. Being born and nourished thanks to the artists, Oulu’s cultural status can only remain and strengthen through systemically supporting those artists.

The sunny snowflake sign of Oulu2026 had been shouting out from ads and billboards and even carpets (I was always wondering why the swimming pool entrance in Haukipudas needs two of them) for a long while before thousands gathered to celebrate the European Capital of Culture earlier this year. ECoC – a playful jargon abbreviation – was being discussed on a daily basis in many if not all Oulu communities, causing at least some emotional reaction, on a wide spectrum from curse to praise.

Praise was certainly in the air among those who attended the opening ceremony events. People were out there again, as in the best hours of Lumo light festival, re-exploring their own city and discovering beautifully weird, bright, inspiring art.

Celebrating the art has never equaled, however, to celebrating the artists. It was a typical contrast in vibes: you see all these smiling faces of visitors dancing to techno on the marketplace, singing along with performers on Rotuaari and in Valkea shopping centre, going from one gallery space to another.

Then you talk to artists who have been the power behind all these artworks while they take some free reflectors and pens in a lounge zone dedicated to the opening of ECoC. Happy, but exhausted, on the run, full of joy, and fatigue, and cynicism. Broke. Uncertain. Busy as always. Grateful for financial support from Oulu2026 fundings, but still all of the above.

Many of them, although they have been the heart and the mind of Oulu 2026 programme, are still fighting with Kela (the Social Insurance Institution of Finland) on pennies for partly covering the rent, having to work several jobs and projects at a time to pay at least some of the bills, bringing their own snacks to the events they organise because ”there are no budgets”, promoting own art in environments where most low-key AI designs and texts are often preferred to investing into the local artists’ creative work…

Does this sound dramatic? It should. May the scale of festivities not fool anyone: for many artists it is still essential to work as waiters and create at night, and ask for wages to be paid ”in black”, cash-in-hand, because they are in debt, and because the levels of unemployment beat especially those working on the field of arts and culture without mercy. Bless the system of grants – but it still works more like a lottery than sustainable support to most artists (unless the artistic work is tailored to fit a commission, exclusively for receiving a grant rather than being authentic).

All this, while multitasking in what often is a survival mode, artists never stop creating Oulu arts scene (not the one of the European capital of culture). The one that was here before 2026 and will stay after. And that is the essence of being an artist: no matter if open calls or closed doors, they cannot help but create: write, paint, mix, play, compose, dance, photograph, sculpt, design.

Without a kellokortti system preventing overwork and including a lunch break into paid time, without Smartum offering compensations for lunch, tickets to museums, cinemas and even for massages, artists work twenty-four–seven. That is just how an artistic brain works, desperately and passionately.

This passion seems to be misused. By certain people in politics, but also on a systemic level: by the limits (or lack of existence) of mechanisms of systemic support.

It is no wonder things are like that. The role of artists in making communities more aware and sites more homely and amusing, even while remaining very poorly financed, is invaluable. Artists energise communities, communities engage in activities, art develops critical thinking. This is not something that right wing politicians want; they would rather offer simplified violent solutions and impose vertical, dominant relationships over horisontal, inclusive, informed connections. Voting without thinking or non-voting in disgust towards politics is something they want, and something artists are so good in shaking off.

The concept of capital is basically hierarchical. Centralisation without balance, in art and culture, leads sooner or later into propaganda, or to the deeply photoshopped glamour of touristic brochures.

Horisontal networks instead of vertical hierarchies are exactly what community art is based on. And art in its core is always community-based.

Artistic activities within Oulu2026 have been a celebration of and for communities.
It is especially smaller artistic projects, site-specific, based on research, focused on cultural well-being, inclusion and sustainability, that glued all the layers of Oulu2026 project together. It is them that have created the in-between-the-lines of the capital of culture and, more largely, the city of culture.

Only to continue to be underappreciated, underfinanced. And their creators – underrepresented?

The upcoming parliamentary elections in April 2027 is the time for communities to be active again, together with artists voting for systemic investment into the source of our sanity and well-being. In one word: art.

Financial vulnerability of independent freelance artists has deeply increased in the times of the current government. Survival mode of art scene damages the nerve of experimentation, even though artists are artists 24/7 – damages the nerve of art making.

Oulu2026 is unfolding in delightful ways, all dramatically showcasing why bad guys in politics want to shut the art down and cage it into hierarchical and bureaucratic frames. They are afraid of free-spirited people in the streets.

2026 is not the beginning, and it is not the end of (cultural) climate change. Attendance at 2027 parliamentary elections will indicate how big are the legacies of this work in progress. Attracting as many visitors to elections as to opening ceremonies and art festivals is community work artists shouldn’t have to be doing on their own.