Cultural environment and identity: A cross-sectoral participatory project in Vantaa (Finland) Maiju Hautamaki, Project coordinator and museum curator, Vantaa City Museum, Finland at the 5th edition of the OECD Summer Academy on Cultural and Creayive Industries and Local Development, 2022. More info https://oe.cd/sacci

1. Cultural environment and
identity
– a cross-sectoral and participatory project
in Vantaa
Maiju Hautamäki I Curator I Vantaa City Museum
21.9.2022
Summer Academy on Culture & Creative Industries and Local Development
OECD Trento Centre for Local Development and Trentino School of Management

2. Terminology
The Cultural environment program in Vantaa
Museums in Finland
Cultural environments and identity
Examples of participation
Results
Content

3. What are cultural
environments?
Built heritage
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.
Archaeology
Photo: Andreas Koivisto/VCM.
Landsape
Photo: Pertti Raami/VC.
The effects of human in nature https://youtu.be/i7toZccY3cA?t=20

4. Based on Architectural policy (2015)
Co-funded, total 168 000 €
City planning 50 000 €
Education 50 000 €
The Finnish Heritage Agency 40 000 € (2018)
Vantaa City Museum 28 000 €
Steering group set by the mayor (engage managers!)
One full-time coordinator, three years
35 meetings with 94 officials
57 events with 3145+ resident participants
52+ partners in co-operation
Shorter timeline, lots of participation with residents
Vantaa cultural
environment program
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.

5. Museums in
Finland
Museums Act (reformed 2019): 22 regional museums
Museums with regional responsibility have three tasks:
promoting regional museum operations, carrying out cultural
environment work and implementing regional art museum
tasks (art museums).
The cultural environment tasks of the museums have been
specified in law for the first time, now more local than before
Museums are cultural environment authorities
Cities can list and museums are involved in city planning by law
Start: participation and assessment plan, examining the need
for research, impact assessment
Draft: statements from authorities
Approval: political decision
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.

6. Profits of a
program
Saves resources to work towards same goals
Makes co-operation with officials and residents natural
and easy
Defining stakeholders and their roles helps
Makes cultural environments matter by sharing common
values and understanding
Better managed cultural environments
Serves the residents better and increases their well-
being by building identity and belonging
Enforces city identity, attractivity and "grip power"
Cultural environments are common heritage that
make identities, create belonging and connect us to
history
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.

7. Half structured open mic events to residents
and associations (also offered it as a service)
"Warming up" with some storytellers or
stories
Collected stories which were used in
the making of the regional brand stories
exhibition "The City without Identity"
Miniature Finland:
Contrasts: countryside - city, old - new
many ways of living, nature always near
easy to get around
Real, not a wannabe
Lovable city districts, not Helsinki or Espoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7toZccY3cA
Vantaa's identity by Vantaa residents:
Story sharing

8. King's picnic
Story of a Swedish king having picnic in 1775
Invited residents to have a picnic on the same spot on the
same day as the King
Bringing up the history of the place
Local businesses prepared picnic baskets for sale
Handicrafts for children, traditional games, historywalks
Photo: Jukka Mäkinen/
Linnaisten omakotiyhdistys ry

9. Vantaa is the world

10. Lessons learned on
engagement
Photo: Jukka Mäkinen/
Linnaisten omakotiyhdistys ry
Plan participation: know all stakeholders, make it
relatable, stay objective
Both sides gain equally, give back and make yourself
relevant to keep people motivated
Easy access, low level pilots
Use service design methods (inspire, fit into
resources, concretize), benefit from theme days
Engage long term: rules, guidelines, feedback
Bring out sustainability & possibilities for brand
stories and new products
Avoid "changing" the history/identity
Photo: Riina Koivisto/Vantaa-Seura.

11. The city is known for its'
exemplary
work for cultural
environments
Cultural environments in Vantaa are rich and beloved
You can feel belonging to Vantaa
through learning about cultural
environments Values of cultural environments
are passed on to the future
We will strengthen resources for the management
and research of our cultural environments
We will do co-operation
on cultural environments
Cultural environments
are seen and heard

12. Where are we now?
Progress monitored regularly with easy tools
From 53 actions
others done regularly, 7 on hold because of pandemic
Rated our success 3,8/5
Cultural environment is not a project
Better co-operation and understanding
Discussion and story sharing continues on Facebook groups,
over 5900 members in total
Still the only program done by a city in the metropolitan area
(Helsinki and Espoo coming up)
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.
Photo: Antti Yrjönen/VCM.